Monthly Archives: March 2020

When the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933, it didn't take them long to completely alter the stamp issuing policy of the Wiemar Republic. Perhaps most illustrative of the change is the Wagner set issued within a few months of the Nazi takeover of the German government. Wiemar stamps are calm and placid with bucolic country scenes, nonpolitical German heroes and old rural castles. Richard Wagner, whose operas are illustrated on this early Nazi set, was a fiercely Germanic composer and antisemite. He was a bold tonal innovator in music and like Hitler, who felt that he was destined to lead, felt divinely inspired to change the future of music. The operas of Wagner are largely based on Germanic myths and portray the Germanic nation as different and chosen. Stamps are a wonderful way for a government to pound home its subliminal message.

The Nazis believed that Germans were genetically superior to

There are three main conscious reasons why people collect anything and there are specific modifications of these principles about why they collect stamps in particular. First, collecting satisfies the desire to set and achieve goals. Stamp collecting is a particularly satisfying hobby in this regard in that, because of our extensive catalogs, collectors know what they need to obtain more clearly than most other collecting hobbies(try getting a complete collection of red buttons). If a collector sets a goal of obtaining a set of Famous Americans he can readily achieve it. Goals can be set at easy to very difficult levels depending on the collectors interests and needs. Second, collecting fulfills our need for orderliness. People have a need to arrange things in ways that make sense and in this regard, philately is one of the best hobbies as our albums and neat page lay out make ordering different pieces of paper easy and interesting. And third, people collect because of an aesthetic appreciation

One of the most important philatelic events of the early Twentieth Century was the issuance of long definitive sets by major countries that continue in use over a period of many years. The United States issued the Washington-Franklin set and in various forms this set dominated our mail for over thirty years. The same was true of the Post Horn set of Norway and of the Sower set of France. Post Offices were not so obviously after collector money in those days and when they found a design that worked, they stuck with it. The reason that these sets are interesting to collectors today is that because they were in use for so many years hundreds of varieties exist. What is of even greater interest is that for the most part these varieties are not of the minor printing variety type but rather are varieties caused by printing evolution and differing postal needs over the years that the stamps were in use. On the Sowers you have the basic face different set issued over a period of nearly thirty years.