Monthly Archives: June 2021

 Presidential topical collections in general are not very popular largely because there is so little philatelic material that has been issued for most Presidents (quick- name three stamps that have Garfield or the current

The kids today didn't invent status symbols. Even nerdy stamp collectors have their hierarchies and when I was a young collector in the 1960's status in collecting was acted out in the kind of stamp album that you had (or that your parents bought for you). We all had Harris albums in my stamp club. Scott albums were out of the question-sort of a high power rifle when we all wanted BB guns. The question was what Harris album did you have. The Chevrolet of albums was the Harris Ambassador with room for 15,000 or so stamps. The upscale but still middle class line was taken by the Statesman Deluxe album (which I am proud to say was my first album) and, for showoffs, there was the Citation album boasting space for over 50,000 stamps. Of course we all had to bring our albums to our club meetings and to Cub Scouts and to each others houses to trade. The Ambassador and Statesman Deluxe kids had light weight, easily managed albums that even a youth could comfortably carry under his arm. The Citat

There is probably no activity more of an antidote to ignorance than philately. Ignorance is more than stupidity or incuriousness. It is deliberately lacking respect for learning and understanding as being valuable activities in a complex world.  With every hour with his stamps and covers, a philatelist is cultivating curiosity. This comes to mind when working with a specialized collection of Russian and Ukrainian local issues. Not the Zemstovs, though they are one of the more fascinating philatelic fields, but the locals that were created in the aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1992. Many of the nation states that Russia had incorporated in the Soviet Union broke apart and became separate countries. Some tried to break away and were unable to. Other just saw the political turmoil as an opportunity to issue a few stamps and make a bit of money. Now an ignorant person might look at this collection (and it was in fifteen volumes comprising thousands of different stamps and c

Printing technology was sophisticated enough for stamps to have been issued hundreds of years before 1840. But, philatelists are fortunate that stamps have been around for only 150 years. As it is now we have issues from nearly 2000 different political-philatelic subdivisions as recognized by Scott (and hundreds of more that are listed by world wide specialty catalogs). Areas such as France-Offices in China (Canton) and Nicaragua-Province of Zelaya (Bluefields) are real areas that issued stamps for real postal needs. Imagine if stamps had been issued through the Middle Ages though the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia. Much of the history of Europe over the last 1500 years has been of changing borders and political entities. Thousands of political jurisdictions have existed since the fall of the western Roman Empire. Collectors are very fortunate that we only have the last 150 years to worry about geopolitically. The number of countries in our albums are already too many and adding thousands more

There are two main types of stamp collectors- I call them call goal collectors and process collectors. Goal collectors are more visible in the hobby as they are one who are actively out there buying and selling stamps, getting new things for their collections, and exhibiting. Goal collectors always know the next stamp that they need and get great pleasure in filling a page. Goals can vary among collectors but the goal is always there. For some the goal is completion, for others it is finding the best deal or competing in the knowledge battles that define much of higher levels of postal history collecting. For goal philatelists, the stamps and covers, though they seem primary, are always subordinated to the goal of completion or competition. Process collectors to use a rather different analogy, enjoy the water. They swim in a philatelic world where the goal is to learn about stamps and the hobby and enjoy the knowledge and history that stamps can impart. Process collectors often make fi