Monthly Archives: May 2020

Throughout philatelic history, writers have been predicting the next great philatelic area-the next specialty that will take off in price. Predictions are usually founded on one of two criteria that predict the supposed increase in the popularity that the stamps will undergo. Either the economy of the country will take off creating a pool of desperate collectors eager to buy the older issues that you should have put away(if only you had listened to the prognosticator). Or there is some intrinsic not fully understood rarity factor that collectors will ultimately discover and make them eager to buy stamps that you (had you listened to the prognosticator) should have put away in quantity. The problem with predictions is that they tend to be very accurate in hindsight and and we tend to forget all the ones that haven't panned out. For the last fifty years Brazil was always going to be the next best country. The economy was going to boom and 120 million Brazilian collectors would enter the market.

Among the most interesting issues in philately are the classic first issues of Japan called the Dragons. Japan was a closed society for about three hundred years before 1854. Japanese leaders had made the decision that they wanted no contact with outsiders (as they saw what foreigners were doing to China) and the penalty for attempting to enter Japan could be death. Admiral Perry forcibly "opened " Japan (primarily to obtain a new trading partner for American goods) and Japanese leaders soon realized that their feudal social structure needed rapid modernization if the the Japanese were to compete in the modern world. Feudalism ended with the Meiji Restoration in 1868 (Meiji was the Emperor whose name was placed on the internal coup which ended the feudal military government that was called the Tokugawa Shogunate). And Japan modernized fast. In 1871 Japan issued its first postage stamps, very nicely locally engraved stamps on fine native paper. These stamps have always been scarce but are

Stamp collecting provides a pretty big tent and there is room inside for all sorts of people. There are the avid moralists who look for repairs under every hinge. There are the rigid conformists who collect neatly (and only) in preprinted albums, and the messy iconoclasts who exhibit collections with titles such as "stamps I like". And philately has a spot in its tent for the intellectually driven (and pretentious). Many intelligent people have had hobbies and interests outside their main area of expertise that served as an additional outlet for their intelligence and creativity. The late great evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote extensively on his love of baseball and used his considerable analytical skills to reach some pretty cool conclusions about that game. Vladimir Nabokov was such a passionate lepidopterist that a species of butterfly bears his name. And many of the most arcane postal history studies in our hobby come from people who are profound thinkers in other fields.

The rise of the price of stamps during the most recent inflationary period (1975-1980) has given stamps a reputation as an inflation hedge that they do not deserve. First, from about 1950 to about 1975 stamp prices rose tremendously, 300% or more, and were a leader in investment returns for this period. But this period was a very low inflation period. The rise in stamp prices during this period was due more to three things- a rise from very low prices at the start of the period , an increase in popularity of philately, and the increased wealth of the west during the post WW II era. Further, the increase during this period was driven by the fall of the US dollar against the mark. Germany has always been the largest stamp collecting nation in the world. As Germany went from war induced impoverishment to affluence from 1945-1975 not only did demand for stamps increase but the value of the mark increased further advancing the value of stamps in dollar terms. Stamps really rose in the 1975-1980

Collectors of current material hate stamps and covers that are produced for a philatelic purpose. When Sven Hedin needed funding for a China expedition that he was planning, he convinced the Chinese government to issue stamps commemorating the planned trip. These stamps were sold to the public and the funds received were used to finance the trip. Collectors naturally balked and for decades the Sven Hedin set from China was eschewed by philatelists. The same is true of the long circa 1900 sets from various French and Portuguese colonies that were issued with little purpose but to obtain philatelic bucks. In the 1950s, collectors laughed at Inhambane and French India. Surely, if these specks of geopolitical aspirations needed stamps at all they didn't need hundreds of different ones. But time heals all wounds and the stamps that my grandfather wouldn't put in his album now have avid collectors eagerly bidding up prices. Even the Bhutan record stamps of the 1960's which were beyond even scoffing

United States Fancy Cancels are among the most easily faked of any philatelic specialty. Throughout the Nineteenth Century, the United States maintained thousands of post offices. Most postmasters were part timers, merchants who added a small postal counter and mail services to attract traffic to their general store. The United States Post Office required that stamps be cancelled but did not provide cancelling devices to the smaller post offices. Some postmasters ordered steel cancelling devices from manufacturers but most either pen cancelled their letters or made their own cancelling devices out of cork. The more artistic postmasters carved what we call fancy cancels-figures and shapes that can add a whimsical interest to United States stamp collecting. This is where the trouble begins. Every generation some bonehead gets the idea that fancy cancels are easy to make (they are-that's the point) and begins to manufacture his own for the collecting public. In the old days, students put together

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.