Tue 28 Oct 2008
When looking for a stamp album, look for one that has blank, acid-free pages. Don’t go for anything that has flimsy pages for these will not be sturdy enough to house your stamps safely. Make sure you have stamp hinges or mounts that are designed for housing stamps. Using glue or tape will damage your stamps.
Sun 28 Sep 2008
There are two distinct types of fraudulent stamps. The first is called a fake, which means someone took a genuine stamp and altered it. By altering they could overprint, alter stamp design, and change perforation numbers… to make them appear as something else. The other is a forgery, which is when someone actually creates a whole new object to look identical to the real one.
Thu 28 Aug 2008
The Philatelists who study the postal system extensively will typically concentrate their focus on the mail system. All the processes that mail goes through to get to its destination are included in this study.
Mon 28 Jul 2008
United States began issuing stamps at certain post offices in 1845 but it wasn’t until two years later before the first official stamp was issued. It wasn’t long after this that stamp collecting began. At first it was a hobby taken up by children. Adults never showed that much interest in it. However, when these children grew older they carried this passion for stamp collection into their adult years. In the late 1800’s people began really studying the postage stamps. They would publish results of their studies on these stamps after researching everything from production findings to possible printing flaws by certain plates. Establishments began to open up specifically geared towards the number of stamp collectors that were growing daily. This is when stamp collecting truly took off and is still going strong today.
Sat 28 Jun 2008
One method of forging stamps is to forge the entire piece. The forger will study a certain stamp extensively and then create a new plate with the same engraving. Since creating an identical piece isn’t realistically possible, a philatelist will be able to spot a forgery by studying the stamps in great detail.
Sun 18 May 2008
Over the years a certain few stamps have emerged as the most sought after objects by stamp collectors. They are…
Sun 18 May 2008
The Inverted Jenny. This stamp may very well be the most prized find for philatelists. Due to an increase in postage rates, the post office decided to rush out a new stamp especially for this price increase. This was a stamp that shows a Curtiss Jenny, which is the name of a biplane used to transport the mail. There was such haste in the designing and printing of these stamps that several mistakes occurred. Not only was there a rush in getting the design and printing done. The particular design also required two colors meaning that the sheets needed to be passed through the printing press twice. This caused the error probability rate to be extremely high in the printing of these. As it were, there were inverted errors where the plane ended up on the stamp upside down twice during the years of using this particular design. Most of these were caught and destroyed but it’s believed that at least one sheet containing 100 stamps got out into the mainstream. Postal authorities worked diligently to find these stamps but stamp collectors, upon hearing of the mistake, knew that these could potentially have value and were smart enough to hang on to them over the years. Today many stamp collectors spend much of their time looking for these Inverted Jenny’s. These stamps have been known to sell for as much as $525,000 USD.
Fri 23 Nov 2007
Stamp collecting can be a fun and interesting hobby. It is not hard to start stamp collecting and there are many interesting stamps and background information you can find out while doing it. Below is information on how to get started and the stamps to look for.