Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Is it the stamp-mount strip with two black sides and no clear plastic? No, too mundane.
Is it the venomous spider I unwittingly decapitated when nibbling at a grape cluster whilst perusing a postage-stamp catalogue? Nah, Its desiccated corpse lacks the substance to qualify as a credible curiosity.
Is it the 1955 bus ticket, languishing with that spider-mummy in my "stamp oddments" box; and which, as recently as 1974, the Winnipeg Transit Authority stated was still valid as 10¢ toward the purchase of a current bus fare? Nope, this is dwarfed mightily by the "used" admission ticket to the Empire State Building that a global-economic-meltdown victim is desperately shopping on Stamporama's auction board.
My favourite curiosity is the stamp pictured here, and I'll explain why.
This stamp has made five round-trips between Victoria, British Columbia, and Calgary, Alberta, yet Canada Post has not deigned to desecrate it with a cancel. Two years ago I mailed a birthday card to my sister in Calgary who, of course, saves stamps for me. Because it was not cancelled, she salvaged the stamp and reused it on a letter to me. Thus, began this multi-chaptered story.
Five round-trips in mail bags and eight soakings for reuse: look at the remarkable fine condition of this stamp. They don't make tough selvedge like that anymore.
Suspecting that St. Agatha, patron saint of philatelists, might be losing patience with me, my supportive wife took envelope and stamp to the local post office for a favour cancel. The postmark is significant in that Victoria is one of only two authentic Royal Canadian Navy towns, the other being Halifax on the east coast.
This indefatigable traveller (now a treasured stamp on paper) is fated to spend the rest of my days in my album of oldies, goldies, beauties and curiosities, where it will take precedence on the right of the line, and deservedly so.
I realize there are much more than six thousand favourite stamp-collecting curiosities out there whose stories are screaming to be heard and I want to hear them. May I have yours?
John Derry
P.S. Let those those skeletons out of your closet.
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John,
so, first, I'll point out that, while never wearing the Canadian ensign, Indafiguable has worn seven different pennants for your king and queen across the pond. For more information on the various ladies, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Indefatigable as a starting point.
And, that Empire State Building ticket that i tried to pawn off here for a buck raised $15 on eBay today. 
and, finally, I love your stamp and its story. I don't have that one in my military collection, but, perhaps one day I might.
David
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The past is a foreign country, they do things different there.
07 Mar 2012
02:58:06pm
My favourite stamp-collecting curiosity?
Is it the stamp-mount strip with two black sides and no clear plastic? No, too mundane.
Is it the venomous spider I unwittingly decapitated when nibbling at a grape cluster whilst perusing a postage-stamp catalogue? Nah, Its desiccated corpse lacks the substance to qualify as a credible curiosity.
Is it the 1955 bus ticket, languishing with that spider-mummy in my "stamp oddments" box; and which, as recently as 1974, the Winnipeg Transit Authority stated was still valid as 10¢ toward the purchase of a current bus fare? Nope, this is dwarfed mightily by the "used" admission ticket to the Empire State Building that a global-economic-meltdown victim is desperately shopping on Stamporama's auction board.
My favourite curiosity is the stamp pictured here, and I'll explain why.
This stamp has made five round-trips between Victoria, British Columbia, and Calgary, Alberta, yet Canada Post has not deigned to desecrate it with a cancel. Two years ago I mailed a birthday card to my sister in Calgary who, of course, saves stamps for me. Because it was not cancelled, she salvaged the stamp and reused it on a letter to me. Thus, began this multi-chaptered story.
Five round-trips in mail bags and eight soakings for reuse: look at the remarkable fine condition of this stamp. They don't make tough selvedge like that anymore.
Suspecting that St. Agatha, patron saint of philatelists, might be losing patience with me, my supportive wife took envelope and stamp to the local post office for a favour cancel. The postmark is significant in that Victoria is one of only two authentic Royal Canadian Navy towns, the other being Halifax on the east coast.
This indefatigable traveller (now a treasured stamp on paper) is fated to spend the rest of my days in my album of oldies, goldies, beauties and curiosities, where it will take precedence on the right of the line, and deservedly so.
I realize there are much more than six thousand favourite stamp-collecting curiosities out there whose stories are screaming to be heard and I want to hear them. May I have yours?
John Derry
P.S. Let those those skeletons out of your closet.
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re: Canadian Navy Stamp eludes cancellers
John,
so, first, I'll point out that, while never wearing the Canadian ensign, Indafiguable has worn seven different pennants for your king and queen across the pond. For more information on the various ladies, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Indefatigable as a starting point.
And, that Empire State Building ticket that i tried to pawn off here for a buck raised $15 on eBay today.
and, finally, I love your stamp and its story. I don't have that one in my military collection, but, perhaps one day I might.
David
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