One of the more glamorous aspects of the old West was the Pony Express. Beginning for about eighteen months in 1860 the Pony Express raced letters across the American frontier from California to St. Joseph, MO where the letters entered the mail stream to their final destination. Their service was expensive, but it cut as […]
Pony Express and the Importance of Knowledgeable Stamp Dealers Read More »
Much has been written on the first United States Postage Stamp. Most of the important modern information has been posted by Scott Trepel of the Siegal Auction Galleries, and it makes great reading. While research on use of this stamp has been intense, what hasn’t seen much print (pixels?) is the history of the collecting of
One of the more interesting WW I POW collections has come across my desk. I thought you would like to see it in its entirety.
World War I Prisoner of War History Read More »
About twenty years ago, the Scott publishing company began publishing annually their Specialized catalog of worldwide issues to 1940. Originally, this was merely excerpted from their regular five volume US and Worldwide edition, but as the years have gone by, the editors have constantly added additional content each year so that the Scott Specialized has become
Scott Classic Catalog Read More »
Political and social scientists study stamp issues for clues to how governments view their history and evolution as societies. United States stamp issues are replete with historical themes and make much of our founders. Benjamin Franklin, because of his role as our first Postmaster, is on nearly a hundred different US stamp designs, and Washington, Jefferson, and other Founding
Gandhi and Modern India Read More »
The desire to collect is innate and probably relates to the gatherer instinct that differs humans from other primates. But in a world in which one can collect everything from antique barbed wire to Victorian pocketbooks, why do people collect stamps? The answer I think comes down to three factors- community, size and orderliness. First,
Why we Collect Stamps Read More »
The birth a new royal heir has made the philatelic presses roll. Mint sets, souvenir sheets, imperfs, and First Day Covers are being issued, and by the time the child has his christening, these stamps will number in the thousands. The birth of the new Prince is just another in a long line of British Royal Commemoratives
The first stamp dealing Apfelbaum was Maurice Apfelbaum who listed his occupation in the 1910 US census as “Stamp Dealer.” He began dealing when his son Earl was only four years old, and by the time Earl was ten, he had begun collecting stamps and was going around to dealer shops and bourses with his
Our Family History and Mission Statement Read More »
One of the most interesting philatelic areas is Danzig, now called Gedansk. Danzig is a city or rather city state on the shores of the Baltic Sea between Germany and Poland (which was long ruled by Russia) and part of its philatelic charm is in the many issues that were created as political control bounced