The Great Texas Stamp Collection

Mike Cox writes on the Austin, Texas website Statesman.com,  "Still one of the most popular hobbies despite the continuing erosion of first-class mail by email, stamp collecting has millions of U.S. enthusiasts. Turns out some of the rarest — and now most valuable — stamps ever pasted on an envelope were printed in Texas early in the Civil War by several Confederate postal officials."

He goes on to say, "The story of these Texas-made stamps is well-told by Charles W. Deaton in “

: How Some Stubborn Texas Confederate Postmasters, a Handful of Determined Texas Stamp Collectors, and a Few of the World’s Greatest Philatelists Created, Discovered, and Preserved Some of the World’s Most Valuable Postage Stamps.” (University of Texas Press, $27.95 in hardcover.)

"That not-so-postage-stamp-size subtitle pretty much covers what the book’s about. The only information it leaves out is that the story also involves big money, greed and its progeny, crime."

Click here to preview the table of contents and introduction along with additional information.