Chinese Mantis

 Tenodera aridifolia sinensis, is one bad mantis. Found in China and surrounding islands, it was accidently released in the U.S.. This mantis has been documented eating hummingbirds. Yes, it has been known to eat BIRDS!!!!

   
 Released in June of 92, this is the largest (2 Yen) stamp in a set of 4 different insects.

Jenny,Eire

 This Curtiss "Jenny" over the great wall of China is the smallest denomination of 5 with the nationalist sun on the tail of the plane.  C6-10 in Scott. *see closeup of sun on tail

 Link to article on related die proofs

I'll be happy to find bars of Republic on the tail. C1-5 in Scott.  Harder to find, but there is always a chance of finding one.

Jenny's come through for me on my quest. Hey Stephen. Quite the cancellation for a machine.

 Looking at my closeup appears the same now as the full stamp scan. Gasp......  sometimes things don't work out the way I want. I need to hire a staff of web page designers for me.

 

JimmyB

Postage due

These were released in 1945. Postage dues overprinted for Shanghai and Nanking from what I can see in my catalogue.

This is the 150th anniversary of the US Constitution.

A whole set. I'm feeling lucky in my sortings of stamps lately.

These appear to be CTO's.

These stamps were printed by the American Bank Note Co.

JimmyB

Junkers

**********CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE***********

Don't ask me why I can't lay out a nice webpage.

Anyways, for those of you who regularly read stamps and covers, today another shocker find in my digging.

A complete set!! Even the one high value. C11-20(10) MNH no less!!!

You have to admire the Great Wall of China.

JimmyB

China

It looks nice, thank you Mary.




I'm curious if this is the exact postage.

JimmyB

Doggy dog

I've exchanged letters with this guy before. He's pleasantly surprised me with this cover I recieved today. I'm disapointed the usps coded across the bottom. They could have used the peelable labels instead. Hiss. I left his web address on the envelope. I didn't get his permission to post his identity, but a blog website is already public domain. Good guy, he wouldn't make you take a wooden nickel.

A metered stamp to cover what the stamps didn't I'm guessing. If it is metered, I have to say that it's a dandy of a metered stamp. Better then the USPS. Don't get me wrong. I like the USPS. Right.

JimmyB

Iran/Hongkong

Here's the rest of the HCA booklet. I also recieved a couple sets of mint Iran from a stamppal there. I'll be sure to post those sets tomorrow.

They were very rough in handling this letter, though I may add, it aften helps to insert a thin cardboard in the letter, which this one had none. I wonder if it was cancelled enough? hehe, just joking, It'll be a nice addition to my worldwide search for letters addressed to JimmyB, thank you, you know who you are.

JimmyB

JimmyB

More Hans

You didn't think that that was all that was in the booklet did you? No way!! I really had to bend the booklet open sharply to get the stamps scanned without pulling the sheets from the booklet. The cover opens with his head profile page. The second page you can see in front of his nose. Cool design. I may scan that for tomorrow, as there are a couple more stamps to view tomorrow also. Buying a house can be nervewracking. I don't want to do it again
JimmyB

Hans Christian Anderson

Hans Christian Anderson booklet of stamps. Characters from his stories. Good thing the King wears his underwear under that invisible clothing eh?

Giving the dog a bone

Hong Kong, China. This place is synonomous with the year of the dog.

I think I need to get the cleaner out for my scan plate. I swear these stamps are perfect, my scanner has reflected light specs on the images. It's too late to go thru the trouble right now, These pics are good enough to tell the story.

Is anybody getting SuperBowl fever? I predict the team that scores the most points will win. I gotta admit it'd be nice to see the Bus go out in style, just the way Walter Payton did with the Bears back in the mid eighties.

JimmyB

Year of the Rooster

This being the year of the dog, lets look back at a set from last years year of the Rooster. This is a colorful set from Hong Kong, China. 4 subspecies on the same number of denominations.

Notice the larger indents in the center of each side along the stamp perforations. This type of perforation has a special name which is eluding me. If you know what this name is please comment and let us know what that name is. Inquiring minds want to know.

These stamps lead me to mention Cees, who specializes in chicken stamps, I've placed a link to his new blog on my blogsite. He has several links on his blog that are also of interest.

The US is releasing a sheet of stamps this year containing a stamp from each year of the Chinese zodiak, having issued over the last 12 years every zodiac sign individually. All US collectors are sure to want to get this sheet, as I am sure many haven't gotten all the years for one reason or another.

JimmyB