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« Previous EntriesAre Stamp Collectors an Endangered Species?
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Columnist Harry L. Rinker writes on his website a disturbing article about the future of certain hobbies.
While not specifically mentioning stamp collecting, some of his Ten Signposts to Identify Endangered Collecting Categories do sound frighteningly familiar.
Harry lists these 10 indications that a hobby is becoming extinct…
SIGNPOST 1: The average age [...]
“Postcrossing” Sends Love Around the World
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The Jakarta Post features an article about the online project “Postcrossing.”
The free service allows people from around the world to send and receive postcards to each other by providing names and addresses of people who have signed up. The only cost is the postage and the postcards.
According to reporter Dian [...]
“Privilege” Franking
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
“Privilege” franking is a personally pen signed or printed facsimile signature of a person with a “franking privilege” such as certain government officials (especially legislators) and others designated by law or Postal Regulations. In the United States this is called the “Congressional frank” which can only be used for “Official [...]
Drugs Hidden Under Prison Postcard Stamps
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Florida’s St. Petersburg Times reports, “Postcards sent with love from a wife to her incarcerated husband had a little something extra — drugs, crushed to a powder and hidden underneath the stamps.”
” A clerk in the jail’s mail room noticed a bumpy-looking stamp, reported it to a deputy who peeled [...]
The Stamp Collecting Habits of King George V
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
UK’s Telegraph reports, “From May 7 to July 25 the British Postal Museum and Archive, in collaboration with the Royal Philatelic Collection, is putting on an exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery in London of stamps and postal memorabilia from the reign of George V. This is because May 6 [...]
“Masterclass”
Submitted by Akphilately Blog
Ahem. Well, not really, just some ideas on how to keep your stamps, maybe, or maybe even just to show you how I do it. For Pablo!
As I said yesterday, I’m now rearranging my general world collection in stockbooks, like this:
I group countries together in regions, based on how Stanley [...]
Linns Trys To Revive Old Subscribers With Free Copies
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
John Apfelbaum, president of Earl P.L. Apfelbaum auctioneers, writes on his blog, “Trying to revive their declining subscriber base, Linns is planning to send an additional 100,000 copies of their weekly magazine to older subscribers who have let their their subscriptions lapse.”
John goes on to say, “The hope is that [...]
Aviation
Submitted by Akphilately Blog
Blimey! It’s coming up to two month since I last wrote something here! I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve all deservedly deserted me in droves! But please do come back as I will promise to mend my ways! It’s just that sometimes life gets in the way of stamp collecting, and nowadays [...]
Collectors Anonymous
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Vijay Nagaswami writes on India’s Deccan Herald website, “Collectors collect a wide range of things, from the relatively common place stamps and coins to obscure and exotic things that would astonish the non-collector, such as elephant toenails, which are not, as one may imagine, collected by being intrepid enough to [...]
Canada’s Surprise Gold Medal Stamp
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Canada’s Telegraph Journal reports, “Canada Post was more than confident that one of our country’s athletes would win the first Olympic gold medal on Canadian soil at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. It secretly went ahead and printed some five million stamps in advance of the games to commemorate the [...]
Postal Service and Newspaper Business Models Outdated
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The Hill website reports the head of the U.S. Postal Service said that his organization’s business model is as outdated as the newspaper industry’s.
According to reporter Drew Wheatley, “John Potter, United States Postmaster General, cited changes in technology and channels of communication as justification for a revamp of the Postal [...]
Stamp Thieves Jailed
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Britain’s Sun newspaper reports a young woman has been jailed for “secretly plundering one of Britain’s biggest stamp collections — to blow it on drugs.”
According to reporter Richard Moriarty, the woman along with her boyfriend stole her stepfather’s collection while he was in the hospital. Up to 80 Penny Blacks, [...]
FDR’s Grandson Visits National Postal Museum
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Last month, Curtis Roosevelt toured Delivering Hope: FDR & Stamps of the Great Depression at the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. with Director Allen Kane and exhibit curators Cheryl Ganz and Daniel Piazza.
According to a post on the NPM website, “The oldest grandson of FDR and Eleanor, Curtis Roosevelt [...]
Connecticut Postmaster Starts “Philatelic Wednesdays”
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
An article on the New Canaan, Connecticut Advertiser website leads with, “With a quarter of a century of United States Postal Service experience under her belt, Nancy Cornelio is ready to be the first female postmaster at the New Canaan post office since the position was first created in 1818.”
Reporter [...]
Janet Klug Appointed to Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Postmaster General John Potter announced yesterday the appointment of Janet Klug, the former president and current member of the board of directors of the American Philatelic Society, to serve on the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC).
According to a USPS press release, Janet, a lifelong stamp collector who says she “never [...]
Postcards Document Early Train Wreck
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
“Plane crashes are today’s headlines, but train wrecks were the major newsmakers 100 years ago,” writes reporter Matt Surtel on New York’s Daily News website.
According to Matt, local resident Mark Milcarek came across four old postcards that documented a train wreck that happened more than a hundred years ago.
“The resulting [...]
The Happiest Mail Boxes on Earth
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Patricia Raynor writes on the National Postal Museum blog, “If your vacation destination this year happens to include Walt Disney World® in Florida, try playing the game of who can spot the most mailboxes. From Main Street U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom® to the international pavilions at Epcot,® careful observers [...]
A Printer, a Gallery and the New Abstract Expressionism Stamps
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Tom Buckham writes in the Buffalo News about a “serendipitous convergence of business and art.”
Tom reports, “When Ashton Potter USA Ltd. in Amherst bid last year on a contract to print a series of postage stamps commemorating the art movement known as abstract expressionism, no one there realized that Albright-Knox [...]
USPS Considers Post Office Lottery
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
A post on the USPS Inspector General’s blog asks, “Could Longer Lines Be Coming to Your Local Post Office…Lottery Lines?”
It goes on to report, “According to a representative on the Postal Regulatory Commission’s staff, a Postal Service-run lottery ‘could offer the potential for substantial profits for the Postal Service and [...]
Space Stamp Artist Robert McCall, 90, Dies
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Space.com reports, “Artist Robert McCall, whose visions of the past, present, and future of space exploration have graced U.S. postage stamps, NASA mission patches, and the walls of the Smithsonian, died on Friday of a heart attack in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 90.”
According to reporter Robert Z. Pearlman of CollectSpace.com, [...]
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Emma Kat Richardson writes on the Bookslut website, “War is hell, and Sarah Blake, author of the new novel The Postmistress, has 101 ways to prove it.”
The story takes place in 1940 and tells the story of events in pre-World War II New Hampshire as well as bomb ravaged London [...]
Bisected Stamps
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
According to the Alphabetilately website, “A bisect is a postage stamp cut in half (usually diagonally), and used to pay half its face value, e.g. half a ten cent stamp to pay five. The practice has been permitted (in the US at least) only for special situations (e.g. a shortage [...]
Five Myths About the U.S. Postal Service
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Postmaster General John Potter writes in today’s Washington Post, “For 235 years, the U.S. Postal Service has delivered your mail in snow, rain and dark of night. However, tough market conditions are creating new challenges for our business. Misconceptions about the future of our enterprise abound; dispelling these myths will [...]
Korean War Memorial Sculptor Wins Stamp Photo Appeal
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
The Am Law Daily reports that the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled, 2-1, in favor of 85-year-old sculptor Frank Gaylord regarding a photo of his Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. that was used on a U.S. postage stamp.
According to the article, “John Alli, a retired U.S. Marine [...]
Mail Delivery 12 Times a Day!?!
Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog
Randall Stross writes in the New York Times, “In Victorian London, though service wasn’t 24/7, it was close to 12/6. Home delivery routes would go by every house 12 times a day — yes, 12. In 1889, for example, the first delivery began about 7:30 a.m. and the last one [...]
