April, 2009

Carl Einar Pelander was noted for his expertise on Scandinavian stamps and received a Fieandt Memorial medal in 1960 from the Finnish Philatelic Society for doing an original research on the stamps of Finland and for promoting Finnish philately.

Philip Ward Jr. was a world famous stamp dealer, known for buying and selling collectors stamps, including the rarest stamps which are classic issues of the world. He had an exceptional collection of match and medicine stamps and his widely known collection was the U.S. Revenues, which had the only complete set of inverted centers. He was the first person to recognize the importance of first day covers and then created the many of the rarest and earliest.

William Woodbury Hicks was a renowned specialist and founder of the Three cent 1851-1857 Unit of the American Philatelic Society. He built the largest and most complete collection of U.S railroad cancels from the 1830s to 1861.

Harry Weiss was an editor of the Weekly Philatelic Gossip in the 1930s and the most prominent philatelic columnist of his time. His column comprised stories on hobbies, new stamps, and hot tips. He organized the Midwest Philatelic Laboratory in 1946, which had technical equipments and offered a wide range of services for stamp collectors. Services include, stamp appraisals, expertization, mounting and even suggested ways for the successful outlook of collections.

George Ward Linn is a known stamp collector, journalist, dealer who own the George W. Linn Company and famous for his “Linn’s Weekly Stamp News”. Some of his stamp specimens have been among the rarest and most valuable among the philatelists. He traveled the world in search for old, rare and obsolete issues of stamps, even the ones with much historic interest.

Louise Boyd Dale is considered to be the most distinguished stamp collector in America. She was the first woman to be appointed as judge for an international philatelic exhibition. She became the first American woman to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelist and was also appointed to the jury of the London International Stamp exhibition.

Ad Indusophon, a known lady philatelist from Siam; was the wife of the late Prakaipet Indhusophon, a popular international philatelist of the 1970s to 1980s. Her greatest achievements in the field of philately include; the building of a foundation in Thailand to promote philately among youth; her “Cape of Good Hope Triangulars” stamps collection, won the International Grand Prix at Toronto in 1996; when her work was recognized and was invited to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in Hereford last July 2001.

Anatoly Karpov was a former world chess champion, who is known for his stamp collection on chess and Olympic Games dated from the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896 to the Olympic Games in Amsterdam of 1928.

Cyril Harmer was the chairman and managing director of the “Hamers Auction House” from 1967 to 1976. He assembled what was without a doubt the finest collection of the Airmails of Newfoundland, “the Newfoundland overprinted stamps”. This collection was sold last February 26, 2002 for a total of £803,000.00.

Dr. Arthur Woo was known for his unique postage stamp collections of Classic Birds. Some of which are, the Western Australia Swan, the Guatemala Quetzel, the Colombia Andean Condor, and the USA 1869 Eagle.

Hiroyuki Kanai was postage stamp collector known for possessing 6 of the Greatest Mauritius stamp collection out of the 27 and it is the greatest number ever to be owned by one person in the world. The highly valuable Mauritius collection was printed in September 1847, under the instructions of the Governor of Mauritius’ wife, Lady Gomm, who wanted stamps for the invitations to her fancy dress ball. He received numerous awards in the field of philately but he is most proud of the award received in the National Grand Prix for his Finland Collection in Helsinki 1988.

Pichai Buranasombati was a top Great Britain postage stamp collector who formed great stamp collections such as “Straits Settlements” which won the National Grand Prix in Singapore 1995, “Burma” winner of the National Grand Prix in Indepex 1997, “Classic Siam”, which won a large gold medal at Bangkok 1993, and “Siam: middle period”, which won a large gold in Singapore 1995.

The easiest and cheapest method to store stamps is placing them in glassine envelopes and storing them in a box free from humidity, light, and heat. This obviously will be of no help when trying to go through the stamps for display or other purpose. Placing stamps in stamp albums helps in easy display of the stamp collection.

Hinges were used traditionally and many stamps have their value affected – up or down – by the size and nature of the ‘hinge marks’ on them. Mounts have come into common use over the last 30 years.

For decades hinges were used to place stamps into display notebooks or individual papers. Hinges are small, bent pieces of gummed paper that can attach to a page and to a stamp. That secures the stamp with a minimal amount of adhesive, while keeping it safely attached to the page.

Now a days, Mounts were developed much better.  Early versions exist from as far back as the 1930s though they are now used much more often.A mount may have a gummed edge in order to attach to a paper, but will provide a sleeve for the stamp.

Using a hinge is simple. You wet a narrow strip of the hinge and apply it to the display page. Then wet a narrow strip of the stamp and apply to the hinge. It narrows the area of adhesion. The hinge also allows the stamp to be secured while enabling the collector to view the back in order to see marks made there.

Older stamps will almost always have hinge marks or ‘remnants’, and sometimes this will actually increase their value. There’s no way to explain the evaluations of collectors, sometimes. A mount doesn’t suffer from the problem of adhering the stamp to the hinge, but they nonetheless need to be used with care. Mounts can produce marks or other types of damage.

Glassine, a special paper often used for mount material, isn’t an entirely acid-free paper and can damage the surface of the stamp. Trace amounts of sulfuric acid found in most paper can chemically destroy the cellulose.

For that reason, special archival paper is sometimes used to store and display stamps – not just for the mount sleeve, but the display page as well. Japanese rice paper is one of the more common alternatives, but there are specially made materials, as well.

Once mounted or hinged, most collectors will place stamps on one side of the page only. Though this requires using more pages and binders to display a large collection, the cost is generally justified. The risk of damage, from tearing or surface scratching, is greater with two-sided displays.

Ideally, glass or special sealed plastic envelopes will maintain a stamp in best condition over many decades. But, their cost is prohibitive for all except very valuable, unique items in the collection.