Fifty years ago, philately took an annual summer vacation that began about Memorial Day and lasted until September. Before pervasive air conditioning, it was unpleasant to work on stamps during the summer heat. High humidity and temperature make stamps stick to your fingers when you handled them. And gum becomes tacky in the heat and humidity and […]
Dog Days of August Read More »
Professional philatelists can become a bit jaded with all the stamps that they see. Because of this I am always on the look out for unusual collections. Most unusual collection in the major US and European specialty groups are very pricey and are therefore indulged in by only the 1%. Unusual thematic collections are different and even a
Unusual Thematics Read More »
I received this email recently: I am a small stamp dealer and would like to know if you could help me, telling me where I can stock quality, good price and in small quantities.I want to form a small stock of stamps MNH or “post office fresh,” only VF, XF and SUP, from the period
The Stamp Dealer’s Dilemma Read More »
Before 1940 everyone who collected stamps had a World Wide collection. They may have specialized in US or Great Britain but they maintained a general foreign collection that had been their starter collection and which, for most collectors, was still the major appeal that philately had for them. And there were many different types of
A Great Collection Read More »
Emotions are running pretty high over this election. Partisans on both sides are convinced that it will be the end of the world if the other side wins. Perhaps the reason so few Americans actually vote, though, is that beyond the partisan rancor most people have seen how much the parties are in agreement and
Passions of Party Read More »
There is famous story about a savvy investor in early 1929 who was getting his hair cut. Hearing his barber go on and on about how much money he (the barber) was making in the stock market and getting tips on what the barber thought were the best investments, the broker came back to his
John Mars was already an older man when I began working on stamps. He, as his father before him, had been a lifelong collector and loved his stamps. He collected France, just France, and collected the way the French do, by the Yvert and Tellier catalog. He collected classics in multiples and Twentieth century with
For stamp dealers coming of age in the 1960s the stamp world was replete with Europeans who had escaped from Hitler and Stalin. Most were Jews, though looking back through the less opaque lens of our time, I know several were political escapees and at least one was fortunate enough to get out or he would have
Escape From Totalitarianism Read More »
Souvenir sheets are one of the more interesting philatelic evolutions. Originally, they were issued for philatelic exhibitions, usually given away, sometimes sold at a small premium. The first souvenir sheets were usually just single sheet stamps with borders around them. Later, souvenir sheets became mini-sheets of stamps. Only in about 1930 did marginal markings on