Sociable Stamp Society

This is our blog for current stamp news and views of interest to the philatelist and beginner. Daily updates provide items on shows, new issues, events, what's selling, and timely facts.

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Thursday, September 20, 2007

Silent Stamp Swap

Construction Zone

The roar of 'dozers and the smell of dirt is upon me as I scrape away the old website and install something new. Bear with me. I started this week by taking stock and drawing up some ideas. (I wound up with more questions than solutions.) Then I began culling away some old files and streamlining the all-important but here to fore hidden inner workings. (I'll admit that at times I just walked away from the screen wondering what it all had to do with philately!)

Work is continuing, but remember that this site is all handmade. (And I'm beginning to think I should have been wearing a hard hat all these years because I must have hit me in the head to get into this.)

Silent Stamp Swap

I am reminded of the two collectors who met at a silent stamp swap. The next day one of them told his friend, "That US specialist is an amazing fellow. I have much to learn. At first, I held up one finger, representing a US#1. So, he held up two fingers, saying he already had two of them! Then I held up three fingers because I have a strip of three on cover. And then he shook his fist at me to show that his strip of three had a sock-on-the-nose cancel. So, I left because he obviously is a greater collector than I."

Later, one of his friends, met the US specialist and asked him about the swap meet. "Yes, it was a helluva thing, and I'm going to beat him up if I see him again! As soon as I sat down he held up a finger because he only wanted to swap one-to-one. I held up two fingers meaning I had two requirements: grading and condition. Then he put up three fingers because he wanted everything on three-day approval! I was about to get him when he ran out!"

(and now I must depart... your attention is appreciated!)

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Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. - Quentin Crisp

the lanai guy | 6:46 AM | 0 comments |  

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Wednesday, September 19, 2007

A Sort of Stamps

Strange but true. Yesterday I was thinking about sorting. What's the most efficient way to separate a pile of stamps into its constituent parts? It's something we all do, and most of us enjoy it because it's somewhat like panning for gold. But there are techniques because no two bags of stamps are the same. It's an art without any hard and fast rules, and like art the time needed for sorting stamps doubles in proportional to the stamp collector's enjoyment.

My way of sorting starts with the basics: a bag of stamps, a cleared table, strong lights, and stamp tools. Then like a surgeon I plan. I sift and examine the clutter before me and consider ways to reduce the mass into smaller and usable parts in the most efficient way. In many ways it's like working out driving directions to take advantage of the scenery.

The basic outline is to start with the most noticeable differences among the stamps and work down to the most obscure. The most noticeable would be something like country, color, condition, etc. The most obscure would be die differences, platings, and all the other fly-specking criteria. In between the two would be categories such as denomination, perforations, mint/used, or centering. The important thing to remember is that the stamps dictate the sorting.

Easy and efficient sorting depends on visual clarity. Good lighting, properly corrected eyesight, and a clear work area are important. And the working surface that the piles of sorted stamps are placed on is very important.

When I sort stamps, I will get a large piece of heavy cardboard, like my kid's old project board from school. (If I have to stop and clear the table I can easily move the board of stamps without rearranging my sorted piles.) Of course for smaller jobs I have used baking sheets, and even shallow cardboard lids and boxes used for retail packaging.

I'll then lay a piece of green felt onto the board. Tongs go under a pile of stamps sitting on felt very easily, and the stamps don't slide about on their own.

After a few minutes of sorting, a pattern emerges. Certain classifications and types of stamps start to show up. It's now time to begin arranging the sorts around the board in some logical pattern so it's easy to see to which pile a stamp belongs. This becomes a matter of columns and rows, or concentric circles if your mass of stamps lends itself to it.

Needless to say, sorting stamps is a homegrown art, but it can be tiring, repetitious, and sometimes dull. On the other hand, if you find yourself sorting thousands of common 1960's definitives, you might begin to see another collection forming before your eyes: postmarks; slogans, SON, towns, dates. (This is how I wound up collecting Finland's 1918 definitives!)

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The poetry of heroism appeals irresitably to those who don't go to a war, and even more so to those whom the war is making enormously wealthy. - Celine.

the lanai guy | 7:25 AM | 0 comments |  

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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

The Primitive Quest

Stamp collectors are a primitive lot. We haven't changed in a million years. We are non-conformist, individualists, in the best hunter-gatherer tradition. Each philatelist seeks his own grail, where stamps and postal history are but sign posts on the road to complete his quest. (Is it the same with other collectors?)

Wikipedia says: "Individualists promote the exercise of individual goals and desires. They oppose most external interference with an individual's choices."

There is something primitive about stamp collecting. Something learned in the caves. Each collector sets her eyes on her personal quarry but bands together with others to sharpen tools, trade objects, talk and learn about sources, and find solace on the long road. (Don't depictions of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons show the same?)

Our campfires are clubs and online forums, and our sign language is e-mail. But we're on the same path: seeking something to complete our desire. And it is something only we can find.

An interpretation of the legend of the 'holy grail' says that the actual object merely signifies our quest for an existence that stands apart from time, that has no past, no future, that is always 'now.' (Isn't that the feeling we have when 'time stands still' and all around us opens up? Isn't that what we feel when we fix our eyes on the Milky Way or watch mid-ocean waves crash into the horizon?)

So, live your dream, or to quote an old catch phrase, 'follow your bliss'. Tilt at your windmills, good sir knight. Go to a stamp show.

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Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do. - Dale Carnegie

the lanai guy | 6:32 AM | 0 comments |  

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Sunday, September 16, 2007

Apocryphal or Not?

Many years ago, around 1840 or so, a learned and stout gentleman was walking in the morning air outside of London. As usual he was lost in his thoughts, preoccupied with his troubles. He was headmaster of his own public school in the country, a known up-and-comer. He turned the bend and saw a young woman standing at her front door awaiting the morning mail.

The postman turned onto her path, while the gentleman drew closer. The postman held out a letter to her, and the young woman reached to take it. But the postman did not let her have it. "I'll need your postage payment first, 'mam," he said. The woman stared at the envelope in the postman's hand. The headmaster stopped and listened.

"The letter's from my husband Dan, a corporal in Egypt, but I haven't a penny. Please, I haven't heard from him in half a year." The postman shook his head and sadly put the letter into his pouch. "Sorry, m'am, the postage has to be paid by someone. It'll be returned to the army otherwise. G'day."

The postman left, and the woman cried. This chance encounter bothered the headmaster. He was something of a reformer. His school was progressive and new, but his thoughts soon turned to ensuring accessible communication for all people.

Do you know who this headmaster was or what he pushed the British government to do in 1840?

Do you see the similarity to him and Sir Berners Lee?

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A: A common design type used in France's colonies in West Africa from 1906 to 1913. The middle denominations of each colony's series featured a palm tree design. The lower values showed Capt. Faidherbe, the upper values showed Dr. Ballay, and all had blank cartouches for the colony's name.

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The Internet is so big, so powerful, and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life.- Andrew Brown

the lanai guy | 10:35 AM | 0 comments |