Lost On a Single Page

 I pulled out an old stamp album I got at an auction which is called Paragon Stamp Album and printed for S.S. Kresge Company in my hometown of all places, Racine Wisconsin in 1931!! My Grandma even worked at S.S. Kresge when I was a kid!! Anyways, I turned to the Ukraine page and found these two stamps. One original and one surcharged. My Scott catalogue has about one page of pre 1992 stamps and lists neither of these though it does give mention of the government of Ukraine in exile in Warsaw printing a 40h denomination and overprinting with the Cyrillic "UPP", purportedly created as a Field Post issue for a planned invasion of the Ukraine which never happened. The stamps were never issued. This old album has this 40h stamp imaged on the page, so I wonder if these were simply sold to stamp dealers then to raise some cash or if these really are official Ukrainian stamps and I am just showing off what a true idiot I really am when it comes to looking up stamps. Particularly stamps with Cyrillic writing.

JimmyB

Train, Horses, Field Hand

 This 1928-29 issue #157 shows a farmer harvesting wheat the old fashion way with horses. In the background it appears there is a passenger train cutting thru the field. It reminds me of a farmer that lived about a mile from me while I was a teen. He and his brother used a two horse team to work a small farm which sloped up a gentle hill along the highway. The land is all commercialized now with stores,banks,gas stations and restaurants. I'd guess the man and his brother were at least in their 70's and was amazed that one could farm in such a way in the modern age.  I'm disappointed by the heavy cancellation, in fact upon closer examination it actually looks like multiple cancellations. Beggars can't be choosers though and if this were pristine the value would have made it unattainable for me to have.

JimmyB

Not Gonna Peek

 Mr. Howard Gordon from the Facebook group Stamp collecting brought to our groups attention that 100 sheets of the souvenir $2 inverted Jenny stamps were intentionally inverted themselves so having already been to the post office and declined a sheet purchase I opted to return and take a hit at the lottery for the inverted invert. I get a kick out of the USPS's last line in it's description of the souvenir. "Imagine the excitement of finding such a sheet of stamps." Odds are less than 1:22,000, so I think I'll leave the package unopened for now and just dream. Not to mention, on the back side of the package it says in order for a return the package must remain unopened.

JimmyB