Along with post office creativity, which does what it can to catch the eye with sparkly stamps (such as the Austrian Swarovski's Crystal World from 2004), odd in shape (taking the example from Tonga’s gold foil map from 1964 or its fun-to-see banana issue from 1969) and made from interesting materials (such as the paper cork stamp from Portugal from 2007), postal authorities have tried to use technology in their efforts to boost sales.  ​The Swiss Post office announced a new feature to their app, which allow users to scan stamps issued ..read more

If you check out a stamp catalogue, you notice a gap between Austria’s December 1937 “Rose and Zodiac Signs” issue (picture to the right) and the overprinted stamp from 1945 marking the country’s liberation from the Nazis. Differently from other occupied territories, one cannot find locally issues stamps from these 8 years.  The occupation of Poland, for instance, had the Generalgouvernement (General Government) issues from 1939. Böhmen und Mähren (Bohemia and Moravia) issues marked the invasion of Chechoslovakia the same way overprinted German “Ostland” were issued in the eastern territories ..read more

I have written a while ago on how I welcome innovation initiatives by post offices. At the very least, they render me a smile when I see them in a letter waiting for me in my letter box. Or I actually would, were they used in common mail. Although entertaining, they are unfortunately rarely noticed by common individuals, usually not made available for sale in most post offices, especially in the country side - and when available, their usage is not commonly recommended by post office clerks even when their postal rate makes them absolutely a fine alternative to whatever common issue they have ..read more

​It’s valentine’s day in many countries, and no better way for collectors to celebrate it than a nice romantic stamp on their envelopes. This is actually not only true for collectors, but common ‘card senders’, and no post office has used this to make business than the USPS. Along with general ‘celebration’ topics, the US post office has launched wedding stamps, and some with the ‘love’ theme, especially in the so denominated Forever Stamp Issues, first launched in 2007. They have no denomination, are sold at the current “first class” rate a ..read more

Philatelists love errors on stamps. Every one heard about the inverted Jenny. What about varieties, though? What is actually the line between error and variety? I believe in many cases there is a thin line between both. Known errors may significantly increase the value of a particular stamp, while variations would not.  Well known errors are usually listed in specialized catalogues, which provides us with great information on what to look for. Many of the listed errors, however, are not so grotesque like the Inverted Jenny example, but rather come in the form of missing lines and displaced col ..read more

I was recently presented with boxes of my uncle’s stamps – he had given up the hobby decades ago, and decided they should find a new home. Different countries and themes in mixed conditions, at times found in album pages, sometimes as bundles in envelopes and some lucky ones in old stock books. While sorting out the material, I came across a couple of curiosities I found worth sharing. M.S.A. 7 Swiss soldier poster stamp Soldier stamps (Soldatenmarken)  are not so difficult to come across but are unfortunately not included in common catalogues (like the Zumstein Swiss Catalogue). They were ..read more

Once in a philatelic shop I was looking for a couple of items – one of them a penny black– when the lady who was helping me out said unfortunately there was only one left. It happened to be a very ugly one as well, very badly cut in the margins, hinged, and the cancellation covered up the piece very badly. Also interesting was that the listed price for it, a stamp that does not even have a very high catalogue price to begin with, was 30 Dollars. She saw my face and was very apologetic. I ended up buying if for 10 until I could find a better piece. It is common knowledge that space fillers a ..read more

After the imperforated Sitting Helvetia Series (nicknamed ‘Strubel’, reference to a popular children’s book character, due to Helvetia’s laurels crown looking like messy hair), the Swiss Post office first launched its perforated version in 1862. These are specifically rich collection series, due to the richness of variation to be encountered: apart from numerous colour shades of each piece, some may present silk threads (even two are possible), while others none at all. The two first sets were printed on white paper, while the 1881 issues were printed in paper with small fibers (granite paper ..read more

How do we define what a complete stamp collection is? Some may argue that it would mean having every stamp listed in a catalogue for a given country, topic or period. If so, which catalogue to follow, given that catalogues differ?  Also, would that include all varieties that specific catalogue lists and both mint and used, or just one of them, or a mix of both is acceptable? Perhaps a complete collection would be filling up every space of a given album. Most collectors spend time looking at various items, studying them and noting that many stamps possess unique features , colour and shades v ..read more

Zr no. J9/ Mi 135 Pro Juventute issue of 1917 'Woman from Ticino', quite seldom as cancelled block of 4 I enjoy acquiring philatelic material at stamp dealers, where I sometimes also find a pretty little piece that is missing here and there. There are some online auctions (organized by philatelic societies) that appeal to me and where I find some interesting items. Sometimes trading with some collectors I met online has also given me great material to work on. The best material I found, however, was in small flea markets around Europe. Nee ..read more