There have been thousands of competitive stamp exhibits that have been prepared and displayed over the last century. These collections take years to develop and many hours to mount, describe and write up. They are then put up in frames at a stamp show, seen by a few score people and, on average, exhibited a […]
OrcoExpo (in Southern California) has long been one of the more popular and well attended stamp shows in the United States despite being only a dealer’s bourse and having no exhibits. Many attendees who go to stamp shows go only for the dealer bourse, having little interest in competitive exhibits. And nearly all of the
Modern Stamp Shows Read More »
Offices Abroad stamps are stamps that are issued for use in a foreign post office under a treaty with a foreign government.
US Offices in China Read More »
In the last ten years two main areas of philately have seen substantial rises in prices and popularity- Russia and China. But the increases have not been all in straight lines. Rather, for a period prices rise substantially, and then fall back either with general economic weakness or because of market demand. What has been interesting in
The 1950’s were the beginning of the modern period in philately. The overarching history of our hobby is a triad-the classic period from about 1850 to about 1910 defined by world wide collectors studying and accumulating their stamps with scant regard for quality (and even little attention to genuineness). Then there was the middle period, 1910-1950,
Stamp Collecting in the 1950’s Read More »
It is really hard to give most general collectors a picture of just how rare most foreign revenue stamps issued before 1945 really are. Let me put it this way. In terms of volume of stamps, we sell hundreds of millions of individual stamps per year. And of that hundreds of millions perhaps only a
Italian Colonies Revenues Read More »
Pessimism and philately have always seemed like stamp and tong-they just go together. Visitors to stamp clubs in the 1970s will all tell you stories about how the old timers then talked about the “good old days” and predicted the demise of philately. But as Mark Twain said in a slightly different context, reports of
Good News for the Hobby Read More »
There are two major European cities that share a history of constant political change. Danzig in the north is at the border of the German and Russian areas of influence and has changed political affiliation many times, with incarnations as Polish/Russian dominated, German dominanted and independent. In southern Europe, Fiume is a philatelic entity at
Revenue from the sale of stamps fund many worthwhile projects. Early in the twentieth century, the first philatelic exposition souvenir sheets were issued to help pay for some of the world’s first stamp shows. Most European countries today issue semipostals, stamps with a charity surcharge, to fund the work of the Red Cross or to
Junior Duck Stamps Read More »