Every United States collector wants the United States Graf Zeppelin set. Issued over 80 years ago the set was sold to pay the postage on zeppelin flights that originated in the United States. Zeppelin mail was intended to be an alternative to airmail and offered the ability to carry large quantities of mail on transatlantic routes. The mail was expensive, but fast, and in 1930 airplane mail to Europe was possible but weight restrictions made it impractical. But the future of zeppelin mail went up in smoke with the crash of the Hindenburg in 1937 and Graf Zeppelin postage stamps went the way of Pony Express stamps as collectibles that shed light on the history of communications. Graf Zeppelin stamps have always been among the most popular United States issues. The face value of the stamps was $4.55 and they were issued in 1930, the first year of the Great Depression. Sales were very limited and the issue was soon taken off sale. We have four very nice sets available. Each is Extremely Fine
Monthly Archives: January 2012
- Posted January 09, 2012Read more »
Every United States collector wants the United States Graf Zeppelin set. Issued over 80 years ago the set was sold to pay the postage on zeppelin flights that originated in the United States. Zeppelin mail was intended to be an alternative to airmail and offered the ability to carry large quantities of mail on transatlantic routes. The mail was expensive, but fast, and in 1930 airplane mail to Europe was possible but weight restrictions made it impractical. But the future of zeppelin mail went up in smoke with the crash of the Hindenburg in 1937 and Graf Zeppelin postage stamps went the way of Pony Express stamps as collectibles that shed light on the history of communications. Graf Zeppelin stamps have always been among the most popular United States issues. The face value of the stamps was $4.55 and they were issued in 1930, the first year of the Great Depression. Sales were very limited and the issue was soon taken off sale. We have four very nice sets available. Each is Extremely Fine - Posted January 08, 2012Read more »
I read today that Peter Holcombe has passed away. Peter was one of the dwindling few of world wide dealer/experts that used to be prominent in the hobby. Peter was born in England and lived the last thirty years of his life in Switzerland. For most of his life he was an active dealer but for the last few years he was more of an expertiser. He tended towards the most esoteric regions of our hobby from Greece and Greek area to Chinese overprints and Thailand. He was especially good with British Commonwealth stamps. He issued certificates and signed stamps and was one of the more active expertisers in the world until he slowed down some ten years ago. Experts like Holcombe, not committees, used to be the norm in world wide philately. The Americans and the British have gravitated away from individual experts to where the Royal, British Philatelic Association, Philatelic Foundation, American Philatelic Expertisation service, PSE are all "committee expertisers" where stamps are
- Posted January 07, 2012Every country has peculiarities of its specialization. The Germans have coil numbers printed on the back of stamps and collect their coils in strips of eleven to prove that the stamps didn't come from a sheet which was printed with rows no larger than ten. The French collect gutter pairs with plate numbers, called millisimes. The Swedes measure the perfect centeredness of their socked-on-the-nose cancels. But no country collects their revenue stamps like the United States. No country includes such a broad array of revenues in the specialty catalogs as are listed in the Scott US Specialized catalog. No country lists Privately issued revenues such as the US Match and Medicines. And finally, no country has so many or so avidly collected Duck Stamps. The Hunting Permits, or Ducks, as they are called are issued each year and have been since 1935 to pay the Federal tax on Duck Hunting. They are probably the greatest crossover philatelic item. More non stamp collectors collect DuckRead more »
- Posted January 06, 2012Read more »
Lou Robbins also was inducted into the APS Hall of Fame this year and was another old time philatelist with whom I had a life long relationship. Lou was 98 when he died and had been living in assisted living for many years. Lou was primarily a stamp auction agent. A stamp auction agent in the modern on-line auction world is a bit like a buggy whip was in the early automotive era-decorative but for most people not very useful. An auction agent would attend all the philatelic auctions (and in the 1950's and 1960's there were 20 or more sales a month in New York alone) and would execute bids from clients. Dealers and collectors gave their bids to agents, rather than directly to the auction house, for one of four reasons-either they didn't trust that the auction house would execute their bids fairly, perhaps disclosing their high bid to other bidders, or the bidders didn't want the auction house to know their top bid in the event they were the winner, or the collector or
- Posted January 05, 2012Read more »
I opened my January American Philatelist yesterday and saw that F.Burton Sellers was one of the winners of the American Philatelic Society's Hall of Fame award this year. Unlike baseball's Hall of Fame which is for the living and dead alike, The APS's Hall of Fame is only for deceased philatelists who have had a measurable impact on our hobby. Bud died in 2010 at the age of 92 and for most of the years that he was active in the hobby I knew him well. In 1975 when the Interphil organizing committee was having last minute troubles with the preparations for the International show that was planned for Philadelphia the next year, Bud was asked to step in and reorganize the management structure of the organization, which he did in his usual seamless manner. We served on the APS Board of Directors together twice. He was an unusual combination of effective manager and team player. He combined impeccable philatelic skills with great managerial acumen. Being an effective
- Posted January 04, 2012Read more »
Economic statistics in recent months indicate that Europe is slipping into recession. This is more or less government policy as the response to the Euro debt crisis has been austerity which has reduced demand and output and is now causing unemployment and recession. The effect of a European recession on the stamp market will be serious. There are essentially four worldwide stamp markets, which overlap to varying degrees but which are largely independent of each other. They are the US-Canada market which is primarily confined to USA and Canada specialty collectors in North America. Many collectors around the word collect US but market strength is driven but demand in the US. British Commonwealth is another great philatelic market and this market is probably the most international of all stamp markets. Obviously this is the strongest collecting area in Britain but British Commonwealth stamps are the second most popular stamp
- Posted January 03, 2012The 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 letters made counterfeiting more difficult as forgers would have to reproduce more than one specific lettered stamp or the overabundance of the same check letter would lead to suspicion. Further the check letters eliminated the concern that partially cancelled stamps would be soaked off, cut, and reassembled on letters). With twelve plates and 240 stamps per plate a specialist has 2880 different Penny Blacks that are needed to have a complete run of plates and check letters. Further, specialists can collect by cancellation and date, blocks, pairs and multiples. Most collectors keep it simple and are happy to have one. We just bought a few Very Fine fourRead more »
- Posted January 02, 2012Read more »
We are only a price increase away from seeing philately re-emerge as the kind of hobby it was when the baby boomers were young. This is my takeaway from several year end parties that I attended. In the course of conversation people asked what I do and when people hear that I am a stamp dealer the usual response is to tell me about the First Day Covers and plate blocks that these middle aged men collected as kids. A significant number get wistful, remembering the fun they had acquiring items for their collection. Most would like to collect again only they feel its a kid's hobby. They are enticed by the study and the serious aspect of the hobby, but they are hard nosed business people and professionals. Golf is justified because it is social and a bit of exercise. But to have an avocation like stamps wouldn't play well to their social group unless there was some additional reason to collect beyond the joy that it gives. So if stamps could reacquire
- Posted January 01, 2012I don't like to tout stamps as an investment because in reality most collectors don't make money out of their collections (In the last ten years most stock investors didn't make money either, and home owners got clobbered, so philatelists are in good company). But there is one stamp that I think if you were to buy for a newborn grandchild would stand a pretty good chance of paying for a good part of a year's college tuition when he or she is ready. It is the 25 Rupee Edward VII of India mint. First, it has always been a scarce and undervalued stamp even when "children starving in India" was a metaphor for abject poverty. But India is one of the great economies now and could well outpace China in growth in the years ahead. Indian stamps have become very popular, tremendously increasing in price but, still, on a rarity to price basis, compared to China, they have an enormous way to go. The 25 Rupee is the scarcest twentieth century stamp of India. It currently catalogs forRead more »