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 […]
Is it Original Gum? Read More »
Thematic stamp collecting along conceptual lines has never really caught hold. There was a great gold medal collection making the rounds of the APS Champion of Champion shows several years ago entitled “Murder” where the collector sought to portray how murder was shown on stamps from individual murderers to genocide (such as the Holocaust). But few
Unconventional Thematic Collecting Read More »
Civilization requires communication. As societies have developed, communication has developed with it, both for personal use and for commerce. Throughout the early stamp issuing period many different ways have been tried to speed mail delivery (and remember before electronic communication, the only way to communicate at a distance was by the post). Postal agencies tried
Underground Delivery Read More »
Kasimir Bileski, or as he was known professionally K. Bileski, was already a philatelic mainstay when I came into the stamp business in the 1960’s. Born of Ukrainian immigrant parents in 1908, Bileski’s philatelic career is in many ways instructive of how philately changed during the Twentieth Century. His biography is fascinating. He was truly a
Albert Gross lived in a small house in a neighborhood outside of Milwaukee. He had come to the United States from Germany in the early 1930’s as his very left wing views (he had been a Communist) left him prey to Hitler’s hatred. He worked at Schlitz which, for those of you who are too
A Financially Successful Philatelist Read More »
My grandfather, Earl P. L. Apfelbaum, was born in 1905 and died in 1985. He was born in Philadelphia, and though he traveled extensively, at the time of his death his home was only a few miles from where he was born. He collected stamps from his earliest childhood, and this was an interest he
Many collectors believe full time stamp dealers have the best of all worlds. They work and earn their living while being involved with stamps, their greatest love. While the truth is often a little different, as business people, stamp dealers have business concerns as well as philatelic enjoyment. But we in the trade are quite
Earning Money in Retirement Read More »
Wesley Mann was the President of H E Harris in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. His background was in finance and he was made the head of what was then the world’s largest stamp company because of his successful corporate career at General Mills, the cereal conglomerate. General Mills had just bought Harris and
H E Harris in the 1970s Read More »