First day Cover collecting has existed as an organized branch of philately for a little over a hundred years. The first philatelically prepared First Day Cover that I have seen was a 1909 Lincoln memorial commemorative that was sent on a Lincoln postcard by the great early collector Phillip Ward. Ward was an avid collector […]
Life us a series of developmental stages and how we progress through them has a great deal to do with how happy we are with our lives. Philately too has developmental stages and how collectors progress through them is important in increasing the joy that we derive from our hobby. The earliest stage in stamp
Arrested Development Read More »
Grenada is a small country in the West Indies Island group. With soil and topography not well suited to sugar growing, Grenada never had the population density, slaves and trade that distinguished the more commercial West Indies colonies of Barbados and Jamaica. Grenada is a small island, a bit larger than Malta with a small
World War II wasn’t even over before it was clear that the Allies weren’t really allies at all. The deal that was brokered between Truman and Stalin was twisted by the Soviets to gain them domination of Eastern Europe including half of Germany. By 1948, Berlin had become a symbol of what the Cold War was
Seigniorage is the profit that governments make on securities that they issue, on which they don’t pay interest, and that are retained unused by the public. Cash in mattresses represents a form of seigniorage and, more than anything else, old face value postage stamps held by collectors do as well. The money that collectors have
Why the Post Office Promotes Philately Read More »
The problem of what quantities exist of different classic stamps has been one of the great difficulties of philatelic research. Before the days of the Internet nearly all classic stamps that were sold were not illustrated so it was impossible for any census taker to know if he had counted a given specimen before. Counts
Quantities Of Classic Stamps Read More »
The United States Seneate has passed a bill to “save” the Post Office which reads like a kick-the-can document. It makes a few accounting changes but forbids any post offices closings and delivery changes for two years. And, it says nothing about postal rate increases that are necessary as part of any Post Office bail
New Post Office Legislation Read More »
The comedian Rodney Dangerfield had a shtick worthy of the way many philatelists think of their hobby. He was always complaining that “I get no respect” and about being disdained and he turned the act into a respectable fortune with a large Las Vegas revue and numerous movies and records. Many collectors feel that they and
Rodney Dangerfield Read More »
It is almost ancient history now, but the issuance of the 1989 Scott catalog almost caused the demise of stamp collecting. New editors of Scott felt that the traditional discount structure of our hobby needed to be changed, though this system had served the hobby well for decades. Then as now stamps sold at discounts from Scott
The 1989 Scott Catalog Read More »