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Russian stamps of the 1930s have always fascinated me. They are beautiful and well designed with friendly, internationalist themes, and yet they were issued by a vicious regime that was systematically exploiting its citizens and was highly militaristic in orientation. Another aggressive state of this period, Germany, at least was more honest about its goals […]

Almost from the very day that Philately began as a serious hobby, stamp collectors were plagued by forgeries. Forgeries exist in two types; those made for philatelic consumption and those produced to defraud the postal service of revenue (called postal forgeries). These postal forgeries are in nearly all cases not only very rare but highly

There are very few long term savings certificates that are tied to the rate of inflation, but several years ago the United States Post Office effectively issued an even better investment vehicle. With the “First Class Forever” stamps, the Post Office promised completely paid first class postage any time in the future. In 1960, the

When Rowland Hill invented the postage stamp, an integral part of his design was a “wash of mucilage applied to the back, which, when moistened would allow the stamp to adhere to paper.” In the very early years of stamp collecting, collectors primarily collected used stamps. After all, the reasoning went, why spend good money

Confederate States regular issues consist of fourteen Scott issued stamps that were issued over a period of four years during which the Civil War was fought. There are only two scarce stamps, and both of these issues occurred when the Confederate States Post Office decided to change issues in 1863. The new stamps were originally printed

Stamp theft, despite the scare stories that you sometimes hear, is really not much of a problem. We rarely have a customer inform us that his stamps were stolen and the APS’s stamp theft committee almost never sends out an advisory of a stolen collection. In the 1970’s stamp theft was more of an issue

Africa is a large continent, inhabited by scores of different ethnicities, speaking hundreds of different languages and dialects. By about 1850, partly through the interference of European powers, partly because of the ebb and flow of history (several large and successful African Empires had broken up between 800 and 1600 AD), and partly because climate

There is no more valuable substance in the world by weight and volume than original gum. Consider—the gum on a thousand mint US Ten Cent 1847’s if miraculously removed, commingled and weighed would total about an ounce. And the value of such gum on the stamps is $12,500 for each stamp according to the latest Scott

Hard as this is to believe, throughout the 1950s, the United States Post Office issued an average of ten stamps per year with a total face value of 30¢. Last year, there were over 150 issues with a $77 face value. When one is tallying up where collector dollars get spent, it is hard to avoid wondering