The Penny Black is not only the first stamp but one of the more fun stamps to specialize in. The stamp was printed in twelve plates, and each plate had 240 subjects. As a security measure, each stamp received check letters in the corners so that each of the 240 subjects of each plate are unique (the check […]
When you buy a house or a car there is a cost of production involved that provides a floor as to the price. If housing prices drop to below the cost of producing homes, people will stop building them, and supplies will contract, leading to price increases that will allow production to resume. At least
Supply and Demand Read More »
There are three main Foreign catalogs for the non English speaking European specialties-Michel for Germany and German Area, Yvert for France and French Colonies and Sassone for Italy and the Italian Area. Michel is the Mercedes of catalogs with hundreds of thousands of specialized listings in all phases of German philately with covers, blocks, paper types
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Especially scary about the mess that is North Korea is the effect it will have on South Korea. When the Koreas were partitioned in the early post WWII period, they were both equally devastated. But while North Korea has gone from poor to destitute, South Korea has been the poster child for capitalism, ending last year as
Collecting The Stamps Of South Korea Read More »
The Scott catalog prices for most countries after 1940 is for stamps in mint Never Hinged condition. This is for three reasons. First, most post-1940 stamps are more common in NH than in hinged condition (especially as you come closer to the current period in time). Second, most collectors have been trained to believe that they
Can you Collect Modern Hinged stamps Read More »
Anyone who was a Cub Scout or a Boy Scout in the 1950s and 1960s received a free monthly copy of Boys Life magazine delivered in the mail. The magazine was for boys 7-17 and offered light reading, projects and an array of stamp collecting ads. Companies like Jamestown and Kenmore and Mystic and H
My First Stamp Magazine Read More »
Montaigne, who died in 1592, was one of the world’s great essayists (you can buy his complete essays, which run to nearly 1,400 pages of print, on Amazon Kindle for 89
The Philatelic Mind Existed before Stamps Read More »
The stamps of many Eastern European countries have gained tremendously in popularity and price in the last ten years, and Hungary has been at the top of the second tier in this regard. Philatelically, the most active Eastern European country has been Russia. Even despite a pull back in the last few years, Soviet period
Time to Take a Look at the Stamps of Hungary Read More »