Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Here is a small set of stamps, arrived today from Slovenia, which completes a section of my 'Wartime Europe' collection. It wasn't especially expensive, but is not the sort of material you often see in dealers' stocks in the UK.
When Italy pulled out of the war in September 1943, the areas they controlled in the Balkans had to be rapidly re-occupied by the Germans. The German High Command were obviously not best pleased about this, and would have been aware of the threat of communist partisans rushing to fill the power vacuum. They would have acted swiftly. In the case of Slovenia (the north-westerly part of Yugoslavia) the northern part was already under German control - I have not been able to find out what stamps they used in that part of the area. Italy, however, overprinted Yugoslavian stamps in 1941 and used their own thereafter.
The withdrawal of Italy prompted the Germans to produce stamps for what was now the entire area of Slovenia, using Italian stamps firmly overprinted with the double-eagle heraldic arms of Hapsburg Carniola. My new set is the airmail one, so you do not see the full effect of the image of King Victor Emmanuel obliterated by the double-eagle which appears on other stamps in the series.
Germany issued a total of 69 basic stamps for their Slovenian occupation, between January 1944 and an unspecified date in 1945. These seven complete the series.
As always with stamps issued by Germany in the last months of the war, you wonder under what circumstances they were ordered, approved, distributed and used. There is always the suspicion (which I have voiced before) that some sets were tucked away by prudent high-ranking Nazi officials for whom a briefcase-full of overprinted sheets may have proved useful when the necessity for rapid disappearance grew urgent in April-May 1945.
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Very interesting bit of history. The double-eagle struck over Pegasus makes for a striking juxtaposition of symbols.
Eric
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FANTASTIC Chris... so a couple of weeks ago Eric grabbed up the Western Cattle in Storm and now Anglophile snatches up The Zepps. I'm getting the itch to pick up a U.S. Classic.
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Not yet...
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Nice Zeps!
I wanna know what genius soaked them off the covers! Maybe because the covers didn't fit into the little squares in his album.
I have the 65 cent value on cover, still pining for the udder two!
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Hey, is this what you guys call a Black Jack?
When I first started about a year ago I wondered if anyone would buy old stamps that had some kind of "damage". Since there were some clipped perfs TR. I put this in Auction with half a dozen others in a bunch for 25c calling it "The Hoard's Letters From the Island of Broken Toys".
No offers, so I threw them all away. Still had this picture floating around though, so thought I'd post it to find out. Obviously it's not that big a deal.
Well, I've got to get some Oldies into my final U.S. Divestiture Auction. Hopefully I can put up something this time that is worthwhile.
Cheers, Dave.
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Dave,
As you have probably picked up on, by now, some people would more that likely give their first-born for a nice looking stamp like that, regardless of the clipped perfs. That would serve as a good filler until something better happened to come along.
Mike
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Hey Mike. Good thing I tossed it then, eh? I'm not interested in getting anyone else's kids - even their first born...
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Especially my first-born, she's 50+. 
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Hey Mike, good call. I already have one of those...
Dave.
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"Hey, is this what you guys call a Black Jack?"
Yes
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OH NO, I was wrong again. I thought you were talking about a game at the casino, one that I am no good at. Lost $20 in 10 minutes and said "that's enough for me" and walked away.
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Hey, guess what I just found in a glassine with some odds and sods?
Dave
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"H NO, I was wrong again. I thought you were talking about a game at the casino, one that I am no good at. Lost $20 in 10 minutes and said "that's enough for me" and walked away. Rolling On The Floor Laughing"
I have spent my entire adult life within driving distance of Atlantic City and have had no desire to part with any of my hard earned money on any games of chance!
When I want to gamble I buy a mixed lot of stamps stuff on eBay! Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose.
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Outstanding cover! High quality. AND it's got your name on it..does it get any better?
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as Ernie said! Wow, just think of the journey that cover traveled back then!
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I've been adding some stamps since I got out of the hospital and nursing home. I finally just got my scanner up and running again so I thought I'd show some of the stamps I've recently got. The first is a mint US #36. The second Chile #4, a couple high values from Australia and New Zealand, 2 of the 4 stamps I needed for Lombardy Venetia, a top of set St Vincent and a New South Wales Semi Postal. Also today I received Latvia collection that had 5 of the 6 stamps I needed to complete the regular issues.
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A booklet from Angola featuring the Russian-designed Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle which, along with its variants, is the most common assault rifle in the world. I read in The Gun, a history of the AK-47 by New York Times reporter C.J. Chivers, that there are enough AK-47s in the world to supply one in every 70 people. There's even a factory in the U.S. that makes them, not to mention virtually every other significantly militarized country in the world!
It's possible that I was wounded by an AK-47 in Vietnam in 1966, although my wound — a "through-and-through" wound to my right thigh which shattered my femur — is probably more typical of one from the American M14 battle rifle. A communist soldier who was nearby when I was shot was armed with an M14.
The Angolan stamps commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Angolan War of Independence (1961–1974). Stamps picturing the AK-47 don't seem to be all that common. I have a few from North Vietnam, Cuba, and Russia.
The Angolan booklet was a gift from Stamporama member David Giles. David, a former member of the Canadian Forces who knows a lot about military rifles, has been very supportive of my current writing project, titled What’s it like to be shot? For me, it was like this…. David challenged me to identify the other rifles shown on the stamps, but I don't have a clue. Anyway, thank you, David!
Bob
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Recently I received a surprise in the mail, a large package from Stamporama member Mel Bohannon. I wasn't expecting it. It contained a book, History of Flight First Day Covers, self-described as "A collection of twelve first day covers from countries around the world issued in a limited edition of 5,000 sets to honour the 75th Anniversary of the Wright Brothers' historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903. It was published in 1978 by the Postal Commemorative Society.
I'd like to thank Mel for his generosity. He spent far more on postage than the book, including the covers, is probably worth. Such covers are postal contrivances created to separate us collectors from their money. More than one person has been deeply disappointed when they learn that such publications, and such covers, will hardly pay for a designer coffee, much less a round-the-world trip or the down payment on a condo in Vancouver. That doesn't mean, however, that Mel's gift is worthless as a collectible, or that the covers aren't desirable. Before continuing, here's an image of a couple of the pages:
Each of the 12 covers has a similar write-up about the history of the aircraft shown on the stamp and/or the biographies of the pilots involved in the flights. I will find this information useful as I continue to choose aviation as one of several of my writing interests. The covers are all franked with legitimate postal issues, and each has an attractive bi-color cachet, outlined in gold, with a pen-and-ink drawing of the aircraft being celebrated. I'm especially pleased to add both the Ireland and Australia covers to my collection, which already includes the stamps in both mint and used copies.
And now...
The cachets may be outlined in gold, but all is not "gold" with the covers: Two of the 12 are badly stained, I'm guessing from adhesive used to affix the stamps to the covers. Here's one of the two stamps:
The stain has bled into the opposite pages, as well. I've never seen a used German stamp with such damage, except for, curiously, the 1936 Hindenburg issue, Scott C57-58, which had small amounts of sulphuric acid in their gum. Scott notes that most collectors remove the gum from mint copies of those two stamps; covers franked with those stamps usually are stained much like the stamp shown above. So, where did the stain from the Postal Commemorative Society come from? Did the Society buy un-gummed stamps for their project, and then stick them on with with acidic adhesive? Over time, will the other covers in the book suffer a similar fate? Whatever the cause, I think that whoever prepared the book paid insufficient attention to the archival character of the publication. I personally would never buy any such publication. The companies that produce them have no serious interest in philately. They do have a serious interest in getting our money. But I'm glad that this particular book came my way. Thank you, Mel!
Bob
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Just received today (thank you Canada and US postal services for not losing it) - the iconic first stamp of New South Wales (1850). I was inspired to make this purchase by recent articles in Linn's Stamp News called Sydney Views: the world's first pictorial postage stamps.
The stamp depicts a scene that is an early version of the Seal of New South Wales. The scene, oddly enough, traces back to Josiah Wedgwood, the great pottery maker of Staffordshire. From Linn's: "It represents a figure of Hope, addressing three emblematic figures -- Peace, Art and Labour -- on the shore of Sydney Cove with a ship, a few houses and a church in the background. Underneath is the name of "Etruria," the well-known name of Wedgwood's Pottery..." Indeed, below the picture is the Latin, Sic Fortis Etruria Crevit (Thus Mighty Etruria Grew) -- an identification of New South Wales with Etruria (Etruscan) civilization.
The Linn's article points out however (an article derived from Notes on the First Issue of New South Wales by M.P. Castle) that the allegories on the stamp are probably different. The main figure on the left would be Industry holding a staff or whip, not Hope, and the three figures to her right would be immigrants or more likely prisoners arriving to be directed by Industry to get to work. The suffering of these prisoners would be far worse than any crime they committed in most cases as Robert Hughes points out in The Fatal Shore. Industry sits on a bail of merchandise with the date 1788 on it, the date the first prisoners from England arrived in Botany Bay.
Around the circular scene are the words "Sigilium Nov. Camb. Aust." or Seal of New Cambria (Wales) Australia.
Oh Brave new World.
Cheers!
Eric
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Well done Sir Eric. And to my untrained eye looks like a nice copy.
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Here are a few new items for my collection.
Here is a postal card with a Wesson Time on Bottom (TOB) and six bar vertical ellipse.
This can either go in my Patent Cancel or Mourning Cover collection. It's a nice strike of a patent cancel. The circle in the center of the cancel cuts into the stamp to prevent reuse.
A negative "M" cancel from Portland, ME.
A tird class marking from Pen Yan, NY on a Scott W120 Wrapper.
Here is another patent cancel on a Scott Hawaii 34. The cancel cuts the stamp right below his ear and eye.
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The minor worry that these sets had become stranded in Beirut disappeared this morning with the welcome arrival of these:
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Winedrinker, Great addition for you and a very interesting write-up. Are you saying that this is the first pictoral stamp ever issued or just one of them. I like to keep track of firsts in philately and would like to know. Since there are very few stamps issued before 1850 it seems quite likely and I cannot think of any others preceding it.
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I only bid on 3 lots this weekend and ended up winning one. It is a very nice copy of the 1878 5 Shilling from New Zealand. It is one of the KEY stamps from NZ and one I did not know if I would ever get. It leaves me with only one blank spot on my second page. That stamp is 1/3 the value and hopefully much easier to obtain. Lately one of my main areas of concentration has been New Zealand. Except for the Chalons and a few early variants the collection is getting nearly complete up thru the 1990's.
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10 cent Trans Mississippi Exposition, Scott 290 mint with nice centering and one hinge mark on the back. I got this one from Anthony's on eBay and got lucky with the numbers! I've lusted after this one for a long time!
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BenFranklin, nice stamp! Here is mine with bulls-eye cancellation.
One of the most poignant stamps. Family looking on as Pa puts down their horse. An image that truly lives up to the title "Hardships of Emigration"
Beautiful stamp, you did good.
Eric
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" Family looking on as Pa puts down their horse. An image that truly lives up to the title "Hardships of Emigration""
and the trip just got twice as hard!
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I would have thought that he was removing the harness as you would usually shoot to kill through front of the head in line with the neck causing instant death, wheras a shot to the chest is not going to be a quick death. He also has the children looking on which would probably have been unlikely if he was slaughtering the animal.
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Well this is a fine kettle of fish. On closer examination, what first appeared to be a mercy killing, could well be a harness being removed, as Sheepshanks and Anglophile posit. It looks like two hands on the strap, rather than a gun in hand. Not definitive, but my vote would be for the harness version.
I hope the horse was watered and made a full recovery. Quite a paradigm shift, I'm pouring a gin and no tonic.
Cheers,
Eric
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Michael - that 5 Shilling Kiwi is simply magnificent. I need one to...
One of my recent acquisitions:
It was the postmark that attracted me - Paquebot Ligne J, Buenos Aires - Bordeaux.
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Blaamand, nice catch..great cancel !
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Thanks philb! I'm quite pleased with it myself 
The block represents 3 elements of which I am very interested in - and I have also established separate collections for all of these:
1) France
2) Blocks-of-4
3) Paquebot / Maritime post.
So then remains a difficult decision to make - which collection should get the benefit of this item? I would really like it in all 3...
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07:22:26pm
I just acquired 2 sets of the 3 volume 1943 Scott Junior International. I've only had a quick look at it but there are some interesting things in there. I'm not a USA collector so seeing some of the 1850 and 1860 stamps is cool. Some nice revenues in there.
I've never actually had any real albums before so this will be a neat project aside from my regular specialised collections to create a worldwide collection but keep it limited. It'll be fun and something to work on for years to come in the future. I'll put up a few pics next weekend.
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"So then remains a difficult decision to make - which collection should get the benefit of this item?"
Definitely paquebot/maritime in my view.
And to coincide with your Ligne J, here's a lovely card with a Messageries Imperiales Ligne N (Marseilles - Hong Kong - Shanghai - Yokohama) 1908 postmark:
Now that's my idea of a cruise 'ship'. I wonder if any of these still exist.
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"I just acquired 2 sets of the 3 volume 1943 Scott Junior International."
Kelly, is the one on the left like your's? I found these on eBay, where the one on the right is the International Postage Stamp Album Part II (formerly the International Junior Album) 1947.
Wow, these are listed at $120.
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09:21:04pm
This is the 1943 edition - sorry the picture may not be too clear.
I have all 3 volumes and 2 sets of them. The dealer I do business with said he's never seen a 1943 set and 2 arrived in his accumulation recently so I got both. They are both in excellent condition. The one has brown paper cover by the original owner with each volume numbered. They were obviously loved by their owner(s). He didn't know if they were owned by the same person or not. I don't think so the way the stamps are arranged that are in them. Lots of spots for me to fill. They both have some early 1850 and up USA and other countries with a few stamps or part of the page filled. I've never even heard of some of these places before.
It's going to become my worldwide collection that I've always wanted to have and it gives me a cut off time. I wasn't able to look at all the pages but I saw some USA seals from 1948 and a Czechoslovakia early '50s stamp. So I'm guessing the collector(s) stopped collecting in the early '50s.
Mine definitely did not cost that much per album!
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09:23:38pm
I'll try to take some better pictures on the weekend - I'm under strict orders not to use my eyes much this week because I need them for a 3 hour interview on Thursday so I'm anxious to actually get to see the albums a bit more detailed!
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Poodle_Mum, what fun indeed, like rummaging through treasure chests. Enjoy.
Eric
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11:49:53pm
Oh Eric - I do plan to enjoy it. Many empty spots and my tv magnifier will work with the album so this will be my lifetime world collection. I'm very excited!
I asked the dealer to look for me to see if there was any staining/foxing and he took a look and said they are all good. So I'm in heaven!
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01:39:17am
Here are the a few stamps from the first pages of the the 2 sets of albums - I hope the pictures are clear for you.
My apologies if these are too large or too small. It is the embossed envelope stamps that I have remarkable ability to capture the picture by touch.
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08:32:10pm
These pictures above are in the first few pages of the two sets of albums. I know nothing about US stamps and I have a 2009 catalogue. It's the first time I've ever looked in the US section and oy! How does one figure out which any of these stamps are??
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Very nice. Your album uses Scott numbers, so hopefully you have a Scott Catalogue, that would make things straightforward. If not you could correlate the dates of issue (indicated on the album page) with the dates in your non-Scott catalogue. I see you have some Columbians which is always nice.
Anyway, thanks for sharing those pages!
Eric
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11:40:44pm
Thanks Eric,
I hadn't even noticed that. Yes my catalogue is Scott 2009.
I'm used to Germany, USSR and Canada - THOSE I can find while using 4 different catalogues. Then I looked at these pages in the US section and just sat back shaking my head with a very loud OY! LOL
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Had a bit of luck today, paid CA$60 for 7 stockbooks with worldwide, but mainly Europe stamps and an hingeless Leuchtturm Fed. Rep. Germany 1959-1981 album, almost complete used, except for a number of the surcharge charity stamps and a couple of souvenir sheets.
Also in one of the stockbooks are a number of used FDR stamps that seem to be cut from postcards but used so maybe from exhibitions or such like. Will scan a few in later for comment.
Does not look like anything of value but a good assortment including a few covers one of which has French zone stamps dated 1948 and also a card from Postwertzeichenschau 17/18 Jan 1948 in Wolfsburg, Veranstalter, Philatelisten-club.
So a few hours of sorting fun ahead and the stockbooks alone are my money back.
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Okey dokey, have scanned a few images from yesterdays' purchase. If anyone can add any detail or translate for me it would be appreciated.
On the last image I have shown the back of a card, looks like it was cut from a postcard, perhaps they were from some philatelic club or similar.
Thoughts anyone?
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Love the VW cachet!
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That cutout, which was cancelled in Werl, Westfalia, seems to commemorate the International 'Big Flying day' (Internationale Groß-Flugtag). The only reference to such an airshow is from the programme for the 1952 show: 1952 Weltflughaven Rhein-Main programme
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There seems to have been a tradition in Germany of holding "big flying days".
The German Wikipedia article for the Kassel Waldau airfield refers to one in 1927:
"Im Frühjahr 1927 entwickelte RaKa den Segelflugschlepp auf dem Flugplatz Kassel-Waldau, der dann anlässlich des „Großflugtags“ am 18. April 1927 in Kassel-Waldau von Fieseler und Katzenstein erstmals vor Publikum vorgeführt wurde."
I see quite a few other references to events with this name over the years since.
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Arrived yesterday from Roma, Italy. A long journey as I live in Florida. Carl Lang initials on the back and it appears to be as advertised -- Fine to Very Fine. Was looking for an example closer to home, but this caught my eye, and the price seemed reasonable. Double red cancellation but quite faint.
Purchased the 5 Cent (#1) about 3 months ago, so, glad to have 1847 taken care of. Hoorah!
Paid $540.00 which is by far the most I have paid for a stamp. And will be for quite some time. I am going after $5 dollar stamps for a while until my money bin fills up again.
Cheers!
Eric
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Beautiful stamp!!!! I'm Jealous. Way to go Eric. You've thrown up a couple of super nice stamps lately. I bet your album is starting to look RIGHTEOUS! What's the black dot in the top margin???
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Thank you Ernie. The black dot appears to be the same black ink as the stamp. But no idea at what part in the printing process it got there.
Have been working pretty steady on USA and Australia and Great Britain for about a year -- I collect only up to 1965.
I do regret not collecting for the last 30 years or so, as I think of all the lovelies I could have had in my collection. All that money wasted on golf and failed marriages.
Fortunately my wife Penny and I are compatible, and she's not good at math so she has no idea about how much I have been spending. I have a sneaking suspicion she is doing something similar as she gets a lot of packages in the mail.
Cheers!
Eric
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That is one incredible stamp! Thanks for bringing it back home to the USA. I thought the dot may have been a pin hole. It was customary for early dealers to pin stamps for sale to boards. I see some of those for sale on eBay. I too have a US 1 but not a US 2. I will ignore 3&4 since they aren't really stamps!
Per wives, mine never balks at what I spend on hobbies. She does mock, "Another present came in the mail to you today". And of course, I never spend in excess. A few years ago she asked me how to sell on CraigsList. I was puzzled as to what she would have to sell and surprised when she brought out a dozen high end ladies pocket books. I had no idea she had these, nor the money that had been spent.... but I knew I couldn't say a thing about it!
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Here are some recent cancels I picked up.
The top right stamp is a Scott #179 with a St.Louis patent cancel. Here is an enlargement that shows the "patent" marks. Those little black dots on Taylor's face are where the pins punched through the stamp in order to let the ink absorb into the paper and prevent cleaning of the cancel.
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A few covers/entires that have arrived this week. Hopefully they are genuine, stamps do look tied to cover.
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"And to coincide with your Ligne J, here's a lovely card with a Messageries Imperiales Ligne N (Marseilles - Hong Kong - Shanghai - Yokohama) 1908 postmark:"
Ningpo - that's a lovely card - nice piece of maritime postal history
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Most recent acquisition for my Elmira collection - unusual (possibly unique) early (1840's probably, based on postmark) "advertised" cover that was then forwarded to Waterburgh.
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Rather than post the 50th of no.8 I've started a new thread, with apologies to anyone still responding to the previous one.
Here is a small set of stamps, arrived today from Slovenia, which completes a section of my 'Wartime Europe' collection. It wasn't especially expensive, but is not the sort of material you often see in dealers' stocks in the UK.
When Italy pulled out of the war in September 1943, the areas they controlled in the Balkans had to be rapidly re-occupied by the Germans. The German High Command were obviously not best pleased about this, and would have been aware of the threat of communist partisans rushing to fill the power vacuum. They would have acted swiftly. In the case of Slovenia (the north-westerly part of Yugoslavia) the northern part was already under German control - I have not been able to find out what stamps they used in that part of the area. Italy, however, overprinted Yugoslavian stamps in 1941 and used their own thereafter.
The withdrawal of Italy prompted the Germans to produce stamps for what was now the entire area of Slovenia, using Italian stamps firmly overprinted with the double-eagle heraldic arms of Hapsburg Carniola. My new set is the airmail one, so you do not see the full effect of the image of King Victor Emmanuel obliterated by the double-eagle which appears on other stamps in the series.
Germany issued a total of 69 basic stamps for their Slovenian occupation, between January 1944 and an unspecified date in 1945. These seven complete the series.
As always with stamps issued by Germany in the last months of the war, you wonder under what circumstances they were ordered, approved, distributed and used. There is always the suspicion (which I have voiced before) that some sets were tucked away by prudent high-ranking Nazi officials for whom a briefcase-full of overprinted sheets may have proved useful when the necessity for rapid disappearance grew urgent in April-May 1945.
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
Very interesting bit of history. The double-eagle struck over Pegasus makes for a striking juxtaposition of symbols.
Eric
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04:37:00pm
re: Recent acquisitions 9
FANTASTIC Chris... so a couple of weeks ago Eric grabbed up the Western Cattle in Storm and now Anglophile snatches up The Zepps. I'm getting the itch to pick up a U.S. Classic.
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
Nice Zeps!
I wanna know what genius soaked them off the covers! Maybe because the covers didn't fit into the little squares in his album.
I have the 65 cent value on cover, still pining for the udder two!
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
Hey, is this what you guys call a Black Jack?
When I first started about a year ago I wondered if anyone would buy old stamps that had some kind of "damage". Since there were some clipped perfs TR. I put this in Auction with half a dozen others in a bunch for 25c calling it "The Hoard's Letters From the Island of Broken Toys".
No offers, so I threw them all away. Still had this picture floating around though, so thought I'd post it to find out. Obviously it's not that big a deal.
Well, I've got to get some Oldies into my final U.S. Divestiture Auction. Hopefully I can put up something this time that is worthwhile.
Cheers, Dave.
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
Dave,
As you have probably picked up on, by now, some people would more that likely give their first-born for a nice looking stamp like that, regardless of the clipped perfs. That would serve as a good filler until something better happened to come along.
Mike
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
Hey Mike. Good thing I tossed it then, eh? I'm not interested in getting anyone else's kids - even their first born...
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
Especially my first-born, she's 50+.
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
Hey Mike, good call. I already have one of those...
Dave.
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
"Hey, is this what you guys call a Black Jack?"
Yes
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
OH NO, I was wrong again. I thought you were talking about a game at the casino, one that I am no good at. Lost $20 in 10 minutes and said "that's enough for me" and walked away.
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
Hey, guess what I just found in a glassine with some odds and sods?
Dave
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
"H NO, I was wrong again. I thought you were talking about a game at the casino, one that I am no good at. Lost $20 in 10 minutes and said "that's enough for me" and walked away. Rolling On The Floor Laughing"
I have spent my entire adult life within driving distance of Atlantic City and have had no desire to part with any of my hard earned money on any games of chance!
When I want to gamble I buy a mixed lot of stamps stuff on eBay! Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose.
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07:45:13pm
re: Recent acquisitions 9
Outstanding cover! High quality. AND it's got your name on it..does it get any better?
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
as Ernie said! Wow, just think of the journey that cover traveled back then!
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
I've been adding some stamps since I got out of the hospital and nursing home. I finally just got my scanner up and running again so I thought I'd show some of the stamps I've recently got. The first is a mint US #36. The second Chile #4, a couple high values from Australia and New Zealand, 2 of the 4 stamps I needed for Lombardy Venetia, a top of set St Vincent and a New South Wales Semi Postal. Also today I received Latvia collection that had 5 of the 6 stamps I needed to complete the regular issues.
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re: Recent acquisitions 9
A booklet from Angola featuring the Russian-designed Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle which, along with its variants, is the most common assault rifle in the world. I read in The Gun, a history of the AK-47 by New York Times reporter C.J. Chivers, that there are enough AK-47s in the world to supply one in every 70 people. There's even a factory in the U.S. that makes them, not to mention virtually every other significantly militarized country in the world!
It's possible that I was wounded by an AK-47 in Vietnam in 1966, although my wound — a "through-and-through" wound to my right thigh which shattered my femur — is probably more typical of one from the American M14 battle rifle. A communist soldier who was nearby when I was shot was armed with an M14.
The Angolan stamps commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Angolan War of Independence (1961–1974). Stamps picturing the AK-47 don't seem to be all that common. I have a few from North Vietnam, Cuba, and Russia.
The Angolan booklet was a gift from Stamporama member David Giles. David, a former member of the Canadian Forces who knows a lot about military rifles, has been very supportive of my current writing project, titled What’s it like to be shot? For me, it was like this…. David challenged me to identify the other rifles shown on the stamps, but I don't have a clue. Anyway, thank you, David!
Bob
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Recently I received a surprise in the mail, a large package from Stamporama member Mel Bohannon. I wasn't expecting it. It contained a book, History of Flight First Day Covers, self-described as "A collection of twelve first day covers from countries around the world issued in a limited edition of 5,000 sets to honour the 75th Anniversary of the Wright Brothers' historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903. It was published in 1978 by the Postal Commemorative Society.
I'd like to thank Mel for his generosity. He spent far more on postage than the book, including the covers, is probably worth. Such covers are postal contrivances created to separate us collectors from their money. More than one person has been deeply disappointed when they learn that such publications, and such covers, will hardly pay for a designer coffee, much less a round-the-world trip or the down payment on a condo in Vancouver. That doesn't mean, however, that Mel's gift is worthless as a collectible, or that the covers aren't desirable. Before continuing, here's an image of a couple of the pages:
Each of the 12 covers has a similar write-up about the history of the aircraft shown on the stamp and/or the biographies of the pilots involved in the flights. I will find this information useful as I continue to choose aviation as one of several of my writing interests. The covers are all franked with legitimate postal issues, and each has an attractive bi-color cachet, outlined in gold, with a pen-and-ink drawing of the aircraft being celebrated. I'm especially pleased to add both the Ireland and Australia covers to my collection, which already includes the stamps in both mint and used copies.
And now...
The cachets may be outlined in gold, but all is not "gold" with the covers: Two of the 12 are badly stained, I'm guessing from adhesive used to affix the stamps to the covers. Here's one of the two stamps:
The stain has bled into the opposite pages, as well. I've never seen a used German stamp with such damage, except for, curiously, the 1936 Hindenburg issue, Scott C57-58, which had small amounts of sulphuric acid in their gum. Scott notes that most collectors remove the gum from mint copies of those two stamps; covers franked with those stamps usually are stained much like the stamp shown above. So, where did the stain from the Postal Commemorative Society come from? Did the Society buy un-gummed stamps for their project, and then stick them on with with acidic adhesive? Over time, will the other covers in the book suffer a similar fate? Whatever the cause, I think that whoever prepared the book paid insufficient attention to the archival character of the publication. I personally would never buy any such publication. The companies that produce them have no serious interest in philately. They do have a serious interest in getting our money. But I'm glad that this particular book came my way. Thank you, Mel!
Bob
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Just received today (thank you Canada and US postal services for not losing it) - the iconic first stamp of New South Wales (1850). I was inspired to make this purchase by recent articles in Linn's Stamp News called Sydney Views: the world's first pictorial postage stamps.
The stamp depicts a scene that is an early version of the Seal of New South Wales. The scene, oddly enough, traces back to Josiah Wedgwood, the great pottery maker of Staffordshire. From Linn's: "It represents a figure of Hope, addressing three emblematic figures -- Peace, Art and Labour -- on the shore of Sydney Cove with a ship, a few houses and a church in the background. Underneath is the name of "Etruria," the well-known name of Wedgwood's Pottery..." Indeed, below the picture is the Latin, Sic Fortis Etruria Crevit (Thus Mighty Etruria Grew) -- an identification of New South Wales with Etruria (Etruscan) civilization.
The Linn's article points out however (an article derived from Notes on the First Issue of New South Wales by M.P. Castle) that the allegories on the stamp are probably different. The main figure on the left would be Industry holding a staff or whip, not Hope, and the three figures to her right would be immigrants or more likely prisoners arriving to be directed by Industry to get to work. The suffering of these prisoners would be far worse than any crime they committed in most cases as Robert Hughes points out in The Fatal Shore. Industry sits on a bail of merchandise with the date 1788 on it, the date the first prisoners from England arrived in Botany Bay.
Around the circular scene are the words "Sigilium Nov. Camb. Aust." or Seal of New Cambria (Wales) Australia.
Oh Brave new World.
Cheers!
Eric
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Well done Sir Eric. And to my untrained eye looks like a nice copy.
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Here are a few new items for my collection.
Here is a postal card with a Wesson Time on Bottom (TOB) and six bar vertical ellipse.
This can either go in my Patent Cancel or Mourning Cover collection. It's a nice strike of a patent cancel. The circle in the center of the cancel cuts into the stamp to prevent reuse.
A negative "M" cancel from Portland, ME.
A tird class marking from Pen Yan, NY on a Scott W120 Wrapper.
Here is another patent cancel on a Scott Hawaii 34. The cancel cuts the stamp right below his ear and eye.
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The minor worry that these sets had become stranded in Beirut disappeared this morning with the welcome arrival of these:
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Winedrinker, Great addition for you and a very interesting write-up. Are you saying that this is the first pictoral stamp ever issued or just one of them. I like to keep track of firsts in philately and would like to know. Since there are very few stamps issued before 1850 it seems quite likely and I cannot think of any others preceding it.
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I only bid on 3 lots this weekend and ended up winning one. It is a very nice copy of the 1878 5 Shilling from New Zealand. It is one of the KEY stamps from NZ and one I did not know if I would ever get. It leaves me with only one blank spot on my second page. That stamp is 1/3 the value and hopefully much easier to obtain. Lately one of my main areas of concentration has been New Zealand. Except for the Chalons and a few early variants the collection is getting nearly complete up thru the 1990's.
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10 cent Trans Mississippi Exposition, Scott 290 mint with nice centering and one hinge mark on the back. I got this one from Anthony's on eBay and got lucky with the numbers! I've lusted after this one for a long time!
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BenFranklin, nice stamp! Here is mine with bulls-eye cancellation.
One of the most poignant stamps. Family looking on as Pa puts down their horse. An image that truly lives up to the title "Hardships of Emigration"
Beautiful stamp, you did good.
Eric
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" Family looking on as Pa puts down their horse. An image that truly lives up to the title "Hardships of Emigration""
and the trip just got twice as hard!
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I would have thought that he was removing the harness as you would usually shoot to kill through front of the head in line with the neck causing instant death, wheras a shot to the chest is not going to be a quick death. He also has the children looking on which would probably have been unlikely if he was slaughtering the animal.
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Well this is a fine kettle of fish. On closer examination, what first appeared to be a mercy killing, could well be a harness being removed, as Sheepshanks and Anglophile posit. It looks like two hands on the strap, rather than a gun in hand. Not definitive, but my vote would be for the harness version.
I hope the horse was watered and made a full recovery. Quite a paradigm shift, I'm pouring a gin and no tonic.
Cheers,
Eric
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Michael - that 5 Shilling Kiwi is simply magnificent. I need one to...
One of my recent acquisitions:
It was the postmark that attracted me - Paquebot Ligne J, Buenos Aires - Bordeaux.
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Blaamand, nice catch..great cancel !
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Thanks philb! I'm quite pleased with it myself The block represents 3 elements of which I am very interested in - and I have also established separate collections for all of these:
1) France
2) Blocks-of-4
3) Paquebot / Maritime post.
So then remains a difficult decision to make - which collection should get the benefit of this item? I would really like it in all 3...
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31 Oct 2016
07:22:26pm
re: Recent acquisitions 9
I just acquired 2 sets of the 3 volume 1943 Scott Junior International. I've only had a quick look at it but there are some interesting things in there. I'm not a USA collector so seeing some of the 1850 and 1860 stamps is cool. Some nice revenues in there.
I've never actually had any real albums before so this will be a neat project aside from my regular specialised collections to create a worldwide collection but keep it limited. It'll be fun and something to work on for years to come in the future. I'll put up a few pics next weekend.
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"So then remains a difficult decision to make - which collection should get the benefit of this item?"
Definitely paquebot/maritime in my view.
And to coincide with your Ligne J, here's a lovely card with a Messageries Imperiales Ligne N (Marseilles - Hong Kong - Shanghai - Yokohama) 1908 postmark:
Now that's my idea of a cruise 'ship'. I wonder if any of these still exist.
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"I just acquired 2 sets of the 3 volume 1943 Scott Junior International."
Kelly, is the one on the left like your's? I found these on eBay, where the one on the right is the International Postage Stamp Album Part II (formerly the International Junior Album) 1947.
Wow, these are listed at $120.
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31 Oct 2016
09:21:04pm
re: Recent acquisitions 9
This is the 1943 edition - sorry the picture may not be too clear.
I have all 3 volumes and 2 sets of them. The dealer I do business with said he's never seen a 1943 set and 2 arrived in his accumulation recently so I got both. They are both in excellent condition. The one has brown paper cover by the original owner with each volume numbered. They were obviously loved by their owner(s). He didn't know if they were owned by the same person or not. I don't think so the way the stamps are arranged that are in them. Lots of spots for me to fill. They both have some early 1850 and up USA and other countries with a few stamps or part of the page filled. I've never even heard of some of these places before.
It's going to become my worldwide collection that I've always wanted to have and it gives me a cut off time. I wasn't able to look at all the pages but I saw some USA seals from 1948 and a Czechoslovakia early '50s stamp. So I'm guessing the collector(s) stopped collecting in the early '50s.
Mine definitely did not cost that much per album!
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31 Oct 2016
09:23:38pm
re: Recent acquisitions 9
I'll try to take some better pictures on the weekend - I'm under strict orders not to use my eyes much this week because I need them for a 3 hour interview on Thursday so I'm anxious to actually get to see the albums a bit more detailed!
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Poodle_Mum, what fun indeed, like rummaging through treasure chests. Enjoy.
Eric
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01 Nov 2016
11:49:53pm
re: Recent acquisitions 9
Oh Eric - I do plan to enjoy it. Many empty spots and my tv magnifier will work with the album so this will be my lifetime world collection. I'm very excited!
I asked the dealer to look for me to see if there was any staining/foxing and he took a look and said they are all good. So I'm in heaven!
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05 Nov 2016
01:39:17am
re: Recent acquisitions 9
Here are the a few stamps from the first pages of the the 2 sets of albums - I hope the pictures are clear for you.
My apologies if these are too large or too small. It is the embossed envelope stamps that I have remarkable ability to capture the picture by touch.
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05 Nov 2016
08:32:10pm
re: Recent acquisitions 9
These pictures above are in the first few pages of the two sets of albums. I know nothing about US stamps and I have a 2009 catalogue. It's the first time I've ever looked in the US section and oy! How does one figure out which any of these stamps are??
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Very nice. Your album uses Scott numbers, so hopefully you have a Scott Catalogue, that would make things straightforward. If not you could correlate the dates of issue (indicated on the album page) with the dates in your non-Scott catalogue. I see you have some Columbians which is always nice.
Anyway, thanks for sharing those pages!
Eric
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05 Nov 2016
11:40:44pm
re: Recent acquisitions 9
Thanks Eric,
I hadn't even noticed that. Yes my catalogue is Scott 2009.
I'm used to Germany, USSR and Canada - THOSE I can find while using 4 different catalogues. Then I looked at these pages in the US section and just sat back shaking my head with a very loud OY! LOL
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Had a bit of luck today, paid CA$60 for 7 stockbooks with worldwide, but mainly Europe stamps and an hingeless Leuchtturm Fed. Rep. Germany 1959-1981 album, almost complete used, except for a number of the surcharge charity stamps and a couple of souvenir sheets.
Also in one of the stockbooks are a number of used FDR stamps that seem to be cut from postcards but used so maybe from exhibitions or such like. Will scan a few in later for comment.
Does not look like anything of value but a good assortment including a few covers one of which has French zone stamps dated 1948 and also a card from Postwertzeichenschau 17/18 Jan 1948 in Wolfsburg, Veranstalter, Philatelisten-club.
So a few hours of sorting fun ahead and the stockbooks alone are my money back.
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Okey dokey, have scanned a few images from yesterdays' purchase. If anyone can add any detail or translate for me it would be appreciated.
On the last image I have shown the back of a card, looks like it was cut from a postcard, perhaps they were from some philatelic club or similar.
Thoughts anyone?
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Love the VW cachet!
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That cutout, which was cancelled in Werl, Westfalia, seems to commemorate the International 'Big Flying day' (Internationale Groß-Flugtag). The only reference to such an airshow is from the programme for the 1952 show: 1952 Weltflughaven Rhein-Main programme
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There seems to have been a tradition in Germany of holding "big flying days".
The German Wikipedia article for the Kassel Waldau airfield refers to one in 1927:
"Im Frühjahr 1927 entwickelte RaKa den Segelflugschlepp auf dem Flugplatz Kassel-Waldau, der dann anlässlich des „Großflugtags“ am 18. April 1927 in Kassel-Waldau von Fieseler und Katzenstein erstmals vor Publikum vorgeführt wurde."
I see quite a few other references to events with this name over the years since.
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Arrived yesterday from Roma, Italy. A long journey as I live in Florida. Carl Lang initials on the back and it appears to be as advertised -- Fine to Very Fine. Was looking for an example closer to home, but this caught my eye, and the price seemed reasonable. Double red cancellation but quite faint.
Purchased the 5 Cent (#1) about 3 months ago, so, glad to have 1847 taken care of. Hoorah!
Paid $540.00 which is by far the most I have paid for a stamp. And will be for quite some time. I am going after $5 dollar stamps for a while until my money bin fills up again.
Cheers!
Eric
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01:54:38pm
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Beautiful stamp!!!! I'm Jealous. Way to go Eric. You've thrown up a couple of super nice stamps lately. I bet your album is starting to look RIGHTEOUS! What's the black dot in the top margin???
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Thank you Ernie. The black dot appears to be the same black ink as the stamp. But no idea at what part in the printing process it got there.
Have been working pretty steady on USA and Australia and Great Britain for about a year -- I collect only up to 1965.
I do regret not collecting for the last 30 years or so, as I think of all the lovelies I could have had in my collection. All that money wasted on golf and failed marriages.
Fortunately my wife Penny and I are compatible, and she's not good at math so she has no idea about how much I have been spending. I have a sneaking suspicion she is doing something similar as she gets a lot of packages in the mail.
Cheers!
Eric
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That is one incredible stamp! Thanks for bringing it back home to the USA. I thought the dot may have been a pin hole. It was customary for early dealers to pin stamps for sale to boards. I see some of those for sale on eBay. I too have a US 1 but not a US 2. I will ignore 3&4 since they aren't really stamps!
Per wives, mine never balks at what I spend on hobbies. She does mock, "Another present came in the mail to you today". And of course, I never spend in excess. A few years ago she asked me how to sell on CraigsList. I was puzzled as to what she would have to sell and surprised when she brought out a dozen high end ladies pocket books. I had no idea she had these, nor the money that had been spent.... but I knew I couldn't say a thing about it!
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Here are some recent cancels I picked up.
The top right stamp is a Scott #179 with a St.Louis patent cancel. Here is an enlargement that shows the "patent" marks. Those little black dots on Taylor's face are where the pins punched through the stamp in order to let the ink absorb into the paper and prevent cleaning of the cancel.
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A few covers/entires that have arrived this week. Hopefully they are genuine, stamps do look tied to cover.
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"And to coincide with your Ligne J, here's a lovely card with a Messageries Imperiales Ligne N (Marseilles - Hong Kong - Shanghai - Yokohama) 1908 postmark:"
Ningpo - that's a lovely card - nice piece of maritime postal history
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Most recent acquisition for my Elmira collection - unusual (possibly unique) early (1840's probably, based on postmark) "advertised" cover that was then forwarded to Waterburgh.
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