Postcard Dominican

 I wish I was there too!!  INPOSDOM is the Insituto Postal Dominicano, which is the Dominican Institution created for making mail service more reliable in the Dominican Republic. Thank you Tammy and John!!

JimmyB

Celestial Maiden

 Apsaras are mythological Hindu and Buddhist female entities. Beautiful and able to change forms at will. Gifted at dancing among other things they care for fallen heroes. After the adoption of Islam, they are mentioned in the Quran as "Bidadari" or "fobidden pearls" and are rewards for men who have resisted temptation and endured life's trials. 5 stamps are in this set of varying colors numbered 167-170 in my book(168 has a substamp 168A for a reason unbeknownst to me). Minimal value but an interesting stamp anyways.

JimmyB

Sports Festival

Vietnam's 1st National Sports Festival stamp comes in a srt of 2. The 5d depicting gymnastics and the 10d depicting gymnastics, running and swimming. I got these two stamps from my friend who just spent a year in Korea and traveled to Vietnam for a little vacation and bought me these along with several other stamps she saw in a small shop over their.These are #'s 1549-1550 with a catalogue of $4.

JimmyB

Monsters Of The Deep

I'm not certain which is cooler. Arguably New Zealand's Aotearoa from 1997 #1470 which is approaching the beach ready to kill or Monaco's Jules Verne 1955 "A Floating City" #341. Though the 1954 movie classic inspired the Moroccan stamp, I think I have to favor the Aotearea only because the Moroccan doesn't depict the kracken. Floating city? Where's even the damn submarine?

JimmyB

King Kamehameha Statue

 The original statue of King Kamehameha was commissioned in 1878 and sculpted in Italy. Put on a ship bound for Italy, the ship sank off the Falkland Islands and was presumed lost. Insurance money was collected and a new one arrived in Honolulu in 1883. A few weeks later the original statue arrived in Hawaii, having been salvaged and bought by King Kalakaua who had bought it from an English Captain who had found it in a junkyard in the Falklands. This is Hawaii #76 in my catalogue.

JimmyB

Brown vs Education

 Last night my Uncle posted a comment on my FB wall last night telling me he enjoyed our communication through FB even though our views differed at times but said that my stamp posts were "boring" for him even though he knew that I found stamps interesting. He's actually going to change his privacy settings so as not to see my stamp posts. I could have posted some FDR stamps that may have been to his liking today but instead I've chosen "Education" as a topical. Not only because he worked in the education field before retirement, but because he loves anything political, I chose this stamp. I can think of no stamp that covers both of his main interests better than this one remembering the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education. It won't get better than this for him. The stamp may be boring in itself to him, but it's certain to stir thoughts in his head.
 This was released on a sheet of 10 different stamps subtitled "Seeking Equal Rights For African Americans".
I wasn't born for another 8 years, but to this day the landmark decision stands as one of the last big equal rights cases fought and won. Same sex marriage is another equal rights cause that has yet to be worked out. The U.S. has come a long way as far as equality, from abolishing slavery to giving women the right to work. It's still got a long way to go however.

JimmyB

Lorrin Thurston

Who is Lorrin Andrews Thurston? How many men do you know named Lorrin to begin with? Basically a businessman/politician Hawaiian born who led the Hawaiian Annexation Club which conspired to make Hawaii a U.S. Territory. He was a conservative who thought that the hula was "suggestive" and "indecent". I'm certain he's rolling in his grave. A man of high values who wanted to overthrow the Hawaiian gov't. Rather contradictory in my view of things. Want more info on him? Doubtful, but here it is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorrin_A._Thurston  This is an official stamp. #O2 in my book.

JimmyB

America Man?

 The world philatelic exhibition was in Washington D.C. in 2006. I nabbed 2 souvenir sheets from a friend at the club.  http://stampsandcovers.blogspot.com/search?q=washington+2006       I came across this used $5 stamp today which is the same $5 stamp on the souvenir sheet. I guess it's a personification of America. Perhaps one of the countless native North Americans that was slaughtered and gone to the great unknown and crowned in glory with stars and feather headdress. The style of the print reminds me of the U.S. Lewis and Clark stamps released by the U.S.P.S.. I'm not going to soak this off the thin cardboard it was affixed to for now, I'll just keep it as is, maybe trim up the boardpaper.

Edit...Gordon from FB's stamp collecting group came through once again for me on this blog and pointed out to me that the emblem beneath the "America Man" is an error. It's actually the freedom statue depicted. Here's what he shared a link of. Thank's Gordon, http://stampsandcovers.blogspot.com/2013/07/america-man.html?spref=fb

JimmyB

The Federation

The hot chic again, this time dressed very smartly and appearing even better than ever on this West Indies Federation(is it an omnibus?) design. Maps are nice on stamps and make a great topical for someone who's a completionist and wants to pick a topic that could actually be possible to finish filling in a lifetime. This is St Vincent #'s 198-200 in the West Indies Federation common design, valued at $1.50 for the complete set.

JimmyB

Mixture reviews

 I've always enjoyed reading the "anonymous" mixture purchase reviews in Linn's weekly stamp magazine/paper. I've decided to begin my own personal mixture purchase review from it's advertising section at the back of the paper. I'm going to begin the same such style review, albeit on a monthly basis rather than their weekly review. Tomorrow I'm sending off for a mixture and after I receive it I'll dissect what kind of a "deal" I received and I'll let everyone see what I really got and give my opinion and let everyone else put their own 2 cents in.
 I try not to make multiple posts in one day, but since I've decided to make a second post today I feel the need to show a stamp, or shall I say stamps.
 These are 3 stamps from one of those countries which is so insignificant that it probably generated more revenue from stamp collectors by having stamps printed and sold to them than it did by any other source. It existed for a mere 15 years and on a map basically looks like a small township in the Northeast corner of South Africa, of which it is now a part of. This is Venda # non existent in my catalogue. Venda does not even exist in my catalogue which shows how insignificant this stamp and country are. Hell, it must not have BEEN a country, but here is it's stamp.

 Edit.... OK, I found it in my book under South Africa. #'s 5,6 and 7.

JimmyB

Visions of peace

 1946, the world was recovering from a massive war which spanned the entire globe. Hopes were high that never again would we see such devastation. Well over 60 million had died in less than a decade previously and symbols such as these represented our dreams of world peace.
 These are the first 3 denominations in a set of 6 stamps from Mexico. #'s 813-815

JimmyB

S.O.S.

Sink, sank, sunk. These ships never quite made their destination. They wound up making a nice topic for a series of South West Africa stamps however. These wrecks are the Hope, 1804 which was a U.K. brig, the Tilly, 1885, the Eduard Bohlen, 1909 which was a German passenger/cargo ship, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Bohlen, and the Dunedin Star, 1942 from Great Britain, which was a refrigerated cargo liner, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Dunedin_Star.

JimmyB

Nicaraguan Official

 Official stamps from 1890-99 with genuine cancellations are scarce according to my catalogue. So you be the judge on this one, being as I have no clue what an "official" cancellation would appear like. Oh yeah, my book also says forged cancellations are plentiful, so I won't bank on this being genuine, nevertheless this is the highest valued Nicaraguan official I have(that I've come across). This is O99 valued at $25.

JimmyB

Under Down Under

I'm having a dickens of a time figuring this one out. Into the ??? box I imagine. The perfs measure 14.5 on all sides which doesn't seem to help me as none of this example are listed at that. They definetly don't measure 15 which is one possibility and It's hard as hell to tell if this would be considered either orange or what the book calls orange-red. For gosh darn sakes, even orange is kind of red, like a yellow red. As far as whether the perfs are roulette or compound? I need to go to stamp school, my brain is beginning to hurt me.

JimmyB

Crossed Keys

I can't help but think that perhaps a pope may have placed this stamp on an envelope. Chances are though that it was one of the members of the Knights of Templar who did. I'm curious what this cancellation mark looks like in full as it only appears to be a partial imprint. This stamp is from the Roman States, which was governed by the See of Rome. It didn't last long, the Vatican City is all that remains of it. I have several Vatican stamps, but this is the only Roman State stamp which I think may not be a forgery. My other ones appear too clean and crisp to be real. This is #9 in my book, valued at $22.50 if it were(as usual) in much better condition.

JimmyB

I hate watermarks

 Into the ??? box for this one. There are several varieties of this issue and all require you to have a keen eye and a bottle of watermark solution. Since I lack either of those I'll need to wait until I pick up some solution and maybe with the assistance of a powerful magnifier I can deduce what I have here. Whatever variety this turns out to be, it will be a much welcome addition. This is one of the earliest stamps as all the Queen Vics are.

JimmyB

Coincidence

 Ever hear something and suddenly the next day you see it even though you haven't seen it for quite some time? Claudia, who's a member of the group "stamp collecting" said "Portuguese stamps, where are they?" just 2 days ago. Well lo and behold last night I pulled an envelope out with a few stamps in poor condition that if they were in good shape(they are not) would be great finds for me and one of them happened to be this stamp from Portugal.
 This is King Luiz on an issue from 1870-1884. It's catalogue value, #42 in mine, is $14 when in much better condition. Still a find by my standards of low cost acquisitions.
 King Luiz was a man of science, he invested heavily in research boats that set off to the oceans in pursuit of studying new specimens of ocean life. The reign he held was forced upon him by the deaths of his two elder brothers. He had no political skills to speak of, but his scientific interests far outweighed that in my own view.  I just happen to be reading the memoirs of Thomas Henry Huxley vol. 1 at the present time. who was a philosopher during this time from Great Britain who began his career with the British Royal Navy as a researcher on such a vessel. The first part of volume one was a bit boring, but now I'm half thru and it's picking up. So in a sense, it is even more fortuitous that I ran across this stamp.

JimmyB

Queen Victoria

 This is New South Wales #40. I needed to dig out my perforation gauge in the hopes that this was a rarer variety but alas, it was not mean't to be. The color is refered to as "Lilac" though I beg to differ. Perhaps the ink has darkened over the last 150 years (1860-1863 issue dates). The lilacs in my yard are a lighter hue of purple though I have to admit that lilacs do come in a wide variety of hues. It's got quite a bit of thinning on the back side as I imagine it was just peeled from the cover.

JimmyB

Animal Humanity

 This FDC of the humane treatment of animals shows that the movement has been going on for quite some time now and the postal service itself found it to be a worthy enough cause to issue a stamp for it back in 1966. Isn't that just the cutest little puppy dog? This is FDC #1307 in my catalogue. As with most FDC's it's listed at minimal value of $1.

JimmyB

Street Performer

       The Bateleur is an African eagle which is depicted on this South African stamp which dates 1974.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bateleur  My catalogue sets this at $2 for a used example.

JimmyB

Discovery

 Only a postal worker could love such an ugly cancellation eh? This commemorates the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the America's. It'd be a much nicer example if it weren't for this postmark. Well, no doubt as to the date it was stamped! I'll take what I find though. This is Trinidad #91 in my catalogue  and #92 on this Minkus page.

JimmyB

Pretty Bird

 The St Lucia parrot is quite colorful. It's a type of Amazon parrot of which I just happen to have the Yellow Nape variety which is an exceptionally good talker and singer, perhaps I should say excellent.  This is #390 in my catalogue and on the page I have it mounted on (Minkus) it is #400.

JimmyB

Dependency's Badge

 I'm at a loss here. Nice stamp, decent catalogue value, but try to discern some info on the ship Dependency? Even with the internet it seems to be a fools errand. What the hell is the Badge all about anyways? Inquiring minds need to know. Oh the Queen is so god awful beautiful though isn't she? Not the best image of her on a stamp but oh my she's a looker.   This is #134 in my book.


Edit... Matthew Healey from the FB group Stamp Collecting pointed out to me that the Dependency refers to the Islands, not the ship which I had supposed. Thanks Matthew!!!


Edit 2...Gordon Groves from FB group Stamp Collecting shared this.......During the 1870's Britain decided to create a flag for the islands. A sketch of the "badge" was sent to England. It consisted of a ship, two piles of salt, and a salt gatherer. An interesting story can be found here:http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2012/12/white-gold-how-salt-made-and-unmade-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/

JimmyB

Guardian Dragon

This is one of the four mythical guardians of Iceland which are represented on the coat of arms of Iceland. Another nice find!! The other guardians along with this were released in other sets, the first in 1987 but this dragon design was released alone in 1989 and just happens to have the highest value amongst all the other releases. Dragon #677

JimmyB

"reprint"

 More likely than not this is a reprint of #463. The gold edging is dull when compared to the gold edging on some of my other stamps from this era, Never the less, a nice addition to my collection of Iranian stamps.

 Don"t forget to mail me a postcard for a chance to get this!!!  http://stampsandcovers.blogspot.com/2013/07/unesco-world-heritage.html?spref=fb



JimmyB

Forever is a long long time

 I needed to get international priority stamps today and picked up 2 sheets of these. The clerk who is normally a complete jackass was even excited and jabbering about these forever internationals. Maybe he's not such a jerk after all! I've got several to use in response to any international covers I receive. I'm doubtful if a huge response for them, but just in case there is, better post a comment before you mail a letter so I can set one aside for you in response.

Don't miss out on this raffle style giveaway!!!   http://stampsandcovers.blogspot.com/2013/07/unesco-world-heritage.html?spref=fb

JimmyB

Mounds.....Sometimes you don't

 The most amazing thing that people find at the tourist center is the fact that few locals go, let alone even know what the the mounds are or even know it exists!!

JimmyB

Austrian Air

 My brain has begun to hemorrhage from checking the catalogue for these three stamps. The U.N. #754 popped out at me but the rest are eluding me and I've seen both of them before and know it. Kind of like searching for Waldo.  From what I've read of this letter, little niecie is travelling in Europe and I've got a couple covers from her.  Don't miss out on my giveaway!  http://stampsandcovers.blogspot.com/2013/07/unesco-world-heritage.html?spref=fb

Edit....Thanks to Susan from the Facebook  group "Stamp Collecting" I've found the first stamp with the south compass heading to be a semi-postal #B310 in my catalogue. Looks like 8 views of Vienna series from all 8 quadrants of a compass located on the stamp!

Another edit.......Thanks to Gordon, also from FB "Stamp Collecting" says this.....The bluish black 50-groschen lithograph stamp at the bottom corner is part of the 1957-61 Architectural Monuments. It is Scott 619 issued October 23, 1959. Depicted on the stamp is the Heiligenstadt building in Vienna.

JimmyB

Today is was history

Monaco’s Stamp Issuing Office will release the following stamps for sale on 10 July 2013..................and I want everyone to know I plagiarized the hell out of this one...http://en.service-public-particuliers.gouv.mc/Announcements2/Stamps-to-go-on-sale-on-10-July-2013......but this was the stamp issued today.

JimmyB

UNESCO World Heritage

  Due to the underwhelming response for my last giveaway(no entries at all), I'm running this World Heritage card giveaway thru July AND August. I'm in search of postcards from any of the sites. A list is here. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list . I'll trade straight up a Cahokia card for another UNESCO site card from anywhere else OR you can just send me any old postcard(or new) and write Monk's Mound on the back and I will randomly (blind pick from a bag) select a winner of this one in September. My addy is 902 Sycamore St, Belleville, IL., 62220,   USA
 I need to thank Steve for picking up a few cards for me while he was taking the tour there with his family last week.

JimmyB

Apparition

 Steve's path didn't cross mine today, so I guess maybe tomorrow I'll get the UNESCO cards. Oh well, nothing like a little religion eh?   The apparition of the Virgin Mary along with a sick man and basillica stamp and a St Bernadette. Vatican City stamps, I kind of like the Spirograph style design on the selvage. This is half of a set of six. If I don't get the postcards tomorrow I'll show the other three(different values and colors).

JimmyB

Ant & Bar

 Antigua & Barbuda,  this one is a 90 cent stamp. If you ever need better detail on these images, you can simply click on the image to get a more detailed view.
 How many anniversary stamps were issued? I'm not certain. If anyone has a new enough catalogue with the totals, I would deeply appreciate any info on how many are in the omnibus, including which countries.

 It's been a week since the raffle deadline and I didn't receive any entries yet. It's looking like no winner for last month. Today my friend should hopefully have my UNESCO Cahokia Mounds post card for this months prize. I'm hoping he remembered to pick them up when he was out there(he is not a philatelist), else I'm going for a drive sometime this week.

JimmyB

Last of Solomon Islands for awhile

 And for tomorrow, something completely different. OK, well, maybe not completely. Perhaps just another country's tribute to Trafalgar's 200th. So now a $5.00 stamp sheet from the Solomon's.

JimmyB