Monthly Archives: July 2018

Over the course of the history of our hobby, collector attitudes towards quality have changed significantly. In the early days of our hobby little attention was paid to even the most rudimentary principles of quality. Any stamp, no matter how damaged, was collectible and we see early collections that have items in them that are little more than just pieces of stamps. Collectors today usually collect with a consistency of quality. If a collector is a VF collector most of his stamps are of this high grade. But old time collections often have VF stamps next to very defective items. As the Twentieth Century evolved, collectors became more and more quality conscious to where, by 1970, many collectors were purchasing only the best quality. The last forty years have seen a shift in the emphasis on quality. There is still a subset of collectors who demand, and are willing to pay for, the very highest quality. But the modern technology and high production standards of philatelic items for nearly o

Stamp differences, the characteristics that determine which stamp is which, can be quantified into two types-the visually apparent and the equipment driven. Visually apparent differences-design difference, shades, perfs (or imperf) appeal to nearly all collectors whereas equipment driven differences such as watermarks and fluorescent varieties appeal to more limited numbers. US collectors are quite spoiled in this regard. US stamps were only watermarked for thirty years (out of  165 years of US stamps) and there are only two watermark types to recognize. But areas where watermark varieties are significant have always had a fall off in collector popularity as most collectors

One of the earliest objections to Rowland Hill's idea for a gummed label that indicated prepayment of postage was the fear that such a label could be soaked off and reused. A postage stamp is one of the simplest examples of a bearer certificate-anyone who possesses it can use it to mail a letter and the fear of reuse was very real. Postage of a British penny in 1840, when wages of a pound a week would support a family of four with ease, was the equivalent of perhaps $5 today so such fear had a real basis in fact. The first stamps were cancelled with Maltese cross cancellations which provided a sometimes disfiguring obliteration and the town from which the letter was posted placed its date and town stamp that was used in the stampless cover period on the same letter next to the stamp. This procedure was followed in the United States when we began to issue stamps except that the type of cancellation that was used was left to the individual postmasters. That is why throughout the Nineteenth

The story of the 1893 Columbian Exposition issue is well known. World's Fairs, which was what the Columbian Exposition was, were a big thing until the advent of television and theme parks (in fact the last great US World Fair, the 1964 World's fair in New York, had the first version of the "It's a Small World" ride that was incorporated into Disney world). World's fairs were a chance to see the latest innovations, and companies and nations vied with presentations to awe and impress. In 1893 the United States Post Office wanted to do just that, and as part of their exhibit they issued a new set of stamps commemorating Columbus' discovery of the new world. It was a sixteen stamp set, well designed and well printed, and the Post Office thought that collectors would be delighted. It wasn't the last time the Post Office got this wrong.

One of the great profit centers for mail order companies has always been their postage and handling charges. The idea is a good one for the business involved but not so great for the customer. Why mail order companies should be able to get away with charging for postage and handling is kind of odd. Traditional retailers don't have stocking fees or store rent and clerk fees. It always has felt like a business's attempt to pass on their cost of doing business to their customers.