There are two main types of stamp collectors- I call them call goal collectors and process collectors. Goal collectors are more visible in the hobby as they are one who are actively out there buying and selling stamps, getting new things for their collections, and exhibiting. Goal collectors always know the next stamp that they need and […]
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In January, 2012 the price of sending a letter first class in the United States will rise from 44c to 45c. The increase of only a penny matches the smallest postage rate rise ever and on a percentage basis (a bit more than 2%) is the smallest percentage increase ever by a wide margin. Many
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The first issue of Jordan contains some very rare stamps. The entire Middle East was administered by the Turks as part of their Empire until the end of WW II. Turkey was on the wrong side of that war, supporting Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Accordingly, the British supported insurrectionary Middle east forces during WW
One of the fascinations of Postal History or cover collecting is the story involved in just about every item and the history it portrays. I reached into a box of covers we bought recently and at random picked out the cover pictured above. Here’s the story as best I can reconstruct it: The cover was
History is best understood on a continuum. WW II was not an isolated occurrence in world history but was the latest conflagration of centuries of territorial and tribal expansion across Europe. Beginning with the Gothic tribes pressing against the Roman Empire in the Second Century through German unification and the Franco Prussian War and WW
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There is surprising uniformity of color on early stamps. The first stamp, the Penny Black, was -wait for it- black but that was soon seen to be a mistake and within a year the color of the design was changed to what the English call red and which we would call a red-brown. This red brown became
One of the most remarkable economic trends of the last several years has been the beginnings of economic growth in sub Saharan Africa. World wide last year, seven of the twenty countries with the highest GDP growth rates were in sub Saharan Africa and only Nigeria could claim that the reason that they were in this group
Women and men probably collect things about equally. Women however just don’t collect stamps. Philately has long been a man’s domain. After the passing of the “timbramania” phase about 1860, the vast majority of stamp collectors, and certainly the vast majority of more serious philatelists have been men. Of the hundreds of early philatelic books and articles that I’ve read only
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Stamps are a product of four factors-paper, printing, perfs and gum. The first three get alot of press. Gum, however, is usually only written about if it is present or if it has been fraudulently reapplied. Stamp gums were originally derived from gum Arabic, a extract of the Acacia tree. These trees are tapped like Maple