Broadly speaking, there are two types of rarities-rarities that were available to anyone who walked up to the postal counter and wanted to mail a letter, and rarities that are the result of some printing error or limited sales availability of a stamp. Rarities of the second class are items like the Airmail Invert of […]
Austrian Newspaper Stamps Read More »
Most stamp collectors do not have stamp insurance. Some mistakenly believe that they are covered under their ordinary home owners policy. But like other hard assets, such as jewelry and coins, home owners policies have very low limits for what they pay for stamp losses. Most home owners insurance policies will let you schedule your collection
There are four basic tools that philatelists use- watermark trays, magnifying glasses, perforation gauges and stamp tongs. Stamp tongs began to be used by the second generation of philatelists, about 1860. These early collectors, being second generation, saw that collectors who had just used their hands to handle stamps had damaged a great number of
Indonesia was such a massive colony and so enormously profitable to the Netherlands that colonies in the new world were more of an afterthought than official government policy. Most of the colonies in North America that the Dutch did establish were taken away by the British (who seemed to take up the Portuguese interest that was
Philately has increasingly become and older man’s hobby. Linn’s subscribers and members of the American Philatelic Society get older and older so that the average age of serious collectors is now over 65. It is appropriate to ask then what effect the Ryan Medicare plan will have on philately if it is enacted. The plan
Medicare and Philately Read More »
The United States has only one International Stamp Show every ten years, held under the auspices of the FIP (Federation International de Filatelie) the international exhibiting group that authorizes stamps shows around the world. It will be in New York in June of 2016, and if it even approaches the level of the previous five
The most sought after set in US philately is the 1930 Graf Zeppelin set of 1930 (Scott # C13-C15). For the last eighty years it has been the alpha and omega of stamps- the set every young collector always wanted. Ironically, acquisition of the set has been one of the great killers of collectors. So
Legend of the Zeppelins Read More »
No people are more cognizant of political and geographic changes than philatelists. Take Danzig-the Polish city of Gedansk where the Solidarity movement began. During the early stamp period, Danzig was part of Prussia and then Germany after Confederation. After WW I, Danzig was a quasi independent country that issued its own stamps and after WW
ReVitalized Countries Read More »
Since the founding of our republic, sales of products and services that took place across state lines have been exempt from state sales tax as long as the seller did not have a physical presence in the state in which the the product was delivered. This is about to change and we can expect the
Sales Tax Changes Read More »