Cinderellas

Ships are cool, ships on stamps are cool too. But what if they are not official stamps, but rather cinderellas put out by companies or organizations? I still find them interesting myself, even though many raise their nose to them. Cinderellas are a fantastic area to collect. Many of them demand a high price. Does anybody else keep those cinderellas they come across?

Stamp Expo

I mentioned the Stamp Expo coming up next month here in St Louis a day or so ago. This is the cover that was sold here last year for the event. Very fitting with the stamp issued commemorating the exploration that commenced from St Louis seeking a waterway to link the Pacific to the east coast. Never found a good route I might add. Those Rocky mountains were a tough obstacle and much portaging was necessary. It's an amazing story of exploration though.

Wild Thing

I picked up these sheets at the Post today. They are probably going to be a top ranked stamp by the USPS this year in my book. Joint issue? Michael Dodd mentioned this recently on his blog. Was this just a GB/US joint deal?

I'm a bit perpuzzled over the choices of animals on this set. Some must be modern figures that someone like me raised in the 60's on kids books, wouldn't recognize.

Wild thing, Curious George, and the Dr Suess character I can relate to. As far as Wilbur, well that was a novel for grade schoolers, not really a picture book. The rest of these characters are a bit alien to me.

Nice stamps however, sure to be on letters I send out to my pals(when I get a chance).

None of the new postage rate stamps have arrived at my local Post yet. The 63 cent domestic rate or the new 84 cent inernational rate. I read somewhere that the post office is having to delay shipments because of the high demand by everyone. Like these guys didn't know the increase was coming up and were caught off guard.

I've got nothing better to do then rag about my own postal service I guess. I'm not alone, I have read a lot of rags about the GB post by their patrons. US and GB probably have the most gripes of all the countries online I'll bet.

Romanian set

I can't figure out why I like stamps from Romania. These things were pumped out by the kazillion. Basically pumped out to make money off of stamp collectors like you and I, rather then the demand for actual stamps by Romanian citizens. Of course they were really usable so they are official stamps. I just like the look of the images I guess. I'm just a sucker for stamps like all of us are. Does anybody else get stamps they hate but like at the same time? These are Scott # 1281-86 and catalog at $2.10 used in my 03 catalog. Naturally mint is tough to get and catalogues at almost $10.00. Does anyone have mint copies of these Romanian stamps? I wonder how Scott comes up with these values that they do. I'm sure they don't get them from the prices that they are selling them for. Next stamp show I go to here in St Louis, I'm gonna see how many mint Romanian sets I see at venders stands. The next big show is coming up next month here.

Lesotho's early stamps

These are the types of stamps I hunt for. Not high in value all the time. so even us with a limited budget can find them. A portrait of British royalty, whether the Queen or one of the former Kings aside a nice picture stamp.

Basutoland was a British Crown colony until 1966. It's a bit peculiar, in the sense that it is an Island in the nation of South Africa. It's only resource is water, which might not seem like much, but water can be very valuable when there is a lack of it surrounding you. These stamps are overprinted Lesotho because when they were issued, Britain had given Basutoland independence and it was renamed Lesotho. Lesotho issued an independence stamp with 2 portraits on it first, then issued a set of these overprinted stamps from what I'm guessing was an excess stock of these preexisting stamps, before continuing on issuing there own designs of stamps.

I wonder how it was, that Basutoland remained independant of South Africa? That's a bit too much delving into history for the time I have to devote to the thought.

Swastika

I was a bit baffled when I noticed swastika's in the corners of this air mail stamp from Newfoundland. Just off the NE coast of North America, I thought to myself "no way". I checked the year of issue which turned out to be 1931, then I thought "hmmm to early".
It turns out that the Nazi's have really stigmatized this symbol. The first and only thing I think of is Nazi Germany when I see it.
The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit word (think India) svastica स्वस्तिक meaning any lucky or auspicious item. Buddhism and Hinduism and another religion I've never heard of , Jainism consider this a sacred symbol. A good one at that!! I saw an image of a temple with the swastika symbol above the entrance of the building. Carl Sagan in his book "The Comet" suggests that if a comet were to get very close to us, jets of gas could be seen in this configuration(roughly) and that maybe this lead to a global use of this symbol. North American tribes also have this symbol as did ancient Celts, Greeks,European and African cultures.
It is a pretty catchy symbol, it's a shame that it was adulterated by the Nazi's. It'll not be cleansed from it's stigma for centuries I imagine, if even that.
Real nice stamp though, still. It catalogues at $50 in the Scott catalogue.
Stamps sure can get my mind working while I'm looking at them. I don't just collect stamps to collect them.

South Africa Flora

I only collect South Africa up to Scott # 102. I recently got some album pages and I had to buy the whole lot, this unfortunatly included 324 stamps both mint and used, all different, with a catalogue of $138.40 Scott's. I'm stuck with it. What's a person supposed to do? Sell the whole kit and kaboodle? Tough call. Here for instance is an almost complete Flora set. If I collected Flora it would be a nice set to have, but I have no use for it. What do people do when they get this stuff? If anyone out there is interested in South Africa, please do contact me. If you know anyone that collects Flora OR South Africa let them know about this post and have them give me a note if interested
Thanks Cees for pointing out to me that you needed to register on Blogger to post a comment. I went into my settings and changed it so that anyone can post without the hassle.
The NFL playoffs are going on right now. I'm a Green Bay Packer fan and since my team didn't even make the playoffs, I'm really not into the games this year.

Post office that delivers with stamps

It seems like all I ever get from post offices when I order stamps directly is the stamps I ordered. Here is an exception to that trend. When I ordered stamps in the Trafalgar anniversary set from St Helena, they were very nice and actually used stamps with the nautical theme to pay the postage. Does it really cost these people that much to just add a stamp to the envelope they use to mail us our stamps? Maybe they are afraid that we will not order the stamp from them if we get one used on cover.

Don't cry for me.........

Todays post is a cover I recieved from Argentina(I'll be sending those Pope John stamps soon Monica). I really love the glacier stamps. Kinda makes you wonder how something can look that awesome don't it?

By clicking on the image you can view a better picture of it.

I'm sorry if the cover appears cattywompous. It happens.

Czenslaw

This is one of my latest acquisitions. I've been waiting awhile for this, and last month casually mentioned my desire for it to a friend and he just happened to have an extra!!! There are many people out there who collect all of Czeslaw's stamps. I'm sure this fine engraved stamp will answer any questions as to why everyone enjoys his work. He is going to be sorely missed in the stamp community.

Admiral Nelson

Tonight I should be getting display sheets at my local stamp club meeting for all the Trafalgar anniversary sets I've collected since they began getting issued in early 2005. I've been sticking them in a drawer and need to work on a list of what I have and what I still need. These are the ultimate in topical stamps in my eyes. I'll begin showing my collection with Alderney's.
If you have any stamps that depict Nelson, the Victory or any of the other ships involved in this action, even former ships that Nelson was stationed on, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'd love to get my hands on these!!

King George V Silver Jubilee

This is one of my favorite specialty sets I've decided to work on until I'm too old to do anything but let my nurse change my diaper, the King George V Silver Jubilee series. I really got interested when I looked up a stamp I came across and found this website. http://www.philatel2.com/jubilee/index.htm
With 60 different countries/or groups if countries like Tobaggo and Trinided are counted together as one and several denominations of each set. There is a lot of stamps to get, well over 200 in the omnibus set. Most of the series of stamps has King George V set aside an engraving of Windsor Castle. There are several countries that came up with unique designs also ie. Canada and Australia. I'm no doubt going to need a plethora of these KGV Windsor castle stamps, as I'll need some way to continue working on them as it gets filled and different plate postion varieties exist.
Thanks to the members of http://groups.msn.com/AllNationsStampClub for visiting my blog on it's inaugural day and validating for me that the counter was working just fine.

Tough seeking varieties of penpals

It's tough!! Everyone wants a penpal online, but most people today seem to go for email, What ever happened to letters by mail?
There are some nice writers out there, don't get me wrong. Just look at this nice cover I recently recieved from my friend Patrick in the Phillipines.
This is a perfect example of how to send a letter internationally. Notice how he didn't just grab a common international rate stamp? I love it. He'll be getting plenty of commemorative stamps on the next letter I send back to him!!!
Tomorrow I'll show a few British Commonwealth stamps I have and which I am in the hunt for getting the entire series of.

Jammu & Kashmir

These stamps are definetly not for the lighthearted.

My Scott's catalogue has lousy images of them and it also says official imitations abound.

These stamps were issued in many colors and paper types from 1878 until 1894.

This is another interesting got from I.O. in a recent Linn's ad.

JimmyB