Stamps

Letters from Europeans in Algiers are known at least from 1690, and a postal mark was used in Spanish-occupied Oran from 1749. But no regular service existed until 1830, when the military postal organization (Tresor et Postes) was introduced in Algiers. It was opened to civilians in 1835. Gradually the posts were separated from the paymaster branch and in 1860 they became autonomous. From 18 POs in 1845, the service grew to 97 offices in 1860 and 295 in 1880.

Postal services were initially by courier and by coastal steamboat service operated by the French navy. The coastal service passed to Messageries Maritimes in 1866, and from 1862 railways slowly pushed forward (Algiers-Oran opened 1871; Constantine-Philippeville 1870).

Military handstamps were used in 1830-9; datestamps bearing town names and dates were issued to POs after 1839.

Used stamps of France from 1 January 1849.

Oblit. 16 January 1849 – 31 December 1851 by dumb grille: stamps are identifiably from Algeria only on cover. After 1852 cancellation was by lozenge of dots with small figures (3710 – 4448) and after 1863 by similar lozenge with large figures (5000 – 5171). N.B. Most of these numbers, but not all, were issued to Algeria. Datestamps were used to cancel stamps from April 1876.

Used stamps of France 22 July 1958 – 27 June 1962.

Used locally overprinted stamps c. 4 July 1962 – 31 October 1962 until independence stamps were available.

There were 862 POs in 1969.

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.

Used postage stamps are postage stamps that have been canceled, or stamped, by the post office. Stamps that cannot be used again. Collecting used postage stamps is a fun and exciting hobby that can be more rewarding than buying mint stamps. In this article, we will give you tips on how to collect your used postage stamps.

Following the tips below is guaranteeing your success in collecting your postage stamps.

• Look in your recycling bin for envelopes with postage stamps attached. Rip a section of the envelope with the stamp attached. Do not attempt to remove the postage stamps at this point; you might damage your postage stamps permanently.

• Soak the stamps. Prepare a cup of warm water. Be sure that it is not hot; hot water can damage your postage stamps. Submerge the envelope sections with the postage stamps attached for 30 minutes or more.

• After a period of time, the postage stamps should separate from the envelope with ease. If the postage stamps refuse to come off, soak for a little longer. Some postage stamps are sometimes harder to remove. Be careful in separating your stamps, you might tear your postage stamps, you hard work will turn into nothing.

• Dry your postage stamps. Carefully remove superficial water by drying the postage stamps with a paper towel. When doing this, do not wipe the postage stamps; press the towel to the postage stamps instead. Allowing the excess water to separate from your postage stamps.

• Press your postage stamps. Arrange the postage stamps on a sheet of paper. File additional layers of paper above and below this original layer. Place a heavy book on top of this arrangement. Let the postage stamps dry completely for a couple of hours.

• Collecting your postage stamps: Separate the postage stamps by the amount of money the postage stamp is worth, by country, by topics or whatever category you like. Purchase a stamp album to hold your postage stamps to protect your collections.

Stamps on eBay are hot properties today. In actuality, they are gaining appreciation by more and more people who learn to make use of the present technology in participating in stamp auctions that the leading marketing hub online, Ebay.com, holds every now and then to supply the cravings of the world’s stamp enthusiasts.

Buying and selling stamps online is all about modernizing the age-old craft of stamp collection to keep up with the times. Thus, based on the aforementioned fact, EBay proves to be an excellent hub for finding stamps that are worth including in anyone’s well-loved collection.

Stamps on eBay fulfill every stamp collectors’ ultimate dream, which is to find unique and valuable stamps to keep, display, and compare with other stamp collectors’. They come in various designs, while some originated from Japan, Austria, and New Zealand and are considered vintage stamps.

Shopping for Stamps on eBay has never been this enjoyable through the internet. Since Ebay.com started this thing going on, collectors as well as non-collectors are attracted to take a peak at its vast collection because the site also contain hard-to-find collections like covers, errors, oddities, and more.

Stamps on eBay are always included in auction events. They are always given to the highest bidder and their price continuously increases as time go by. However, some of these stamps go on sale, but that is a very rare case since Stamps on eBay become the collectors’ investments as they accumulate in the album. This only proves that such stamps are valuable and are worth every collector’s money.

The one-dollar Colonial Rush Lamp and Candle Holder stamp of USA was first printed in 1979. In 1986 one hundred stamps with the inverted brown candleholder were sold to the public. Five of those stamps were presumed to have been used on mail, with the invert error going undetected. The remaining 95 were purchased by employees of the CIA. This stamp error soon became known as the “CIA invert.”

Are you new to the world of stamp collecting? Stamp collecting is a treasured hobby that people around the world have enjoyed for centuries. If you’re just starting out, there are some things you should know before spending your hard-earned money on collectible stamps.

The first thing you’ll need is to make sure you have the proper stamp collecting supplies. You will need a sturdy album with acid-free pages to display and store your stamps, stamp hinges to safely affix the stamps to album pages, and glassine envelopes for stamps that aren’t ready to be placed in the album. You’ll also need a pair of stamp tongs, because using your hands to handle stamps can cause severe damage. Choose tongs in either plastic or stainless steel, that aren’t too sharp.

The next thing you’ll need to know is how to determine an authentic collectible stamp from a fake. This is where a watermark detector can come in handy. Another option is to only purchase stamps from reputable dealers who offer certificates of authenticity. Also, doing your research before buying can help you determine whether a stamp is the real thing or a fake.

There are many places where you can buy stamps. You can visit stamp shops in your area, or go to stamp shows and conventions. Another option is to shop online. There are a variety of retailers that specialize in selling collectible stamps. You can also find rare stamps on Ebay. When buying stamps on Ebay, however, make sure you deal with an experienced and knowledgeable stamp seller that has a high feedback rating. This will ensure that you’re getting an authentic collectible stamp for the right price.

One good idea is to join an association or group for stamp collectors. This way, you can network with stamp collecting experts who can advise you on all aspects of collecting stamps. Also, you can swap, buy and sell stamps with other collectors. There are groups that meet in person, and groups you can join online. Check MSN groups, Google groups and Yahoo groups for great stamp collecting groups you can join!

Stamp collecting doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby — it can easily be enjoyed for very little money! Many collectors get into stamp collecting first as a hobby, and over the years, work up to buying stamps for investment purposes.

When a new country is formed, which seems to be very often these days, some provision must be made to handle the mail while stamps are being designed and printed.

Usually the stamps already in use in that country are overprinted with some identification to mark them as being used in the new country. Such is the case with Bangladesh. Bangladesh was formerly East Pakistan, and when they gained their independence and renamed their country, they used the stamps of East Pakistan with an overprint declaring the name of the new country.

These are provisional stamps, and usually provisionals are very costly, since they are used only in an emergency period, being replaced by stamps definitive to the country at the earliest opportunity.

Bisects means a stamp that has been cut to be used for a lesser postage value than its face. For example, a 10 pence stamp may be cut in half and used as a 5 pence stamp. This was permitted long ago, but it is no longer allowed.

There are three types of bisects Horizontal, Vertical and Diagonal. Bisecting was done in emergencies when no stamps of the lower denomination were available.

First Day Cavers (FDC as short form) are method of collecting stamps on envelopes that have been mailed with a cancellation showing clearly that the envelope was mailed on the day the stamp was first issued from the place of issue commemorating that stamp.

Each stamp printed for postal service is first placed on sale in the post office of whatever city is pertinent to the issue. If it commemorates a famous person, as an example, the first day of issue would more than likely be the city in which that person was born. If the stamp is in commemoration of some historical or national event or landmark, the first day issue location would be the city nearest the place where the event occurred or the landmark was located.

While the new issue of stamps is sent to post offices all over the country, the postmasters are instructed to withhold the sale of them until the day after the day of issue. This means that if the first day sale is on the first of the month, local post offices in other than the first day city cannot sell the stamps until the second of that month.

First day covers have become a big thing in stamp collecting, and several companies are now engaged in printing very elaborate envelopes for sale as first day covers.