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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

July 1999

Scanned Sheets

Mike Davis likes stamps.  American stamps.  In quantities.  Large sheets of freshly printed American stamps.  He collects them, cares for them: loves 'em.  Then he scans them and shares them with anyone and everyone at his web site.

Here you'll encounter large scale scans of US mint sheets.  Most of the sheets are from the 70s and 80s, and I don't want to know what size scanner he's working with.

"Mike Davis' Stamp Page" is sort of a collector's back room, a place to retreat to after the guests have gone home.  No frills or cute web designs, just lists of scans to see.

Mike Davis US Mint Sheets at
http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~davis/stamps/

1776 Alive

The Fourth is a good time to get reacquainted with our American history.  There are several individual in-depth sites on the 'Net so a goodplace to start is David Schwalbe's American History site.  It's a directory that covers everything from the colonial era and the events of '76 up to today's recent history.  

Schwalbe's directory is filled with historical sites and supplimented with articles and guides.  Additionally, there are related history directories a click away.

American History at
http://americanhistory.miningco.com

To take a peek back at the world of the eighteenth century visit the "Archiving Early America."  This is an online digital collection of eigtheenth century documents, maps and pictures.  This virtual gallery reveals the people of early America, their thoughts and deeds, in their own words, in a quest to help reawaken interest in the life and times of the US' early years.

Early America at
http://earlyamerica.com/

And sometime during the Fourth you will see people portraying British and American troops of 1776.  They will march in parades or fire muskets against each other, re-enacting a skirmish of the war.  They are re-enactors and they spend their weekends living the history they love.  

Each group re-creates the history of a certain military unit in dress, custom and practice, and all then lumped into bigger brigades.  They love to answer questions, but be wary less a recruiting sergeant earn his reward.  You can check them out from a distance at these two sites.

The Brigade of the American Revolution
http://www.brigade.org/

The British Brigade
http://www.britishbrigade.org/

Remember, 2000 starts the cycle of 225th Anniversaries of The Revolution with the accompanying increase of events and ceremonies.

Fast, New Search

Dell Computers are staples of the PC diet, a company that pioneered direct Internet sales.  Now Dell has teamed up with a search engine software firm and together they plan to host the largest engine on the 'Net called FAST Search.

It means File Search and Transfer, but more importantly this joint effort of FAST search engine designers and Dell's hardware specialists gives the service unique advantages.

They started with 80 million indexed documents.  They plan on having 200 million this summer and one billion by 2000.

FAST Search at
http://www.alltheweb.com.

Speaking of large numbers

The googol is a number equal to 1 followed by 100 zeros.  A few issues back I mentioned it here erroneously, but Benjamin H. Cohen, a member since '62, noticed I was off the mark by a few, eh, uh... One zero: but the magnitude.  Well, luckily, we weren't talking about real money here!

Benjamin also informed me that the googol was supposedly dreamed up by a nine-year-old.

US Essays and Proofs

Two collectors with a passion for their collection have an online Museum of United States Essays & Proofs.  Peter Schwartz and Ralph R. Zerbonia's web site is a superbly illustrated informative site about the art.

The main collections area has four wings, but there are also various other galleries and a cluster of exhibits, plus articles, a glossary and a FAQ.

The MOUSEP is not your average web site, and if you haven't already, you'll enjoy it.

Depending on your connection, some of the pictures may take longer than normal to load, but they're worth the wait.  In fact, clicking your browser's "Set as wallpaper" setting on one of these scans would be a patriotic way to mark the Fourth.

Museum of United States Essays and Proofs
http://www.essayproof.net/