Archive for May, 2009
« Previous EntriesWhy Does a Stamp Collector Collect?
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
On the now abandoned Start Stamp Collecting blog, the anonymous creator wrote about why he and others collects stamps.
He says, “Collecting is a passion. And collecting, like most passions, has the capacity to let you live in another world for a while. If I could tell you why passion allows [...]
Picture Gallery
Submitted by Akphilately Blog
Germany, 10 March 1994.
A 100pf from the series Arms of the Länder of the Federal Republic, depicting the Arms of Saxony.
Rating 3.00 out of 5
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Bulgaria Opens European Philatelic Exhibition 2009
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The European Philatelic Exhibition Bulgaria 2009 opened in Sofia on Wednesday according to the Sofia News Agency.
The event marks the 130th anniversary of the founding the Bulgarian post and the issuing the first Bulgarian post stamps “Centimes” (1879).
The exhibition is being held at the halls of the National Palace of [...]
My special agent
Submitted by Akphilately Blog
I know this charming, lovely lady in Zurich, Switzerland (Hi, Clothilde!) who has been so very kind as to go in search of my missing Swiss birdies. Remember those? I wrote about them before, but there were a few values that I couldn’t get at the time. And since then, two more [...]
Making Money From Old Stuff
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The Bangkok Post reports antique dealer Tatt Vanasilpa (shown here) enjoys making money from old stuff - especially stamps.
Reporter Sukhumaporn Laiyok writes, “[Tatt] began his collecting habit when he was a young boy. He was well acquainted with stamps and postcards since his father was a postmaster, and started collecting [...]
Withdrawn Audrey Hepburn Stamp to be Auctioned
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Rachel Nolan of the Associated Press reports, “A collector stands to make a tidy profit after discovering a rare stamp portraying movie star Audrey Hepburn smoking — one of a series that should have been incinerated by the German government.”
According to Rachel, “In 2001, the government printed 14 million Audrey [...]
Picture Gallery
Submitted by Akphilately Blog
Russia, 1 January 1913.
The 3k from the Tercentenary of Romanov Dynasty set, depicting Alexander III (1845-1894).
This is a double impression with one inverted. The stamp is not mine unfortunately, the image is taken from the website of Spink & Shreves who will be holding an auction of world famous inverts in June. [...]
More questions
Submitted by Akphilately Blog
There was another item among the Wilhelmina lot that leaves me slightly baffled. It is the 1g value of the 1923 Silver Jubilee set for Surinam.A lovely recess-printed stamp. Now this value comes in line perf 11 only, but four stamps out of the set of seven come with different perforations, varying [...]
Memorial Day 2009
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
In May of 2004, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp depicting the National World War II Memorial in Washngton, D.C.
The memorial honors the achievements and ideals of the men and women who served in the armed forces of the United States during World War II.
It highlights one of two [...]
Picture Gallery
Submitted by Akphilately Blog
France, 23 June 1951
The 2f value from the fifth Arms set, depicting the Arms of Touraine
These were the arms of Philippe le Hardi (1342-1404), son of Jean II le Bon, King of France.
Rating 3.00 out of 5
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Bits and bobs
Submitted by Akphilately Blog
I had a few new items in for my Wilhelmina collection yesterday. Among those was the 1928 airmail set for the Netherlands Indies. This set consists of overprinted Little Ship and Palm Tree definitives, if those are their names. I’m not sure about that one, I’m not even sure whether they have [...]
PBS’s American Stamps
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
American Stamps, a thirty-minute documentary about the designers and artists who create U.S. postage stamps,will rebroadcast on Wednesday, May 27, at 10:30pm EST. The program provides a behind-the-scenes look at how stamps are conceptualized, designed and produced.
American Stamps features interviews with USPS art directors Howard Paine, Phil Jordan, Derry Noyes, [...]
“Ice House” Cover To Be Auctioned
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The Times of India reports, the “Ice House” cover will be auctioned off in New York City next month.
The envelope (shown above) was mailed in 1873 by an ice exporter in Boston to his office in Calcutta. It is dubbed the “Ice House” cover because it is addressed to Mr. [...]
Something new
Submitted by Akphilately Blog
I’ve thought of something new for those days that I have either no time or no inspiration (writer’s block!) and this blog lies idle, which is a bit of a shame. I’ll just start a nice picture gallery of stamps and other philatelic items, with just a little caption. That’ll give you [...]
Watermark Detection - Yesterday and Today
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Leland Bell, a retired Louisville chemist who has collected stamps for 70 years, is featured in a USA Today article about carbon tetrachloride.
According to the piece by reporter James Bruggers, “For much of the 20th century, carbon tetrachloride was regarded as a miracle chemical: It was used to put out [...]
Nation’s Last 24-hour Post Office Window is Closing.
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The Chicago Sun Times reports the nation’s last 24-hour post office window is closing.
Beginning June 6, the downtown Chicago location at 433 W. Harrison St. (shown here)will be open only from 7:30 a.m. to midnight seven days a week, according to Mark Reynolds, a U.S. Postal Service spokesman who is [...]
Bringing Back the Postal Savings System
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The USPS Inspector General’s blog, Pushing The Envelope, did a post recently on the Postal Savings Act of 1910 that authorized the Post Office Department “to establish postal savings depositories for depositing savings at interest with the security of the Government for repayment thereof, and for other purposes.”
According to the [...]
All Things Jewish
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
From Albania to Zanzibar, if it’s a postage stamp portraying a famous Jew or Jewish topics and themes, Montreal philatelist Issie Baum is likely to have handled it.
So says the Canadian Jewish News.
Issie is the owner-operator of Judaica Sales, an Internet business based out of his home that deals in [...]
Win a Free 2010 Classic Specialized catalogue
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Scott Catalogues Editor James E. Kloetzel reports in the latest edition of Linn’s Stamp News, “The cover of the Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps & Covers 1840-1940, to be issued in November, has presented the Scott editors with a problem.”
According to Kloetzel, “The tradition for the Scott classic specialized [...]
“Describe That Sheet in One Word or Less” Contest
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Round Up reader Brent Hardy-Smith writes to say, “I currently run a blog about the applied art of illustration and I am running a competition to win a set of mint signed stamps by a famous British illustrator.”
The stamps are a miniature sheet of Royal Mail’s 1997 Tales of Horror [...]
History lessons
Submitted by Akphilately Blog
The thing is that once I start delving into a country, I keep on discovering new things, and that way hardly ever move on to something really new. That’s how I am still firmly stuck in Greece. Latest find: the 1937 historical issue. It was the first definitive set of the dictatorship [...]
Post Office-opoly
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The good folks at Late for the Sky in Cincinnati, Ohio have come up with a creative way for you to become the next Postmaster General.
It’s called Post Office-opoly and you too can “buy your favorite stamps, build monopolies, and increase your rent by adding Post Offices and Bulk Mail [...]
Congressman Upset with Simpson Stamps
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The Roll Call Web Site reports, “Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) is not exactly delighted about seeing Homer Simpson and his family on the stamps that the U.S. Postal Service released last week.”
Roll Call Staff Writer Jude O. Marfil quotes Honda as saying in an e-mail, “I’m concerned to see the [...]
Poison and Postage Stamps
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
In Alan Bradley’s debut mystery, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, an 11-year-old chemist-detective, Flavia De Luce, takes off on her trusty bicycle, Gladys, to catch a murderer in 1950s England.
With her widowed father and two older sisters far too preoccupied with their own pursuits and passions—stamp collecting, [...]
Some Romanian Semi-Postal Plate Varieties
Submitted by Stamp Collection Blog.
Plate varieties are a kind of minor variety due to imperfections in the printing plates, producing one or several stamps that are different from the rest in their sheet. Also called constant varieties, they were not too rare when stamps were printed with the engraving (a.k.a. Intaglio) method, which was commonly [...]
