There are four basic tools that philatelists use- watermark trays, magnifying glasses, perforation gauges and stamp tongs. Stamp tongs began to be used by the second generation of philatelists, about 1860. These early collectors, being second generation, saw that collectors who had just used their hands to handle stamps had damaged a great number of specimens. They knew that there would be collectors after them and so philately for the first time began the great conservation of quality efforts that are still with us today. The development of stamp tongs was the first chapter in this effort to keep our stamps as pristine as they came to us.The earliest pair of stamp tongs that I have seen were a short 3" pair of pointed industrial tweezers that an early collector had requisitioned into philatelic use around 1880.
Those of you who have had much experience with jewelry making or watch
Indonesia was such a massive colony and so enormously profitable to the Netherlands that colonies in the new world were more of an afterthought than official government policy. Most of the colonies in North America that the Dutch did establish were taken away by the British (who seemed to take up the Portuguese interest that was determined by the Zaragoza Treaty of 1529 ). The Dutch retained small colonies on the northern coast of South America , under the names Netherlands Antilles and Suriname.
Suriname stamps have always been well designed and popular. They have a triple audience-workers and managers who have emigrated to Suriname to work in the bauxite industry (bauxite is the precursor mineral to aluminum), its status and popularity as a Dutch colony, and its appeal to collectors who have vacationed there (don't underestimate
Philately has increasingly become and older man's hobby. Linn's subscribers and members of the American Philatelic Society get older and older so that the average age of serious collectors is now over 65. It is appropriate to ask then what effect the Ryan Medicare plan will have on philately if it is enacted. The plan calls for no changes in Medicare for anyone over the age of 55, but for a voucher system and private insurance for those under 55 when they reach retirement age.
The plan if enacted would have little effect on seniors for at least ten years. As the plans got phased in after the first decade you would have a two tiered system of health care-older Medicare recipients receiving traditional benefits and newer Medicare recipients receiving lower benefits. There are two factors here. First, the plan doesn't do anything to solve the budget problem for at least a decade so it is more than
The United States has only one International Stamp Show every ten years, held under the auspices of the FIP (Federation International de Filatelie) the international exhibiting group that authorizes stamps shows around the world. It will be in New York in June of 2016, and if it even approaches the level of the previous five American International shows that I've been to you should mark it on your calendar and make plans to spend at least a few days there.
There will be thousands of frames of exhibits and hundreds of dealers to visit. Stamp shows have been so mediocre over the last
