The following article was written by the respected stamp professional and expertizer William Weiss. You can visit his website here. WHY HAVE YOUR STAMPS EXPERTIZED?? Categories: 19th Century: Used 19th Century: Unused 1901-40: Unused Recommended Items: $50.00 Face Value All Mint Postage Lot #18 (Item Id: 290905490106) Collections, Lots by the 100’s from our stock […]
For philatelic Americans traveling in Europe, one of the great pleasures of their trip was a visit to the great Sunday stamp bourses in the major European cities. Collectors would spend their days visiting the retail stamp shops and then on weekends visit the outdoor stamp bourses. These bourses have been written about since Pat
Stamp Bourses in Europe Read More »
The 1970s were the halcyon days of philately. The inflation of the Carter years was fierce, and inflation rates for many years topped 10%. Add to this, currency controls in Great Britain had meant that people began to lose faith in money. Remember for a minute that money has no real value. It is a convention
Why Stamps had Their Great 1970s Run Read More »
Mail and Internet sales have long had an advantage relative to ordinary retail sales in that there was no sales tax charged for interstate sales. Buy a set of zeppelins from your local retailer for a thousand dollars, and it will cost you $60-$80 more than if you you buy them online. This is one
It is very difficult to compare costs of things from one era to another. Over the last few hundred years though, one aspect of world economy has become cleared and clearer
Comparative Costs Read More »
Good histories share many things in common. First, the historian must know his subject cold. Good histories are not only about the subject they purport to be about but also place the subject within a place and time context. Second, the historian must be a clear and lucid writer who can make his points in an interesting manner.
United States 1c 1861-67 Read More »
Early philatelists did not have the same aesthetics that stamp collectors have today. Little, sometimes even no, attention was paid to quality. Stamps were peeled off envelopes, and the pieces that came off were pasted into early albums. And whenever an early issue proved elusive, early dealers were pleased to print reproductions and forgeries. Many
The Earliest Forgeries Read More »
Queen Elizabeth II has been the monarch of Great Britain for over sixty years. Longevity does run in her family, but she is in her mid 80s, and at a certain point she will either abdicate in favor of her son (or grandson) or simply pass on. Her reign has been a long and eventful one,
By the way that some collectors squander their money, you would think that they had an overabundance of it. Throughout philatelic history, collectors have rarely been as careful as they should have been. In the late nineteenth century, few collectors scrutinized where they bought their stamps, and so reprinters and counterfeiters abounded during this period. One