Buying Stamps in Tough Economic Times

John Finch writes on the About.com website about buying stamps in tough economic times and offers some money saving tricks for acquiring stamps.

Finch suggests the following...

• Buy new issues from countries or agencies,
• Have a few favorite dealers,
• Trade with fellow collectors,
• Buy lesser quality,
• Buy for the future,
• Buy in bulk,
• Possess the knowledge,
• Take care of your stamps and they'll take care of you.

Click here to read the entire article.

A Match Made in Postal Heaven

Nothing says love like a heart-themed postmark according to The Winnipeg Free Press.

Canada Post says the Love (Saskatchewan) and St-Valentin (Quebec) post offices, because of their aptly named towns, will cancel twice as much mail as usual over the coming weeks, with a special cancel designed for the romantic at heart.

According to the paper,"Already, mail is coming in from across Canada and from countries such as China, Japan, Hungary, United States, Switzerland and France."

Canada Post is calling the cancellations "a match made in postal heaven."

For more information and where to send your cards and letters, click here.

Owney The Railway Mail Dog on Facebook

Owney The Railway Mail Dog recently posted this picture of one of his canine cousins in a backpack on his Facebook page.

Owney says, "I visited a lot of post offices by Railway Mail Service in my day, stopping by to say hi to the clerks (and eat their lunches). I'd like to clarify that I was NOT in a doggy backpack at the time, like this little guy in line at the post office. I'm pretty lucky these weren't invented back in the1890s. I wonder if this dog would like to collect tags with me and travel the country, sans backpack?"

To see what else Owney has been up to, click here. 

How To Become a Virtual Philatelist

Bruce Kilgour aka The Virtual Stamp Man writes, "Virtual stamp collecting has become a favourite pastime on social media platforms such as FaceBook, Flickr and Twitter/Twitpic. This is a short introduction with all you need to know to get started as well as directions to the main virtual stamp websites. Start your virtual stamp album online today. Its the most fun you can have with your computer on! "

Click here to check out his Facebook page.

Click here to check out The Virtual Stamp Club

Philpex 2012

Reporter Jeannette I. Andrade of the Philippine Daily Inquirer pens, "The Philippine Philatelic Exhibition (Philpex) 2012 is out to prove that stamp collecting still has a place in the hearts of the young who have become so obsessed with instant communication that writing letters in longhand has become almost like a dying art."

Philpex 2012 is a festival of international exhibits and entries from member clubs of the Philippine Philatelic Federation (PPF) with the theme “Knowledge and fun through stamp collecting."

Lawrence Chan is quoted in the piece as saying philatelic judges used international standards and rules governing philatelic competitions set by the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie, a network of philatelists worldwide.

"Knowledge, study and research on the theme of the collection," he pointed out, "accounted for 35 percent of the rating. The condition and rarity of the postage stamps are 20 percent each, while the condition and importance make up 10 percent of the total score. Presentation accounts for only 5 percent of the total rating."

Shown above, Robert Tan, president of the Philippine Philatelic Federation

Click here to read the entire article.

Holocaust History Lesson Includes Stamps

Michele Morgan Bolton, a correspondent for the Boston Globe, writes on the paper's website about a project at Foxborough Regional Charter School that includes collecting stamps to represent victims of the Holocaust and creating mosaics.

She writes, "The Holocaust Stamp Project is now in its third year at the school, where students are trying to collect 11 million stamps, one to represent each victim of the one of the darkest chapters in world history."

According to Charlotte Sheer, who teaches the school’s fifth-grade community service class, the number represents 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million children, and 5 million others in 21 European countries who were annihilated by Hitler’s ruthless regime in Nazi Germany.

The Foxborough students will use some of the stamps they collect to create 18 mosaics. The first, called “With Liberty and Peace for All,’’ already hangs in a school hallway. The mosaics will symbolize the Holocaust’s Jewish victims, 18 being the numerical translation of chai, the Hebrew word for life.

Sheer is quoted in the piece as saying, "Each stamp collected symbolizes one life “thrown away’’ as having no value, much like an envelope bearing a canceled postage stamp is tossed in the trash."

Shown above, one of the stamp mosaics created by the students at the Foxborough Regional Charter School.

To read the entire article, click here.

Ode to Snail Mail

The Forbes website reports, "In the same week first-class postage rose a penny to 45 cents, the debt-ridden United States Postal Service re-circulated its ode to snail mail, the 'Hacker' commercial. If you haven’t seen it, the spot opens with women putting notices they presumably received via mail on their refrigerators and cork board. 'A refrigerator has never been hacked,' the narrator says. 'An online virus has never attacked a cork board.'"

Contributor Mickey Meece goes on to say that the ad, targeting businesses, implores them to: “Give your customers the added feeling of security a printed statement or receipt provides – with mail. It’s good for business, and even better for your customers. For safe and secure ways to stay connected, visit USPS.com/mail.”

Mark Finkelstein of the Newsbusters.org blog wrote: “The Post Office was trying to make the argument that snail mail is safer and more appealing to people in general and customers in particular. You might call it trying to sweep back the Internet age with a soggy envelope.

To read the entire article, click here.

For more on this story, click here.

Rural Carriers

Historian Nancy Pope writes on the National Postal Museum's Pushing The Envelope blog about rural carriers. This is the first in a series of blogs spotlighting items and stories from America’s postal workers.

Nancy pens, "Rural Free Delivery (RFD) service began in 1896 and continues today. Rural carriers function a little differently from city letter carriers. For one thing, rural carriers are required to use their own vehicles to make their daily rounds. For another, rural carriers have, from the beginning, provided their patrons with more than just the day’s mail. They carry stamps, stamped envelopes, money orders, and other items that are more commonly found in a post office. This has led rural carriers’ vehicles to be nicknamed 'post offices on wheels.'” 

She goes on to say, "Carriers often purchased metal cash boxes to keep money and other valuables safe and secure during their daily rounds. Many RFD cash boxes had storage compartments and shelves. All could be secured with a padlock, also to be purchased by the carrier."

Shown above, a rural carrier cash box.

To read the entire article, click here.  

Bonsai Stamps Carefully Researched by Hawaiian Artist

USPS's Beyond The Perf points out, "To create an arboreal masterpiece requires great patience, skill, and attention to detail. So when art director Ethel Kessler was tasked with featuring the art form of bonsai on a stamp, she knew that the assignment would require the same commendable traits."

Turns out she knew just the person for the project - John D. Dawson, with whom she worked on the 12-year Nature of America series.

According to the article, "Dawson lives in Hawaiʻi, a central location for the horticultural hobby of bonsai. But despite his interest in art and nature, Dawson was unfamiliar with the elaborate processes of the art form."

Dawson is quoted as saying, “It was a big learning curve. The first thing I did was buy a good number of books, and read about the history and principles of bonsai. I also attended a bonsai show in Hilo and talked to the members of the society here.”

"Consultants carefully examined the artwork, ensuring that each style of bonsai was realistically represented — and also checking for any cultural nuances. One needed revision was changing the number of azalea trunks from four to three, as four is considered unlucky in Asian cultures,"according to the article.

Click here for additional pictures and information.

In a separate article that appears on the Big Island News Center website, reporter Sherry Bracken says,  "Dawson’s first stamps for the postal service were in the 1980s, the American Cats stamp series. Since then he has created the Idaho statehood stamp, a flowering trees series, and the Nature of America series.  The final set in that series featured a Hawaiian rain forest, and was introduced at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park last December."

Click here to read Bracken's article and listen a radio interview she did with him.

Jazz Great Miles Davis to Get Stamp in 2012

The Alton, Illinois Telegraph reports, "The great jazz musician Miles Davis has received the official stamp of approval from the U.S. Post Office."

According to Linn's Stamp News, Davis will get a stamp later this year.

Lee Barham, chairman of the steering committee for the Miles Davis Jazz Celebration is quoted in the piece by reporter Kathie Bassett as saying,"This is a fitting honor, Miles Davis was one of the greatest jazz musicians and trumpet players in the world. Before Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley, there was Miles Davis."

Miles Davis was born in Alton in 1926. He lived in the city for a year before his family moved to East St. Louis. According to Barham, Davis always mentioned Alton as his hometown in interviews.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, Davis died in 1991 in Santa Monica, Calif., at the age of 65.

Shown above, 2001 souvenir sheet from Guine-Bassau honoring Davis.

To read the entire article, click here.

The World of Penquins on Stamps

Facebook friend Aimee Poitevin Devine writes to let everyone know about a new periodic feature that will be appearing on the American Topical Association (ATA) website.

It's called Topical Tidbits and in each issue there'll be a "specific topic of interest to philatelists with information, fun facts, games, puzzles, activities, and of course, loads of stamp images."

In the first issue of Topical Tidbits, (ATA) explores the world of penguins on stamps.  It's free, downloadable and loaded with pictures, activities, puzzles about penguins.

It's perfect to pass on to young people and others who love animals and may be interested in starting a topical collection.

Click here to view.

Royal Mail Customers Told to Stock-Pile Stamps

A British consumer watchdog is telling people to start stock-piling stamps now ahead of an expected steep price rise in April according to an article that appears on UK's Telegraph website.

Reporter Christopher Hope writes, "Royal Mail has asked its regulator Ofcom to increase second class stamps by 53 per cent from 36p to 55p - the biggest annual increase since 1975. There would be no limit on the price of a first class stamp, which currently costs 46p. The rises could be pushed through as early as April. "

Hope goes on to say, "The increase would see a book of 12 second class stamps increase from £4.32 to £6.60 over night, as Royal Mail could push through the increase in one go. The price of stamps would then increase every year by inflation, under the proposals."

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which is trying to push through the privatisation of Royal Mail, is quoted as saying, “It is not the Government's role to tell people when to buy stamps.”

To read the entire article, click here.

Virtual Magnifying Glass

Jack writes on his Plate Faults Germany blog that while searching for stamps on the Internet, particularly Internet auctions, he wanted the pictures of the stamps to have more detail. A useful tool he often uses is "Virtual Magnifying Glass".  

The software is a free and legal download at Source Force.

Jack says, "If you have installed the software you get the bottom right of your taskbar an icon. Right-click on the icon to set the magnification, etc., and then left-click on the icon to start your magnifying glass."

Also on Jack's blog (and shown above) is a picture of a Deutsche Post self-adhesive stamp dispenser. Interesting idea that USPS might consider for their next commemorative coil series such as the "Flags of Our Nation."


To visit Plate Faluts Germany, click here. Use Google translate for English and other languages.

Canada Post Celebrates Queen's 'Diamond Jubilee'

The Winnipeg Free Press reports, "Monarchists in Canada are licking their lips in anticipation of new stamps celebrating the Queen."

According to the article by Kevin Rollason, "Canada Post announced on Monday it has issued a booklet of 10 self-adhesive stamps featuring a cameo of Queen Elizabeth II wearing a tiara and royal robes while waving from the window of a carriage in honour of her Diamond Jubilee."

It goes on to say other stamps featuring the Queen will be released in the months ahead. These include a mini-pane of four stamps which will feature stamps with the Queen portrait  during her reign.

Shown above, one of the proposed designs celebrating Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee.

To read the entire article, click here.

Postage Rates Going Up on Sunday

The Gazette Virginian reports, "It’s going to cost a little bit more to mail that letter, bill or greeting card next week. On Sunday, the price of a first class postage stamp is going up a penny from 44 to 45-cents. This is the first increase in the price of a first-class mail stamp since May 2009, according to postal officials."

Here are some of the other changes...

• Letters additional ounces – unchanged at 20 cents
• Postcards – 3-cent increase to 32 cents
• Letters to Canada or Mexico (1 oz.) – 5-cent increase to 85 cents.
• Letters to other international destinations – 7-cent increase to $1.05 

Forever stamps purchased before Sunday will still be valid and are always equal in value to the current first–class mail one ounce rate.

For more on the new rates and changes, click here.