Stamp insurance

According to an article posted a Wisconsin television website, a radio DJ lost over 300 collectible albums, many of which were rare, when a fire swept through his home.

Ron Von Haden, executive director of Professional Insurance Agents of Wisconsin is quoted in the article as saying, "The value of things change. You know your stamp collection may have gone up or down from a year ago or two years ago. The value of your jewelry goes up or down -- typically up. You should look at that every time you have your insurance reviewed which we suggest to be every year."

The article went on to say another thing to think about might be to add a rider or attachment to policies to cover them.

"People should document all of their possessions, and have valuables assessed every year," Von Haden said. "It may seem like a lot of work, but it's easier to document possessions while someone can rather than losing everything in something like a fire."

To read the entire article, click here.

To find out more about insuring your stamp collection, click here.

Mailbox collector

The East Anglian Daily Times of Suffolk, England reports that Steve Knight has gone from collecting stamps to collecting mailboxes.

Knight, shown on left, is the curator of the Colne Valley Postal History Museum.

The museum houses 85 letter boxes of different shapes and sizes and ages - no two the same - as well as nine working stamp machines and assorted postal paraphernalia. His oldest post-box dates from 1859, and his most expensive acquisition cost about £1,000.

According to the paper, the collecting bug bit Steve back in 1967, when his dad bought him a set of mixed world stamps from Woolworth's. Steve was six at the time. According to the paper, "In those pre-Gameboy days stamp-collecting was anhonorablee pastime for a boy, and he was hooked."

When asked if he ever wanted to be a postman "No, never!" Knight said. "Collecting the boxes is enough for me."

You can e-mail Steve at curator@cvphm.org.

To read the entire article, click here.

Europa 2007 theme - Scouting

PostEurop, the association of European public postal operators has announced the Europa theme for 2007 - "100 years of Scouting".

Europa postage stamps have been issued since 1956. Between 45 to 60 postal agencies expected to issue stamps and souvenir sheets. Many will be issued on May 9 (which is Europe Day). Others will be released throughout the year.

Shown above is the 2007 Austria Europa Scouting souvenir sheet. It will be issued February 9.

For a complete listing of scheduled releases, click here.

Stamp collectors! Attention on deck!

The Meridian Star of Meridian, Mississippi, says, "If you can pass this little test, you might have what it takes to be a Naval aviator."

"Take a postage stamp, glue side up, and place it in the center of your living room. Back up several steps. Now take a good running start and dive toward the stamp, tongue out and ready to lick it."

"If you can successfully lick the stamp, without having to dig carpet fibers out of your teeth, then you might have what it takes to land a jet on an aircraft carrier in calm seas."

[EDITOR'S NOTE: You might want to use the 1961, 50th Anniversary of Naval Aviation stamp, shown above, to practice with.]

To read the entire article, click here.

Postal workers checks lost in the mail

Paychecks for postal workers in Owensboro, Ky., apparently got lost in the mail earlier this month, according to the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer.

Postmaster Kristine Fox is quoted as saying "Somebody somewhere made a mistake and nobody has 'fessed up yet."

The biweekly checks come from Egan, Minn., she said, and are sorted several times along the way.

To read the entire article, click here.

USPS "Guess and Win" Sweepstakes

According to the USPS News Link, post offices around the country are giving customers a chance to win $10,000 for a romantic getaway as well as other prizes.

The USPS "Guess and Win" Sweepstakes want customers to guess many Hershey’s Kisses will fit in a Priority Mail Flat-Rate Box.

After you enter you can send a free “virtual kiss” by e-mail to friends and family.

The contest ends Feb. 15.

Click here to enter.

Valentine's Day postmarks

According to the USPS, last year over 211,000 Valentine cards and letters were re-mailed from Loveland, Colorado. They were sent to more than 100 countries and all 50 states

To have a special postmark on your Valentine's Day card or letter, put it in a larger envelope and send to:

Postmaster
Valentine Re-mailing
Loveland, CO 80538-9998

Be sure the card or letter has the proper postage on it, otherwise it will be returned to you uncancelled.

For some other romantic places you can have your Valentines mailed from, click here.

My personal favorite - Kissimmee, FL 32741.

Jury duty in rural America

Sixty-five of the 314 registered voters in Petroleum County, Montana were summoned to the Hilger, Montana courthouse for jury duty yesterday morning.

According to the Montana Forum,"It marked the first time in almost a decade that a District Court jury had been impaneled in Petroleum County, Montana's least-populated county."

Among them called were two of the three county commissioners, four of the five school bus drivers as well as the mail carrier and relief carrier.

The regular carrier was excused so that mail could be delivered during the trial.

Shown above is a stamp honoring Jury Duty scheduled to be released later this year.

To read the entire article, click here.

Baywatch babe pulls philatelic publicity stunt

MSNBC has reported that "Pamela Anderson has gone postal over a stamp."

"The former 'Baywatch' babe has written an angry letter to the Postmaster General, blasting KFC’s request to put the bearded image of the founder of the fast-food chain on a stamp."

According to MSNBC, "Anderson, a staunch animal-rights activist and a vocal member of PETA, has blasted KFC for its treatment of chickens and has been part of a long-standing campaign on behalf of the feathered critters."

To read more, click here.

Sexy stamps

While surfing around on the Virtual Stamp Club website, I came across an interesting item.

Back in 2003 St. Vincent and the Grenadines issued six stamps marking 50 years of Playboy's most memorable covers.

Who says stamps aren't sexy?

To see more, click here.

Parcels with a pulse

Staff writer Dionne Gleaton of The Times and Democrat in Orangeburg, South Carolina did a nice job with an article on shipping live animals via the US Post Office. Not too many people know you can do that.

She writes, "Bees, worms, biddies, baby ducks, roosters and even one of the oldest, most beautiful and unique breeds of bantam chickens are among the items the Orangeburg post office has shipped and received for individuals."

She quotes Orangeburg Postmaster Andre Small in the article as saying, "It is not the sort of mail you can sort and a carrier takes it to them. People didn’t know, but we get those roosters, baby chickens and bees quite often. And when we get them, we call the people early in the morning to tell him that they’re here."

Postal regulations covering the mailability of live animals are based on the humane consideration of the ability of the animals to survive without food or water for 72 hours according to PS-106 (601.9.3)

Shown above is a 1949 Boston Poultry show cachet tied to the 1948 Poultry Industry Centennial (Scott #969) which is currently be auctioned off on eBay.

As far as I know there were no chickens inside the envelope when it was mailed.

To read the entire article, click here.

Keepsake postmarks

The Auburn Citizen of Auburn,NY, reports that while stamp collectors may call them "pictorial cancellations," the village of nearby village of Weedsport likes to think of them as "keepsake postmarks".

Apparently the town has had a series of them which have become very popular.

The latest was designed by a local high school senior and features a spider and a pig celebrating E.B. White's book and new film, “Charlotte's Web.”

Local resident,Irving Foster, is quoted in the article by staff writer Olivia Goldberg as saying,"... the keepsake postmarks help, in some small way, to call the community together."

Shown above,in a Citizen photo, are Sarah James, a senior at Weedsport High School, places her postmark design on mail with the help of Postmaster Donna Coe at the Weedsport Free Library.

To read the entire article, click here.

The Match Factory

The Centre Daily Times is reporting there is between $2 and $3 million earmarked for the American Philatelic Society (APS) in the Pennsylvania state budget.

Located in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, APS purchased the town's deserted match factory in 2001 and transformed it into commercial space its own use. The partially renovated building opened in 2004. It now serves as the society's headquarters along with several other commercial enterprises that rent space.

Shown above is a computer generated mailing permit that shows an aerial view of the APS headquarters building and the "Match Factory". In lieu of stamps, the society uses these and other designs on much of their outgoing mail.

According to the article, immediate plans call for constructing an enclosed pavilion to house a 19th-century post office and country store that has spent the past 35 years as an exhibitin the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Also in the works is a new independent American cuisine restaurant (complete with liquor license) and doubling the usable space for the stamp society to 100,000 square feet.

To read the entire article, click here.

W. Wilson Hulme II

According to an Washington Post article (that appears on the Chicago Tribune Web site), W. Wilson Hulme II, stamp historian and the first curator of philately at the National Postal Museum, died January 10 of a heart attack while on museum business in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 60.

The article says Hulme was also the nation's foremost expert on stamp perforations, which first appeared in 1857. The Tribune reports, Hulme had completed an article on perforations for the Postal Museum's Web site two days before his death.

Wade Saadi, president of the Collectors Club of New York, is quoted as saying,"He was an incredibly bright and visionary fellow. His loss is the greatest loss that philately could suffer."

To read the entire article, click here

Stamp camp

The Milton, Pennsylvania, post office sponsored a daylong stamp camp for children in conjunction with the unveiling of the new “With Love and Kisses” stamp Saturday according to the Milton Daily Standard.

The camp’s director, Cheryl Edgcomb, is quoted in the article as saying only one of the 16 children in attendance had experience in stamp collecting, but all left with plenty of insight into the hobby and a good base with which to start their own collections.

Edgcomb said the event is geared towards children in grades three through eight, since that’s an age group when most kids like to start collecting things.

Edgcomb told staff writer Pam Dailey, “This is going to take them in so many different directions.”

During the course of the day, the kids learned the history of stamps, were taught how to care for and organize collections and created a 3-D stamp project. The camp culminated with an auction that allowed kids to purchase stamps and other items they would need to maintain their personal collections using “Stamp Camp Cash.”

Stamp enthusiasts donate items from their personal collections to be given to the children who attend these events, said Edgcomb.

Edgcomb has been conducting stamp camps across the country since 1995. Shown above is a photo taken at one of her previous stamp camps.

For more on StampCamp USA, click here.

How the British Post Office Went To War

The British Postal Museum and Archive currently has an interesting on-line exhibit, "How the Post Office Went To War."

According to the site, "At the outbreak of war in 1939, the General Post Office (GPO) controlled virtually all civil communications channels: mail, phone and telegram. The GPO was also the largest employer in the country, and its business was turned upside down when one third of GPO staff joined active service, within a few weeks of the declaration of war."

"Working in blackout conditions, often in temporary buildings, staff worked and risked their lives to keep services going. It fell to many of the new women staff to keep the telephone exchanges (often sited at the tops of buildings) running during the blitz. Postmen collected mail from pillar boxes buried in rubble as nearby bombs were being defused."

To visit, click here.

Stamp collars

According to William M. Senkus of Alphabetilately.com, "Stamp collars were a popular device in the early 20th century in Europe, especially in France (where they were called "porte timbres"). They were most often used for patriotic or charitable messages. One received them in return for a donation to the cause, then used them either alone, or with a postage stamp added."

Senkus writes, "The center, where the stamp could be placed, was sometimes totally blank, but usually bore a simple message either supporting the organization selling them, or explaining their use. The border contained a message to surround the postage stamp and promote the cause."

He goes on to say, "In the US, stamp collars were printed on envelopes (see above), usually as advertising, hence they were called "Advertising Collars."

To see other examples and learn more, click here.

Don't forget the duck sauce

Peter Leo of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette doesn't quite believe China really will release a scratch 'n' sniff, sweet and sour pork stamp (see my post of January 9.

He writes, "Smelling a rat (by the way, next year is the Year of the Rat -- Yum!), we picked up the phone. China, however, could not be reached for comment."

He also asked his readers, "...if anyone is going to China -- New Year begins Feb. 18 -- please pick up some stamps for us. And don't forget the duck sauce."

According to Peter, "This would not be a postal first, and we're pinning this whole item on the stamp-collecting section of fortunecity.com."

"It traces scratch 'n' sniff postage to 1973, when little Bhutan, from out of nowhere, issued a stamp that smelled like a rose. Fast-forward to 1999 when the fun-loving Brazilians produced a stamp that smelled like burnt wood to raise fire prevention awareness."

To read his entire column, click here.

Oklahoma statehood stamp dedicated

According to the Associated Press, the Oklahoma statehood stamp was unveiled at the Oklahoma History Center Thursday, and simultaneously went on sale at 567 post offices across the state.

Shown above in a USPS photo, dedicating the Oklahoma stamp (while a young crowd watches) are, from left, Oklahoma Centennial Commission Executive Director Blake Wade, former USPS Board of Governors Chairman Bert Mackie, Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry, Centennial Project Chairman Lee Allan Smith, USPS Southwest Area Operations Vice President Ellis Burgoyne and former Oklahoma Gov. George Nigh.

Tom Blakey of the Norman, OK, Transcript reports, "The stamp is a replica of a painting by Oklahoma artist Mike Larsen... and depicts the morning sunlight touching the waters of the Cimarron River... which represents the Old West and Oklahoma’s past. Along the banks of the river ran the southern branch of the Santa Fe Trail."

To read his entire article, click here.

Bennett to auction Maffeo stamp collection

Next month in New York City, Matthew Bennett will be auctioning off the Dr. Alphonse A. Maffeo Collection of United States and Confederate States Provisionals, Stamps, Errors and Important Autographs.

According to the firm's Web site, "Dr. Maffeo was able to assemble a remarkable number of rare Postmaster's Provisionals, both United States and Confederate as well as two Inverted Jennys.

Highlights consist of ten St. Louis Bears including a 20c greenish (11X3)- the finest of only three recorded off cover examples; a New Haven, Ct. cut square (8XU1); a rare Tuscalumbia, Ala. entire (6AXU1) and a Marion, Va. (55X2)- possibly the finest recorded unused example."

Also included in the collection, and shown above, is a bidsheet for a stamp auction written by Franklin D. Roosevelt while Governor of New York.

For more information and additional photos, click here.

Tony Gwynn stamp and cover

To commemorate the Baseball Hall of Fame election results on January 9, the Poway, Calif. post office hand cancelled 1019 limited edition Tony Gwynn stamps and covers.

Five hundred and nineteen of the stamps and covers have an original Tony Gwynn autograph (shown above), and the remaining 500 bare a facsimile of his signature. All covers are postmarked with the date of the Hall of Fame election results, 1-9-2007.

The cover also lists Gwynn’s major achievements, which include; 3141 hits, 8 Time National League Batting Champ, 16 All Star Games, 5 Gold Gloves, a .338 lifetime batting average and his 3000th hit on 8.6.1999.

As a 27 season veteran of the San Diego Padres, Gwynn is a long time resident of Poway, Calif. Gwynn will officially be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. on July 29, 2007.

To order, click here.

Postal pilots

Reporter Stephen Szucs of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram has an interesting story in the Cincinnati Post online about young pilots who are making the transition from aviation school graduate to professional pilot by delivering mail to several islands in Lake Erie.

Szucs writes, "Delivering mail is one of the first ways pilots prove they have the aptitude to tackle the challenges of flight, and it is often the first rung on a professional pilot's ladder."

Shown above in a Chronicle-Telegram photo is pilot Ken Schirg, 25, who is one of the pilots contracted by the U.S. Postal Service to collect and deliver mail to a one-room post office on the bottom floor of Postmaster Helen Dopps home.

"We depend on the mail here," Dopps is quoted as saying. "Sometimes, it's the only way to stay connected with those on the mainland."

To read the entire piece, click here.

Sweet 'n' sour stamps

London's Metro is reporting, "Move over scratch 'n' sniff, the coolest stamps on sale are now lick and taste."

"New stamps to celebrate the Chinese year of the pig not only show the animals but also taste of them. When you scratch the front of the porcine postage stamps, the 'tasty aroma' of sweet and sour pork is released. Lick the back and you can taste the famous Chinese dish, too."

The stamps have gone on sale in China ahead of their New Year, which falls on February 18.

To read the entire article, click here.

"Out of the Mails" exhibit

The National Postal Museum's Out of the Mails exhibit (which opened last month in Washington, D.C.) explores an interesting and little known aspect of U.S. postal history.

As "Surveyor of the Post Offices and Post Roads on the Continent of North America", Hugh Finlay set out in 1773 on a journey through the 13 colonies and Canada in order to assess the overall state of the mail system in order to improve the efficiency of the mails.

What Finlay discovered was a surprising number of people sending their letters “out of the mails” with private carriers. Doing so avoided the payment of postage in the British-run system which some colonists saw as a version of taxation without consent.

By sending letters outside official mail channels, either by private courier or having friends carry them, Americans vexed the British, avoided paying high postage rates but also financially endangered the struggling new mail system.

Shown above is a 1973 first day cover for Scott #1478 which depicts a colonial postrider.

To learn more, click here.

Jean de Sperati - The Fastidious Forger

Calling him "The Fastidious Forger," UK's Economist says Jean de Sperati’s forgeries have become so collectible that some, such as the red 1913 Australian £2 stamp (shown on left) are now worth more than the originals he copied.

Herbert Bloch, a former chairman of the Philatelic Foundation’s expert committee is quoted in the piece as saying more than 20 years ago, “He [was] the greatest forger, by far, of all times ... No-one even approaches him.”

"Sperati’s forgeries went undetected because he usually used perfectly genuine, though very common, stamps as the basis for his fakes," according to the Economist article.

"Using chemicals, he would bleach out the original design, while retaining the postmark, and then print a new image of a rare stamp on genuine stamp paper. In addition, he was a master at getting the colours right, which made uncovering his forgeries particularly difficult."

You can tell the Australian stamp is a forgery because there is a faint break in the horizontal lines of red shading between Tasmania and the mainland in the area outlined by the box.

Sperati forgeries will be included in the final part of Sotheby’s sale of the Sir Gawaine Baillie philatelic collection in London on January 18th.

To read the entire article, click here.

Terminal dues

Christopher Beam, writing in Slate, says the U.S. Postal Service may be revising its international mail pricing system. The new rates would raise shipping rates from the United States by 13 percent on average.

In his article, "Who Pays the French to Deliver It?," he poses another question.

"Seeing as foreign postal services deliver our mail overseas, do they get a cut of the postage?"

"Yes, but not directly," Beam writes.

"Say you're paying the U.S. Postal Service 84 cents to send a letter to Paris. Part of that cost covers postal labor and infrastructure here in the United States. Another part takes care of the transportation to Paris. (The USPS regularly contracts commercial airlines, as well as private carriers like FedEx and United Parcel Service to transport international mail.) And a third part helps offset the fees paid to the French postal service to carry letters like yours from the airport to their destinations."

Those fees are known as "terminal dues."

Since 1969, countries have been required to pay terminal dues to destination countries as compensation for local mail delivery costs. The system is overseen by by the Universal Postal Union.

To read his entire article, click here.

For more on "terminal dues", click here.

What the Rs are

Bob Hohertz has an interesting Web site titled, "What the Rs Are."

According to Bob, the items with R prefixes in the Scott Specialized Catalogue of US Stamps and Covers are revenue issues (also known as "Back of the Book" items). The numbering system runs from R, RB, RC to RZ, with a few gaps and a few insertions, such as RVB (the Federal boating stamps of the early 1960's).

His Web site provides a good overview, history and scans of each of the Scott-listed revenue categories.

Incidentally, collectors of US revenue stamps might be interested in joining the American Revenue Association which publishes a magazine, The American Revenuer, bimonthly.

To visit his site, click here.

Allen Bohart

Ephemera did an interesting interview recently with fellow collector and blogger, Allen Bohart (left), about the joys and challenges of stamp collecting.

Allen's blog, Philatelic Tidbits,is one of my favorites. He's also the Chairman of the Americana Series Study Group (ASSG), and a member of the United States Stamp Society (USSS).

When asked,"What's your advice to achieving success as a collector?," Allen replied, "The more personal your collection is, the more it will mean to you, and the more enjoyment you will get out of it."

"I see way too many people out there who collect for the sheer numbers of it, either numerically or financially, and I think that those people are not getting the full experience that collecting has to offer."

Good advice.

To read the entire interview, click here.

Do try this at home

Jane Greig of the Austin, Texas, American-Statesman recently got this question from one of her readers.

Q: Please advise the easiest method of removing stamps from envelopes. Is there a way using the microwave?

Her response...."The microwave method begins with two drops of water on the stamp. Microwave on high for 20 seconds. I tried it. The stamp came off, albeit not cleanly."

She also made this comment which I found a bit strange, "Some stamp collectors remove the glue from stamp backs to decrease the stamps' attraction to insects (they love to munch on glue)."

To read her entire column, click here.

Steve Buchanan, stamp artist

The Associated Press did a nice piece on artist Steve Buchanan which ran in the Worcester Telegram and other papers around the country.

Buchanan is among a handful of artists that create original artwork for U.S. postage stamps. His past work includes photo-realistic stamps picturing insects, spiders, motorcycles, vegetables, tropical flowers, carnivorous plants, reptiles and amphibians.

He also did the artwork for the "Pollinators" set of four which will be released later this year.

According to AP reporter Jim Moore, Buchanan traded a life of concert halls and classrooms for brushes and bugs, and he’s never looked back. Buchanan, 57, learned to draw in his 30s while teaching classical piano at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.

The article also reports that a film crew for the History Channel recently shot footage in Buchanan’s studio. The film will be released soon for viewing in post offices around the country showing how a stamp is made.

Shown above in an AP photo, Buchanan sits in his Winsted, Conn., studio.

To read the entire article, click here.

Happy New Year, Father Clavius!

According This Day in History, New Year's Day was celebrated on January 1 for the first time in 45 B.C.

However, the January 1 celebration fell out of practice during the Middle Ages because Julian calendar (named after Julius Caesar) followed the lunar cycle and was as much as 10 days off.

In the 1570s, Pope Gregory XIII commissioned a Jesuit astronomer, Christopher Clavius, to come up with a new calendar to better align the calendar with the solar year. This modification to the Julian calendar became known as the Gregorian calendar.

As a result, people once again began to celebrate January 1 in accordance with the more accurate Gregorian calendar.

In 1982, Father Cristopher Clavius, and the Gregorian calendar which he helped create, were commemorated on the Vatican souvenir sheet shown above.

To learn more, click here.