Stamp Column Archives

The Glassine Surfer Column Archive

This column originally appeared in the American Philatelic Society's monthly magazine, "The American Philatelist." Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

June 2000

After he completed the Chalon site, Garry found that there were actually very few places on the Net where he could list his site, and to help solve the problem he started a classic stamp web ring.

A web ring is a circuit of related member sites linked together so that interested visitors can easily find similar sites.  His "Classic Stamps Webring" can be found on the end of Garry's first page.

This is an enjoyable, easy reference site for one of the world's classics that I hope will continue to grow and innovate.

New Zealand Chalon Portrait Stamps
http://www.lawas.co.nz/chalon/

E-Money

Someone had to solve it and someone did.  PayPal figured out how to allow people to send money over the Net quickly, efficiently and securely, without them having to give out their credit card numbers to unknown, untrusted sellers.  The system is fairly simple and allows people to send money to just about any email user.

A person signs up at PayPal and enters the email address of the person he wants to send money to.  The money is then charged to the sender's credit card on file at PayPal, and the recipient is notified that the sender has sent the recipient money.  

A recipient can then sign up, and the money will be put into his online account.  The money is available immediately, and funds can be withdrawn at any time via direct deposit to a bank account or PayPal will send a check by mail.

The company has various security measures, and does not charge fees for the transactions.  They make their profit on the "float" by making overnight loans of the money in the PayPal accounts to other financial institutions, much as your local bank does with you saving and checking deposits.

PayPal was started in late '98 and is currently in parnership with Deutsche Bank, among others.  Officially, PayPal.com calls this "the world’s first email payment service," and there will be many, many others.  

PayPal
http://www.paypal.com

Tulagi.com

The stamps and postal history of the British Solomon Islands now has its own web site courtesy of Charlie Miller (member APS, Pacific Islands Study Circle, Papuan Philatelic Society and Western Philatelic Library).

He's a VP in the silicon chip industry, who mixes stamps with hiking and rock climbing.  Charlie collects stamps of the British Pacific islands (Solomons, Fiji, Gilbert & Ellice, Pitcairn, New Hebrides, Tonga, and Papua New Guinea) through the reign of George VI, but his first love is the Solomon Islands.

Currently, the Tulagi.com's main displays are divided between the Large and Small Canoe issues, where each is laid out according to design, production, types, perfs and errors, reprints, etc.  

The 1907 Large Canoe issue is a classic in all respects.  There are  several types for every value, plating opportunities, perforation errors, unauthorized reprints and forgeries, and each aspect of the issue is explained and illustrated on its own page.

In the near future Charlie hopes to add coverage of the George V and George VI issues, as well as more details about the design of the island's first issue.

Charlie welcomes feedback and hopes that the site will become a valuable resource to others in building their collections. If anyone has some information or an interesting item, he'd love an e-mail or a scan that he could add to the site to help it grow even better, faster.

Tulagi.com is a well-designed, nicely scanned and useful reference tool for the Solomons and will probably make more than a few collectors stop and take notice.

Tulagi.com
http://www.tulagi.com/