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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

October 2002

Grinnells

The Grinnell stamps of Hawaii's legendary Missionary issue have gone to the Royal Philatelic Society to be studied, and the "Post Office in Paradise" site, which covers Hawaii's philatelic history, has devoted some in depth pages to this saga.

Hawaii's Missionaries are valuable rarities, and their census is well-known. The question is are these so-called Grinnells a eye-opening horde of genuine stamps with a marvelous provenance, or just ersatz stamps.

Read the story and you make the call.

Grinnell Missionaries
http://www.hawaiianstamps.com/mi_grinnell.html

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Pan American's Pacific Pioneers

Sticking to the Pacific for a moment, Jon Krupnick covers the world of Pan-Am's Pacific Clipper first flights on his Website, and he notes a Web-related trend of non-collectors coming to appreciate stamps and covers after they'd happened upon his site.

These people may have been interested in aviation, travel, or the South Pacific, but are now budding philatelists, having discovered the world of first flight covers to help document their passion.

Krupnick is the author of "Pan American's Pacific Pioneers," which is a pictorial history of the airline's first flights from 1935 to 1946 throughout the Pacific. Flying boat aviator Jimmy Buffett penned the foreword, and the Website gives a sampling of the 10 chapters, though there's no way a site can do justice to nearly 700 pages of photos.  

Pan American's Pacific Pioneers
http://www.pacificpioneers.com/

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Bath Museum

You are cordially invited to visit the Website of the Bath Postal Museum, a very popular destination for philatelic surfers that averages 19,000 hits a month.

The Bath Postal Museum Website is much more than a contact site with and announcement of its existence and a few demographics. Here you will find sections such as the "Victorian Post Office" that covers
money values in 1840, popular Victorian songs and  instructions on how to make a quill pen.

The history of the famous British post box that shows the many different post box styles from 1854 through 1998 will also be of interest to devotees of UK stamps and author Anthony Trollop.

As befits a museum there's a suitable archive section and an area devoted to teacher outreach.

Bath Postal Museum
http://www.bathpostalmuseum.org

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Sudetenland: A Philatelic Story

The postal story of Europe's Sudetenland from 1938 to 1945 is the focus of Knud-Erik Andersen's Website. For 20 years until 1938 this area was part of Czechoslovakia, and was the contested territory of the Munich Agreement between the UK and Germany.

The Website covers the Sudenland's historical background, fieldpost, provisional cancels, primitive cancels, registration, among others. Each section is well-illustrated and informative, as they trace the changes from Czechoslovakia, to provisional markings, German postal control, and finally liberation in 1945.

Sudetenland: A Philatelic Story
http://sudeten.bizland.com/postal_history.htm

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Color Schemer

Color Schemer is an easy-to-use tool that helps designers create harmonious color schemes for their Web pages. After a user chooses one seed color, the rest of the complimentary palette is automatically filled, and afterward the seed can be switched from the palette and further fine adjustments can be made.

This is a big improvement over the mix and match manual method, or the color sniffing of other suitable Website designs. RGB numbers can be copied and pasted where needed, and there's a simple light-dark control.

Color Schemer
http://www.colorschemer.com/

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Door to History

The "Best of History Web Sites" is a portal for students, history educators, and general history enthusiasts to find the best historical information as efficiently as possible.

History Websites are grouped by chronology, geographic area, and topics and rated on a 1-5 star scale. There are ten board categories, such as Prehistory, Medieval, US History, etc.

Within the top hierarchy there are topics and periods, such as, in the case of US History, topics covering Immigration, and African American, and under Periods are Pre-Colonial, Independence, Gilded Age, and Cold War.

This history portal has over 700 history Websites reviewed for "quality, accuracy, and usefulness," and makes it an invaluable guides to the history Web.

Best of History Websites
http://www.besthistorysites.net/

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Czeslaw Slania

GS first came across Ann Mette Heindorff years ago at her "Travelling the World on Art Stamps" Website. It was and is one of those sites where everything clicks: content, graphics, subjects, and navvy.

Now Heindorff has produced a Website about the life and work of master engraver Czeslaw Slania that is a suitable complement to Slania's well-known work.

Heindorff's Slania site contains an online catalogue of all of Slania's engraved postage stamps and banknotes. She also covers his work on revenues and postmarks, and the site offers a downloadable database of postage stamps with cross referencing Scott, Gibbons and Michel catalogue numbers

Czeslaw Slania's Engraved Stamps and Banknotes
http://slaniastamps.school.dk

The F.I.P. has also tabbed the site as their "Best Web Site 2002."

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The Atlantic Cable

Atlantic Cable Stamps is just one section of a larger site that deals with many details of the history of the Atlantic Cable and submarine telegraphy from 1850 to today, which is the quintessential requirement of a topical stamp Website.

The main page is a menu of the Atlantic Cable resources, such as links, history, bibliography, etc. The stamp section is deceivingly deep and copiously illustrated with various covers, markings, stamps, and usages, etc.

Atlantic Cable
http://atlantic-cable.com

The link the stamps is a quarter of the way from the top, or take this shortcut.

Stamps - Atlantic Cable
http://atlantic-cable.com/stamps/

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Japan-Japan

Japan-Japan: so nice they named it twice, and though I'm already impressed, I can see more is on the way. This site is all about Japanese philately, and it covers the topic with award-winning exhibits and reference sections.

A partial list of exhibit offerings includes Leroy Collins' "Official Commemorative Cards of Japan 1902-1929," Renichi Yamada's "Japan 1883-1892: UPU and New Kobans," and Kenneth Clark's "The Russo-Japanese War." (Click "Philatelic Resources.")

The site also offers help and links in setting up your browser or PC to render kanji characters, translations, links for the Japanophile, Japanese philatelic terms, and place names.

Japan-Japan is a very workable, post-2000 site, with enough energy and innovation to intrigue even casual aficionados of Japanese philately.

Japan-Japan
http://www.japan-japan.com

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WWW COA

Ralph Trimble's re-entry Website has grown and moved up to its own domain. Here you can learn all the in's and out's of this fascinating aspect of philately.

Re-Entries
http://www.re-entries.com

And, likewise, the best Spanish Philippine stamp Website has settled in at its new home on the Web. It's Nigel Gooding's site.

Spanish Philippine Philately
http://www.NigelGooding.com

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Rough Draft

Rough Draft is word processing software for the PC designed for writers. It does most, if not all, of the necessary formatting, exporting, and replacing that you'd expect, and the program has the very familiar Windows Word look to it.

There are a few helpful tools for writers to make help with consistency, easy access to use symbols such as the £ or ¥, and a well-thought our integrated clipboard.

Rough Draft
http://www.rsalsbury.co.uk/rd.htm

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Hellenic

You'll enjoy a visit to Greece's Hellenic Philotelic [ed note: "philOtelic"] Society Website. There are two versions, one in Athens' native tongue and the other in global English. The HPS serves as a find introduction to the stamps and postal history of Greece and related areas with pages covering areas such as the society, people, library, news, Greek rarities, and useful links.

Hellenic Philotelic Society
http://www.hps.gr

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Four years ago, we noted that some things never change.

"One very large Internet firm with an active stamp collecting auction block shows such acumen as to decorate their stamp collecting section with a crisp graphic of a 1937 Canadian King George VI postmarked 1949 in San Jose, California. And as she said, 'And so it goes.'  Thankfully, there's no ZIP code in the indicia."

And it's good to see that even after all the changes on the WWW some things remain the same; errors, omissions, quirks and all.

eBay
http://stamps.ebay.com

Back in October 1998 we were starting the great Y2K debate about the Millenium Bug, which we now know had all the impact of Comet Hale-Bopp.

"Many PCs and software programs date the year with only the last two digits, so that 1900 looks just like 2000 to many PCs.  This two digit dating format is found in hardware, the BIOS, the operating system (of which Windows 95/98 is the most popular) and in software programs.  And when AD 2000 rolls in some your PC might travel back in time to 01 Jan 00, unable to calculate, function or be of much use."

But on a positive note, GS is happy to note that October is still Stamp Collecting month, and GS would like to remind you to take the initiative when handing out candy this 31st to spread your love of stamps.

"Take a clear glassine, slip in a cut-to-fit index card and then fill it with as many American and foreign commemoratives as you think right.  Obviously, a US "Movie Monster" commemorative or an Irish Dracula hits the right note.

You can Scotch tape candy to the outside of the glassine or toss them in loose.  Your index card can carry a printed message with the name of the local philatelic club or something similar.

You might even consider using some sort of collectable trading card, what I used to refer to as "baseball cards," in lieu of the index card.  Kids like 'em, too.

If the little devils ask what you're handing them, tell 'em the candy's for their tummy, but the stamps are a treat for their mind."

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Glassine Surfer 4.0

The online archives of the Glassine Surfer holds columns going back to 1998, and if you're looking for a Web site that was mentioned in this column, you can find it in the archive.

Bring your keyboard to the Sociable Stamp Society chat online Sundays and Wednesdays at 8pm. Just click on "chat".

The Glassine Surfer
http://www.glassinesurfer.com

Share your stamp site recommendations with the rest of the APS family. We all use the Net a little differently, and your experience will help many other people.

Mike@GlassineSurfer.com

Thanks for reading the "Glassine Surfer" and don't forget rally behind your local stamp club. Happy Halloween, Columbus Day, and Thanksgiving to our friends over the line in Canada.

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