Thursday, July 14, 2005

Lists of people on stamps

Ever wanted to know why someone got to be on a postage stamp?

People like...

  • Abraham Baldwin (SC 1850)
  • Virginia Apgar (SC 2179)
  • Samuel Dexter (SC R290)
Well... there's a a site that can help you find out their claim to philatelic fame.

Wikipedia.org has thoughtfully provided stamp collectors and others an alphabetical list of people (famous and otherwise) who appear on the stamps of various nations along with their biography. In some cases, the stamp they appear on is also pictured.

All the individual listings have the year the individual appeared on a stamp. So it's fairly easy (with the help of a catalog) to locate stamp they appeared on.

While people pictured on United States stamps are pretty well indexed, many countries are not. If you specialize in one of the these countires which is not indexed, you (or your group, society or club) might want to consider taking it on as a project. If you know enough about html to be dangerous you can add a picture of the stamp yourself.

The whole thing is pretty much a work in progress. Suddenly, the 'Great Americans' series just got a WHOLE lot more interesting.

For a list of countries, click here.

For the list of people on United States stamps, click here.
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posted by Don Schilling at 12:01 AM