Monthly Archives: August 2016

The transferring of the die to the plate is accomplished essentially through a process of pounding the design that is on the hard steel transfer roll onto a soft steel plate. In our modern era this is done mechanically, and usually flawlessly. In the classic period of philately (usually defined as lasting from 1840, when the first stamp was printed, until about 1880), transferring was done generally by hand. The extreme pressure that was required to adequately “rock in” the hardened die onto the soft steel produced a number of subtle differences between the stamps. This is because no two stamp impressions on the plate were “rocked in” with the same firmness of all minute portions of the design. Thus, each stamp on the place is subtly different, and because of these minor differences it is usually possible for a stamp specialist to “plate” a particular stamp. “Plating” means identifying the positions of each stamp on the sheet through these

Early experiments in radical stamp design are prized by collectors. The Cape of Good Hope triangulars, first issued in 1853 by a nation that is now part of the Union of South Africa, are known by collectors everywhere because of their unique design. They were the first nonrectangular stamps issued, and despite some modern deviation into the grotesque, most stamps are still rectangular.

Once a design has been chosen, the postal authorities decide how the stamps are to be printed. The more common methods of printing stamps include lithography and typography. Though neither offers great detail, each offers speed and ease in production at a comparatively low cost. But the most effective, and, many would say, beautiful, method of philatelic printing is line engraving.

Line engraving

Since the Penny Black was first produced, countless technological innovations have come and gone, but the overall process by which a stamp is made has remained constant.

As for the Penny Black, a design for each stamp had to be chosen. Probably the most common design is the “framed head” type, where there is a framed center portrait. The Penny Black set the stage, and it was a number of years before there was a significant deviation from this design by any major stamp-producing nation. When looking at stamps, especially earlier issues, one is struck by how much the stamps appear to be representations of coins placed upon a background. In the pre-1870 period, stamps were not valued as an art form in themselves; rather, they were seen only as receipts for services due, in effect, money. So why not make them look like money? Furthermore,

One of the most popular stamp albums in the United States has been the White Ace specialty album series for United States stamps. The albums, produced by the Washington Press, have had lasting popularity for over fifty years. The albums are printed on high quality paper and use attractive page layout and design. The paper they are printed on is acid free, an important consideration in stamp albums, as it protects the stamps from being damaged by acids leaching from the paper onto the stamps. The albums were sold in many formats - singles, plate blocks, and blocks being the three most popular – so, that collectors can buy just the sections that they need. This has been one of the main reasons for the enduring popularity of White Ace stamp albums. Collectors could buy just the sections that they needed for the stamps they were collecting at any given point in times so that these collectors didn’t need to spend more money on albums than they need to.

Philately in the 1930s was defined by two major events- one of major historical import-the Great Depression which virtually destroyed the world wide economy and the other with only philatelic importance- the rise of the stamp dealing firm of H E Harris. Our current economic malaise is serious so imagine how our unemployment rate would feel if it was four times higher than it is now-nearly 40% as it was in 1932. And this in a population of largely one wage earner families so unemployment always meant destitution. There was no unemployment insurance, and bank failures affected nearly everyone because when a bank failed people lost their money as there was no Federal bank insurance. People were not inconvenienced, they were impoverished. And yet stamp collecting flourished and in fact made its first foray into mainstream America. Led by the H E Harris company, which produced the Captain Tim radio show that promoted philately, Harris offered a wide range of

What Can Be Done: For most of the last thousand years, Latvia was a culture, an ethnicity, and a language that bound together the Latvian people. But Latvia was not, until 1918, a political entity, that is a country. We lose sight of the fact that for most of the last five hundred years, Russia was the predominant power in Eastern Europe and many countries that we think of today were incorporated as administrative districts in the Russian Empire (much of Putin’s foreign policy can be seen as an attempt to regain Russia historic importance).

The October Revolution and WW I caused a great power vacuum that allowed the Baltic States to proclaim their independence. Latvia became independent in 1918 and

What Can Be Done: French Colonies are one of the world’s most popular philatelic specialties and for good reason. There are over 100 issuing entities and tens of thousands of stamps. Many of the earliest issues are very hard to find, and many of the later issues are among the best designed and printed stamps there are. And French Colonies from 1900-1960 is very affordable. Many French Colonies collectors specialize further. Some only collect overseas departments such as French Southern and Antarctic Territories or St. Pierre and Miquelon. Some collect by geographic area (French Africa is the biggest and most common sub-specialty). And some collect by date, collecting either pre or post independence issues (the cutoff date here is usually 1960). The stamps of French Colonies are interesting enough, but some specialists add covers and postal history. One philatelist, who exhibited this collection at ROPEX—the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Society show that was held in Denver some

Our hobby has had two great quality evolutions in the course of the 150 plus years that people have collected stamps. The very first collectors, who began saving stamps about 1860, just twenty years after the first stamp was issued, had no interest in quality. They often scraped stamps off envelopes for their collections, rather than soak them. Any piece of a stamp would do. The first quality paradigm began about 1880, when the first generation of collectors was cashing out their stamps, and the second generation was beginning to collect. These second generation collectors were more erudite and critical in their collecting. The quality terms “Good, Fair and Poor” began to be used to sort resold stamps into different categories.

As the second and third generation

For many years we have been searching for a world wide expert who can expertize the entire non US world. For the US area there is the Philatelic Foundation but they really don't do much with Foreign stamps. We wanted an expert who expertized a large number of countries and areas, who didn't indelibly mark the stamps whether they were genuine or not (which eliminated the German Bundesprufers who handstamp everything), who had a fast turn around time and, most of all, was accurate with clear lucid certificates that are sometimes as nice as the stamps themselves. The expert's name is Sergio Sismondo. and his address is 10035 Carousel Dr, Syracuse, New York 13290, telephone 315-422-2331. And his wife Liane is one of the nicest and professional people in the stamp business to deal with. And did I mention that their certificate costs are usually much cheaper than their competitors. Take a look at their website http://www.sismondostamps.com/.

When Rowland Hill invented the postage stamp, an integral part of his design was a "wash of mucilage applied to the back, which, when moistened would allow the stamp to adhere to paper". In the very early years of stamp collecting, collectors primarily collected used stamps. After all, the reasoning went, why spend good money when stamps in the late 1860's was the height of folly? After all, what could they ever be worth?

Led by the Belgian stamp dealer Moens, collectors began collecting unused stamps in the 1870's and 1880's. True, they dind't display the purpose for which stamps were invented (that is, postal use) but the collectors didn't have disfiguring cancellations to worry about. So, they pasted the unused stamps in their albums, or if they received stamps with gum, they just licked them down. This is shocking to modern day collectors, but we must all be aware that gum was a meaningless annoyance until the turn of the century. And the hinge, which now seems so barbaric

What can Be Done: Brazil is one of the most interesting philatelic areas. Because Brazilian philately is so vast, with over 3,500 collectible major numbers by Scott alone, specialists of Brazil often collect by issue or subspecialty. The first issues of Brazil are called the Bull’s Eyes because the numeral in ovals were thought to look like a bull’s eye (early philatelists seemed to feel that having a catchy moniker for what they collected gave their specialty a cachet—hence “bulls eyes”, “blackjacks”, “69s” etc.). The Bull’s Eyes are avidly sought out and are tough stamps to find. The next Brazilian issue (called the “goat’s eyes”) are among the scarcest stamps of Brazil. And the stamps of the last twenty tears of the nineteenth century are called the Dom Pedro’s because they picture the Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro. These stamps are fascinating and very appealing to collectors who like fancy cancels. 

What Can Be Done: Located in southern Germany, Bavaria is one of the largest and most populous of the German States. Bavaria has issued far more stamps than any other German State, issuing stamps right up to the end of WWI (some fifty years after German confederation had caused most of the other states to cease their independent postal issues). Overall, Bavaria issued several hundred stamps, and, with the exception of the first stamp, they are readily obtainable and not very costly. Probably because the Bavarian post office issued stamps for so long, it maintained an interest in seeing to it that Bavarian stamps were not counterfeited. The most prolific period, worldwide, for stamp counterfeiting was 1890-1920, for a couple of reasons. Philately went from having few collectors (before 1890) to great popularity, and so there was increasing demand for stamps. But, at the same time, stamp collecting had fewer rules about what should be considered collectible, and most forgeries were marketed

The rarest stamp of Denmark is one of the most interesting rarities in that it is a simple perforation variety that is little known. The first Coat of Arms type of Denmark was originally issued perf 14x13 1/2 but then a few years later was issued in smaller quantities perf 12 1/2 (Scott #21 cv $3100 used- We've illustrated the more common 4 skilling perf 12 1/2)). There were three different denominations issued this way. Two are just scarce but the third, the two skillings value, is a rarity. And what is more it is about the only Nineteenth Century rarity from any country that can still be found, unidentified, in ordinary collections (I have found three in the last ten years). The reason for this is that the stamp was issued to ordinary Danish post offices with no fanfare over the change in perforation and was used on ordinary mail just like the common variety. As philately became popular, dealers bought up quantities of merchant correspondence and soaked millions of stamps off old envelopes

“A bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp and covered at the back with a glutinous wash which the user might, by applying a little moisture, attach to the back of the letter.” That was it— the first ment

Today, stamps are such an everyday experience for us that we do not appreciate the magnitude of the invention. With the advent of the stamp, postal money was created, and because the use of the post office had become so widespread, great care had to be taken to assure that no

Postal abuse in Great Britain continued to get worse. As might be expected, the post office became an unprofitable and inefficient enterprise. Complaints mounted on all sides— from merchants, clergy and government. Finally, in 1837, a forty-two-year-old ex-schoolteacher and government bureaucrat named Rowland Hill published a pamphlet entitled Post Office Reform, Its Importance and Practibility. Hill’s pamphlet was scathing in its criticism, but broad in its ideas for change. He pointed out the postal abuses already discussed. He evaluated actual postal costs, and concluded that the real transportation cost for carrying a letter anywhere in the British Isles was less than a farthing (one quarter of 1 penny.) Even though the post office at this time was charging over 1 shilling (or 12 pence) for many internal letters, it was losing money. This, Hill said, resulted from the army of postmen employed to administer a system in which each letter needed to be separately