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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

September 2000

Capt. Cook in the 21st Century

The Captain Cook Study Unit has the requisite information on the CCSU and how to join the group, but they share a huge amount of information on Capt. James Cook's voyages.

There are 195 links to sites dealing with the captain and his adventures, and other portions of the site deal with books and journals, coins and engravings, the logs of his ships, his biography and chronology.

"The Captain Cook Checklist" by Brian Sandford in Adobe Acrobat format gives issue dates as well as catalog numbers and descriptions.  The CCSU also has 45 of their articles posted online to educate the visitor and maybe recruit a new member.

The Captain Cook Study Unit
http://freespace.virgin.net/chris.jones/ccsu.htm

Manta's Art Museum

Victor Manta's "Paintings and Arts on Stamps" starts off with art stamps rushing back into their places on a gallery wall as some cavelier fellows look on, and from there you can surf the site in one of four languages, including English.

The art gallery has sections for rock art, portraits, nudes, letters, museums, pottery, religious and errors, among several others, and most sections have separate sub-sections.  After the art gallery you can wander through country list, where Manta has arranged art stamps that illustrate the country's history, culture and landscape.

New material appears as needed, such as a page about Slania's 1000th stamp or Austria's issuance of a souvenier sheet to mark the death of Frederick Stowasser, and Manta offers a free Excel database listing 20,000 art on stamps and approximately 2300 sheets of art on stamps topicals.

Paintings and Arts on Stamps
http://www.values.ch

Sea Turtles

The "Sea Turtle Postage Stamps Website" shows off a topical collection in a way not possible before the web.  Nancy B. Linsley and George H. Balazs list sea turtle stamps and souvenier sheets and lists them by country and by species.

There are also sections on sea turtle phone cards and other related topical collection areas, as well as a section for selected sets and covers and maxi cards.  This is well organized topical site that's a pleasure to browse.  It loads fast and doesn't disappoint.

Sea Turtle Postage Stamps Website
http://www.2xtreme.net/nlinsley/

A New Species

Octopus lets you snatch and customize information from around the web and then arrange it on your own pages like you've never done before.

Octopus Pages are called "Views," and they're customized by dragging and dropping any number of Displays onto the View from a side-menu.

Displays are made up of info-elements that can be customized to your heart's content, and then after you're done with one Display, you can add another and another and on and on.

Octopus is a new way of seeing, moving, and relating on the Web that lets users customize info in the exact way they want to use it and it also lets users share thier Views with others.

Octopus
http://www.octopus.com

Enfish Onespace

The concept behind Enfish's Onespace is "everything you want in one place."  It's a PC and web, information and application, desktop manager.  

The hub of Onespace is a familiar Explorer-style menu called "My Information" from which users access different pages and presents a nicely designed desktop with an intergrated browser with a variety of customizable elements.

It allows users to view, access, manipulate, manage and intergrate their e-mail, documents and personal files such as Excel and Access with current data from the Internet.  It's a great tool for those chained to their keyboards for 12 hours a day.

Enfish Onespace
http://www.enfish.com

CSA Stamps and Postal History

John L. Kimbrough's site is a good introduction to the wonders of Confederate philately.   There is a lot of information about CSA stamps and covers in the Introduction and Stamp Facts sections, and visitors can view a major exhibit of patriotic covers in its entirety.  

There's also a large section devoted to the activities of the Confederate Stamp Alliance, but most importantly,  collectors can also ask Kimbrough CSA philatelic questions,  via E-mail or through the message board.

CSA Stamps and Postal History
http://members.aol.com/jlkcsa/index.htm

Franklin Close-ups

The One-Cent Franklin Exhibit by K. David Steidley is a close-up look at a postal workhorse of which over 11 billion copies were printed. This one-frame 16-page exhibit shows covers of some of the many uses the issue was put to, including uses in Cuba and Guam, private coils and imperforates, special delivery and fourth class mail.  Large, rich scans show a booklet pane on cover as well as a few Schermacks here and there.

One Cent Franklin Exhibit
http://users.nac.net/stef/franklin/

Happy Labor Day to everyone who works for a living.

Thanks for reading the "Glassine Surfer."