Blog

The death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of American military forces is an important stride in the ten year war against terrorism. Bin Laden has been quiet in recent years but as long as he was free the idea that a terrorist could attack the United States and not pay the ultimate price […]

While Francois Fournier was a philatelic facsimile maker whose work fools only novices or collectors who have never seen the real thing, Jean de Sperati spent his life creating forgeries designed to undermine the most knowledgeable philatelists. Even his book that he wrote “Philatelie sans Experts” (Philately without Experts) shows his prime motivation was the

The question over what John Kennedy’s assassination did to his historical reputation has long been debated. The signature achievements of the late twentieth century progressive agenda-the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Medicare in 1965 were accomplished after Kennedy’s death. But surely the sympathy that his death aroused helped the massive Democratic victories in 1964

The early days of philately were far more colorful than today. Dealers like J. Walter Scott eagerly waited until the US Local companies were outlawed by congress so that he could buy up the plates from the defunct companies and issue “reprints” to collectors. The rules and protocols that govern our hobby today didn’t exist

Stamps and flight have both had roles in state propaganda machines at various times and never more so than in Italy in the 1930’s. Bennito Mussolini came to power in the early 1920’s and one of the goals of Italian fascism was to increase the Italian sense of identity as a way of uniting the

Nepal is bound in the north by the Himalayan mountains and in the south there is a fertile plain that eases into the Indian heartland. The neighbor to the north, Tibet, is inaccessible because of the more than four mile high mountains so the land to the south, India, has always had great influence on

There is an expression that is used to express a sure thing-a bet at such high odds that the bettor is expressing his profound feeling that what he is betting on is all but a certainty. “Dollars to Donuts” is an expression from the 1920’s, when donuts sold two for a nickel, that the bettor

In many ways, Ethiopia is a land that time forgot. Always independent, Ethiopia was ruled by a monarchy that traced its origins back to the second century. Because of its strong internal government, Ethiopia was one of the two African countries that was able to resist the European imperialism of the nineteenth century and retain

The political history of South Africa is fascinating. Originally settled by the Dutch in the sixteenth century, South African areas long bounced back and forth under control of the Boers (as the native Dutch decedents were called), the British, who added South Africa to their list of imperial ambitions in the eighteenth century, and native