Before it became the holiday that commemorated Americans who have defended their country in war, Memorial Day celebrated the end of the Civil War. It was felt by many of the former Confederate States that Memorial day was a Northern holiday that commemorated the North’s victory in the Civil War and for many years Memorial […]
One of the more interesting anomalies in philately is how some types of specialty items of some countries are very popular while the same type of specialty material for another country is ignored. Look at marginal inscriptions. Marginal inscription plate numbers of the United States are avidly collected as plate blocks. Marginal inscriptions are avidly
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Compared to the wedding of Prince William’s parents, Charles and Diana, this month’s Royal wedding has been philatelically unimportant. For the last wedding there was months of philatelic advertising and extraordinary pressure from telemarketers to get collectors and non collectors in on the philatelic event of the century. It turned out to be a true
Most philatelists soon exhaust the specialty that they have chosen. Virtually any country can be 95% completed for between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars. Most collectors never spend more than a hundred dollars for a single stamp and so the problem with our hobby is that collectors soon paint themselves into a
The market for modern United States stamps-those issued after 1960-remains weak. These stamps, both definitives and commemoratives, were issued in huge quantities and were saved by the millions by American collectors. They were saved for several reasons. First, the average face value was low and it was common to hear of collectors “putting away a
When the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933, it didn’t take them long to completely alter the stamp issuing policy of the Wiemar Republic. Perhaps most illustrative of the change is the Wagner set issued within a few months of the Nazi takeover of the German government. Wiemar stamps are calm and placid with
Stamps as Propaganda Read More »
There are three main conscious reasons why people collect anything and there are specific modifications of these principles about why they collect stamps in particular. First, collecting satisfies the desire to set and achieve goals. Stamp collecting is a particularly satisfying hobby in this regard in that, because of our extensive catalogs, collectors know what
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The Post Office and stamps are again in the news this time bearing whether or not the health care bill (so called Obamacare) that Congress passed last year is constitutional or not. Much of this case centers around the “necessary and proper” clause and the commerce clause of the Constitution. The great Supreme Court case
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One of the most important philatelic events of the early Twentieth Century was the issuance of long definitive sets by major countries that continue in use over a period of many years. The United States issued the Washington-Franklin set and in various forms this set dominated our mail for over thirty years. The same was