Archive for March, 2009
« Previous EntriesStamp Club Auction Yields Treasures
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Canada’s Edmonton Journal reports Ian Wright spent $9,000 last Saturday buying four boxes filled with thousands of stamps and envelopes.
“A lot of money, to be sure. But with the Edmonton Stamp Club estimating the treasures in the box to be worth $25,000, Wright walked away from the stamp auction at [...]
Minerals on Stamps
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Stéphane Gigandet writes to let Round-Up readers know about his new Mineral Stamps Web site. Stamps and first day covers featuring minerals, crystals, gems, rocks, fossils and meteorites are nicely displayed.
Stéphane currently lives in Paris, France, but also spends a lot of time in the San Francisco Bay area.
He says, [...]
New Museum Being Built to House International Chinese Stamp Exhibition
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
China’s CCTV reports a brand-new museum is being built for The World Stamp Exhibition which will be held between April 10 and 16 in Luoyang, China.
The annual event is held in various cities around the world from year to year and is coming to China for a second time.
According to [...]
Liechtenstein Postal History
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
John Wray, writing in the New York Times, reports on his vacation in the principality of Liechtenstein.
John writes, “Sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria, it is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world, meaning that all of its direct neighbors are landlocked as well. (The other is Uzbekistan.) [...]
Florida Show Sparks Interest in Stamps
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Florida’s Naples Daily News featured a story about Naplex ‘09 which was held last weekend.
According to reporter Leslie Williams the show was sponsored by the Collier County Stamp Club and has been held annually for the past 30 years.
Williams writes, “Many of the people perusing exhibits and collectors’ books [...]
PMG Says Post Office Is Running Out of Money
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The Associated Press is reporting that Postmaster General John Potter told Congress that the post office will run out of money this year unless it gets help. Potter also sought permission to cut delivery to five days a week in testimony before the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District [...]
Stamps - A Recession Winner
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
UK’s Whitney Gazette reports, “When it comes to the recession, one West Oxfordshire man is hoping that his business has got it licked.”
Andrew McGavin (shown here) owns and runs Universal Philatelic Auctions and says he has seen a rise in the amount of interest shown in investing in quality philatelic [...]
Stamp Booklets: Magic Carpets to Adventure - A Review
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
While the average stamp collector may have a stamp booklet or two in their collection, not many have a book about them. That’s because few have been written.
Stamp Booklets: Magic Carpets to Adventure by Jeremy A. Lifsey is primarily for the novice or intermediate collector. Lifsey refers to booklets as [...]
World’s Smallest Postal Service
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The World’s Smallest Postal Service (WSPS) is a teeny tiny transcription service and roaming post office based in the San Francisco Bay Area and also available online.
Lea Redmond is the Postmaster, setting up her tiny mobile office in cafes and shops where passers-by can write a letter and have it [...]
Rare Gandhi Stamp
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Reporter Brian de Souza writes on the DNA India Web site, “According to eBay India, someone buys a stamp online every 12 minutes. Among the most popular are those of Mahatma Gandhi, and stamps from India’s erstwhile princely states. India’s rich past makes investments in rare Indian stamps attractive, according [...]
Deegam Machin Handbook
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Since it was first published in 1993 the Deegam Machin Handbook has become known as “The Machin Encyclopaedia”. It explains in depth every aspect of design, development and production of Machin and country pictorial definitives. It includes unique methods designed to enable unknown Machins to be identified.
Thirteen chapters and fifteen [...]
U.S. Postal Service to Cut Jobs
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The U.S. Postal Service has announced that it will close offices, cut jobs and offer early retirement to workers in an effort to save more than $100 million annually.
According to a USPS press release, the agency is closing six of 80 district offices, while 15 percent of the workers holding [...]
Mamma Mia!
Submitted by Akphilately Blog
I left you dangling in Greece before I had to divert my attention to current matters here in GB, but I’m now taking you back from this sceptered isle to the island of Hydra, back to Greece. For not only have I just started on those postage due stamps (a project of [...]
Living Persons on Stamps
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Denise McCarty, Linn’s senior editor and World of New Issues columnist, writes in the April Linn’s Stamp News Newsletter,“Living people are not commemorated on United States stamps. The rule is that an individual has to be dead for five years or more before he or she is honored on a [...]
Commotion
Submitted by Akphilately Blog
Machin land has been thrown into a commotion with the latest Royal Mail Bulletin! It depicts both the national Machin stamps as the regional pictorial stamps as being self-adhesive! Very convincing images are being shown of cylinder blocks with the stamps on. Here’s the cylinder block for the 56p stamp for Scotland.
Compare [...]
Stamps of Pennsylvania Album
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The American Philatelic Society is offering a free 30-page Stamps of Pennsylvania mini-album. The album showcases United States stamps and postal cards related to the Keystone State and its colorful history.
Designed for free use in the public domain — with permission from Scott Publishing Co. to use its copyrighted catalogue [...]
Stamps Cancelled
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Jay Bigalke of Linn’s Stamp News reports in the March 23rd editon that three United States stamp issues, originally planned for release in 2009, have been pulled from the current year’s stamp program because of the economic downturn.
According to Jay, USPS spokesperson Roy Betts told Linn’s that the 44c Edward [...]
Don’t Believe Everything You Read in The Papers
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
In response to yesterday’s post, Scottish Stamp Collection Gets Trashed, Jim Ford, the person who lost his stamp collection, e-mailed me with the following information and comments…
“Don’t believe everything you read in the papers!
“The collection was/is possibly worth more than that on paper (sorry for the pun) as a catalogue [...]
Scottish Stamp Collection Gets Trashed
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
UK’s Sunday Mail reports trash men in Scotland allegedly dumped a stamp collector’s collection supposedly worth millions.
Reporter Marion Scott quotes collector Jim Ford as saying he left thousands of rare stamps to dry outside his flat after they were soaked by water from a burst pipe. He claims his collection [...]
Kahului Railroad Stamps
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The Post Office in Paradise Web site showcases Hawaiian postal history from the years before Hawaii became a part of the United States.
The site features a huge collection of colorful stamps, cover letters to foreign countries, pre-postal mail, soldier mail, missionary stamps, engraved stamps, postal cards.
There is also interesting Hawaiian [...]
Special Offer for Round-Up Readers
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Amy Burnett of the Wine of the Month Club, Inc. writes to say when Round-Up readers sign up on a special page on the company’s website, https://secure.wineofthemonthclub.com/offer15/. And you reference my name, Don Schilling, she will give you a special introductory offer to become a member.
You will get your first [...]
Postage Dues
Submitted by Akphilately Blog
Postage Due sets often get neglected by stamp collectors. They’re considered dull in design and not very interesting to collect, unless you’re a cover collector in which case you might collect them properly used on cover. But the Greek postage dues from the early 20th century form a welcome exception. They are [...]
Delivering the Mail Without the Paper
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
In a front page article by reporter Alana Semuels, the Los Angeles Times is reporting beginning April 27, Swiss Post, Switzerland’s national postal operator, will use the technology developed by Earth Class Mail of Seattle to deliver regular mail online in six European countries.
According to the paper,”Analysts say it’s too [...]
Henry Gitner Philatelists
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The Middletown, NY Times Herald-Record reports Henry Gitner Philatelists is one of the largest independent stamp dealers in the U.S. and has just received a $62,000 loan from the city to upgrade security, computers and the company Web site, and to expand the business he does in collectible coins and [...]
Canadian Stamp Designer John Belisle
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
As the associate creative director at the Signals Design Group in Vancouver, John Belisle [shown here] was largely responsible for designing and illustrating the new Canadian 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games series.
John is featured in an article by reporter Arlene Jongbloets that appears on the 100 Mile House [...]
