We tend to think of Philately as one hobby when it is really three separate and distinct endeavors, each with its own goals, problems, future and marketplace. The three are Mainstream Philately, High-end Philately and Aspirational Philately. Mainstream Philately is what most of us engage in from the youngster enjoying his first packet to the […]
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5 5A 6 7 8 8A 9 The question of which stamps should have major catalog number status and which should be delegated to small “a” and “b”s as varieties occupied a great deal of catalog makers time in the early decades of the last century. The solutions that were adopted were really compromises that
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Most special stamps relate to postal use and postal purposes. Stamps such as Airmails are higher denominated stamps and the extra revenue is used to defray the cost of the class of service that is being used. But War Tax stamps are a different animal entirely-they are a country using its postal service to generate revenue for another
British Guiana Stamp Sells for Record $9.5 Million A British Guiana One-Cent Magenta postage stamp from 1856, the only one of its kind to still exist, sold for a record $9.5 million at Sotheby’s on Tuesday. The hefty price, which includes the buyer’s premium, makes the one-inch by one-and-a-quarter-inch stamp (2.5 cm by 3.2 cm)
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Plate numbers were put in the margins of United States sheets so that later the printer would know which sheets were printed from which plates so that plate wear and damage could be monitored. Collectors noticed the marginal numbers and began at first collecting single stamps with the selvedge attached as an adjunct to their
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Essays are designs for stamps that don’t get issued. If they are issued, these designs are then called Proofs. Essays come in two main types- design essays and production essays. Design essays are artist’s productions for proposed stamps. These designs may come as a result of an authorized postal authority stamp production process where artist’s
The current owners of Apfelbaum are the great grandchildren of Maurice Apfelbaum who first became a stamp dealer in 1910-nearly 100 years ago. We are four- John, Ken, Missy, and Susanne. John (that’s me) is 61. I started collecting stamps when I was eight. The first set of stamps I ever bought was the Jules
Later this month the world’s most valuable stamp comes up for sale. The British Guiana one cent magenta is the world’s most written about stamp. It received its cachet as being the stamp with the highest price realization in the famous Ferrary philatelic auctions that were held after WW I. The sales price will be very
2014 may be the year when the sales tax exemption that most philatelists enjoy when they add stamps to their collections ends. The current sales tax code in most states does not formally exempt postage stamps from sales tax but rather exempts sales of products that travel across state lines when the merchant lacks a