Elliot Lake Stamp Club

Canada's Elliot Lake Standard ran a nice article earlier this month about the Elliot Lake Stamp Club and founding member Dieter Gey.

Reporter Shannon Quesnel writes, "He was eight years old and still living in what was then East Germany when he got his first stamps. This was back when the city of Berlin was divided by a wall and the country was split by a patrolled border.

"In 1953, his family sneaked across the guarded line into West Germany. His first stamp collection stayed on the other side of the Iron Curtain along with everything else the family owned."

Dieter started collecting again a few years later in West Germany and continued when he came to Canada in 1966. He came to Elliot Lake in 2001 and started up the club soon after.

Shannon also notes, "More than just a raw exchange of stamps and goods, each meeting is a social event. Members talk about stamps, what is going on in the world of collection as well as socialize. Noticeably absent at the meeting was coffee, tea or other liquids. It is a safe bet the collectors would not enjoy seeing a tall cup of water on a table covered in loose stamps."

Shown above, Dieter checks his stamp collection during a club meeting held at a local police station.

To read the entire article, click here.