Philatelists today are apt to look askance at the new issue policies of many countries. Even our very own USPS issues roughly 1,000 new stamps within a decade in the 21st century. Do we really need that many? OK, maybe we do; after all we are a diverse nation of over 300 million people (with […]
Too Many New Issues? Read More »
The hobby of philately just like everything else chages and adapts along with time. Several years ago, I had a real treat. I had a chance to work on a collection in which the last stamp was put in the album in 1921. The Collector died in that year and his great grandchildren decided to
Stamp Collections from 1920s… Read More »
Philatelists have always referred to items they don’t want or need, or which are in specialty areas that they don’t respect as “garbage”. But there is one rare philatelic item that has a trashy past and is called the “Garbage Card” or “full face McKinley”. After President McKinley was assassinated in 1901, the Postal Service
Collectors either esteem or denigrate the earlier stamps of British Commonwealth and they do so for the same reason. From about 1890 to the QE II period (1953), the stamps of nearly all the Commonwealth colonies are the same-small stamps with a portrait of the reigning monarch (either Victoria, Edward, George V or George VI)-distinguished by stamp collectors
Colonial Differences Read More »
There are two main types of thematic collecting. The first involves using philatelic items to annotate a historical or cultural point. A collection entitled “The Slave Trade” or “Style and Syntax in Music” would be examples of this type. The second type is more prosaic-using stamps as pictures to illustrate a theme. The above set
I am one of the least techno people around. I never learned how to use our VCR at home and when that technology was replaced I figured that I could wait out most innovations and never have to figure out how to use anything new. But several years ago I got an iPad and it was revelatory, so intuitive
Scott on Your Ipad Read More »
One of the most interesting aspects of US philately over the last twenty years has been the number of unusual collecting varieties that are issued as part of the ordinary postal issues of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Modern technology seems to produce more printing varieties rather than fewer and in the future many
Modern US Philately Read More »
There are areas of specialization that are unique to each country or areas of philately. United States collectors are avid about plate blocks and stamp collectors in the rest of the world think we are crazy. Israel collectors esteem tabs. British Commonwealth collectors collect gutter pairs and marginal markings. German area collectors collect Zusammendrucke. Stamps
Watermarks are a design that are put in paper by the manufacturer to identify the paper as their product. They are an outgrowth of the earliest paper which is called laid paper. Laid paper is produced by allowing the paper pulp particles to coagulate on a bed that is a screen made up of closely