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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.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

1954 Again.

The United States Stamp Society 1954 Liberty Series Study Committee web site was one of the first sites I reviewed in this column in what now seems a long, long time ago.  The United States Stamp Society is now called the Bureaus Issues Association and they have recently updated the entire site.

This US definitive series has been in the stamp news in recent months due to auction sales of covers and a surge in popularity for these issues.  The updated site has an index of Libery covers, a few research studies and a section of members' classified ads.

United States Stamp Society 1954 Liberty Series Study Committee
http://members.aol.com/raustin13/studygrp/liberty.htm

EOS

The Engineers on Stamps Study Unit is a new group looking for members.  They are hoping to organize a topical list of engineers and stamps.  If you're interested, check out their web site where you can download their latest newsletter in the Adobe Acrobat format.

Engineers on Stamps Study Unit
http://www.eweek-detroit.org/engineersonstamps.html

1st Page 2000

Surely every webmaster and online editor will tell you building a web site takes a lot of time, but it doesn't necessarily need to be difficult to learn nor involve expensive software.  And now an Australian company called Evrsoft offers a free WYSIWYG html editor that does just about everything you'll ever need to do on your stamp site.

1st Page 2000 is the second version of a full-powered and very flexible program.  It is an average sized download, and set up is automatic.  But what sets it apart is it's customization.  

1st Page 2000 has four general user settings, geared to the user's experience and the technical complexity of the site: Easy, normal, advanced and hardcore.

It features customizable keyboard shortcuts and toolbars, a feature to save snippets of html in a myCode library, stacks of Javascripts for those who need them, as well as support for SSI, Perl, Cold Fusion, et al.  Naturally, there are tag lists, menus and a HEX color picker, plus a few things called "Wizards," but I was surprised by  their spell checker and the handy extended character list.

The program will also help teach you how html actually works.  You can split the screen, create your html in the lower half and immediately see the results in the upper half.

And "1st Page 2000" does not add any other bits of code to your finished html pages that can wreck havoc in some environments, as some other programs do.  So, before you buy, try this one.  Heck, it is free.

1st Page 2000
http://evrsoft.com/1stpage/

Rock Stamps

The full title is "Gem, Rock, and Mineral Postage Stamps From Around the World," but simply put it's one of the best rock stamp sites around.  

Creator Richard Busch started collecting minerals as a teen, but didn't turn to stamps until about five years ago, although his father has collected German stamps all his life.

The design and layout are clean and simple, making it easy to access everything on the site with stamps and minerals arranged both by country and by mineral names.

A typical listing contains information on the mineral, composition, nomenclature and industrial uses, along with stamps related to the mineral, and all-in-all there are about 200 unique scans.

After taking a geology degree from the University of Arizona, Busch became a software engineer with a passion for mineralogy and the earth sciences.  Today he's a member of the Gem-Mineral-Jewelry Study Unit of the ATA and is vice-president and webmaster of the Fallbrook (California) Gem and Mineral Society.  

Though Busch regards himself to be an amateur stamp collector, the work and content of his site shows he's a passionate topical collector.  

Gem, Rock, and Mineral Postage Stamps From Around the World
http://stampmin.home.att.net

Tips Welcome

If you know of a stamp site that should be shared with our readers, please email me at the address below.  Most of the sites mentioned in this column are emailed to me, as it is becoming harder and harder to find new philatelic web sites on the search engines.  So if you would like to help spread the word about a particularly useful site, drop me a line.

Summer Beaches

The link below leads to two screensavers of beaches from Australia, and one from that philatelic dynamo: Norfolk Island.  They're just the thing to dress up your desktop at the start of summerand they're free.  My favorite is the first one, "Aus Beach Collection Screensaver."

Beaches
http://members.tripod.com/beachwallpaper/beachtrek/beachwallpaper/download.htm

And you can download a free desktop stamp calendar to your desktop for the month of June from my website at:

http://stamps.about.com/library/desktop/bldesktop.htm

Each time you visit a collector's stamp site, drop them an e-mail thanking them for their work.  Don't take their efforts for granted, and share your favorite stamp sites with me.  By sharing you can help others.  Thanks for reading the "Glassine Surfer" and be sure to drop by the APS web site the next time you're out surfing.