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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

November 2000

Before you know it, it'll be 2001, and long ago that seemed like some unreachable place somewhere in the distant future.  But I just guess that proves the notion that if you hang around long enough you're apt to see just about everything you never thought possible.

I have to think that's what George Herpin thought back in 1864, when this Frenchmen saddled us with the word "philately."  Not only is it hard to pronounce, it sounds as if it's related to something disreputable, and besides that it's also a poor concoction of a word.

Georgie's Frankenstein of a word was sutured together out of "teleia," a Greek word for "taxation," the negative prefix "a-" and the Greek word for "love" "philos."  Herpin's leap of logic was twisting the Greek "a-teleia" to construe "stamps" by presupposing to descibe them as "not taxed," or free from delivery charges.  

This unfortunate word stuck, either because it sounded educated enough to give the young hobby some respectability or because no one thought it'd catch on with the scriveners.  

On the other hand, some opted for the more pleasing "timbrologie," and the English version, "timbrology," would be a tree-mendous improvement over the old monster.

Timbrology is a compound of the French word for "stamp," "timbre," and the traditional Greek suffix for "the study of," "-ology." It's easy to say "tim/brol/ogy" and sounds like "tim-bral-agee."  And on top of that, a "timbrologist" sounds like a forthright, wise and healthy activity, which we all know is the truth and the essence of stamp collecting.

Bulgaria

Bjørn Harald Bakken bought a classic Bulgarian collection at auction and began research which led him to designing his own stamp albums and sharing his material on the Web.

Bakken's site is a mix of Bulgarian stamps, Bulgarian history and stamp albums.  The largest section is his philatelic journey through the history of Bulgaria based on information from his Bulgarian stamp collection.  

It covers seven chapters dealing with the most important aspects of Bulgarian philately and history up to 1946, such as the First Kingdom (852-1018), the struggle for independence and Bulgaria in the 2nd World War. In addition there's a chapter on famous Bulgarians.

The chapters are well illustrated with the appropriate stamp issues and supplimented with Bakken's historical notes.  The pages are well designed and fast loading, making them a pleasure to read.

Today Bjørn Harald Bakken lives in Trondheim, Norway, with his family, working in the electrical power engineering field.  Like most of us he was a stamp collector as a boy and took up the tongs again about six years ago and is a member of the Federation of Norwegian Philatelists.

And you may also download a few of Bakken's creations from his site.  He has designed a two-volume Bulgarian stamp album, one for Thrace and another for Eastern Roumelia.  He's now working on a classic Rumanian and Baltic States collection and albums.

Though the Web holds few surprises for Bakken --- he's used it for over 10 years for science and job-related purposes --- , he's still impressed by the enormous amounts of time and energy that stamp collectors put into their sites.

Bjørn Harald Bakken's site
http://home.enitel.no/bhb/stamps.htm

Denmark

Henrik Mouritsen is another collector sharing his knowledge on the web.  His  
"Stamps and Postal History" site focuses on the Danish and DWI bi-colours of 1870-1905 with another area devoted to Haiti.  

Like Bakken, Mouritsen acquired a large amount of stamps.  He bought 7,000 bi-colored 8 øre stamps of the 1875 and 1896 edition, and he was hooked.

His online exhibition includes eight introductory pages from his exhibit of  bi-coloured stamps of Denmark, an introduction to the bicolours, the skilling issues and others.

In his Haitian stamp section, you'll find: British stamps used in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; the mute canceller of St. Thomas; République Septentrionale; the R:S: overprints and the first issue of Haiti 1881.

Mouritsen currently shows two competitive exhibits, one on the Danish bi-colours and the other is the "Danish Postal Rates 1875-1906," which won a gold medal at ROPEX 2000, the World Series of Philately show in Rochester, NY.

Stamps and Postal History: Denmark and Haiti
http://130.15.96.188/frimintr.html

Flasher

Free PC toys are great, and here's one that's not only free but perfectly suited to us stamp collectors.  Flasher is a screen saver slideshow program that's very easy to set up, use and customize.

Download and install it.  Then access it through your Window's desktop properties screensaver dialog.  My Flasher runs a slideshow of US stamps on my PC when it's idle.  First, create a directory on your desktop: call it something like "stamp pix."

Then in the screensavers dialogue, select Flasher and then "settings." The flasher set-up box will appear.  Click "Set Editor," where "set" is the "set of pictures" you want to show. Select the "stamp pix" directory on your desktop.  Select OK and then click "preview" in the screensavers dialogue.

Flasher will show all the pictures in the selected directory as a slide show, and you can change the show simply by adding or deleting picture files from the directory.

I've bundled up seven stamp scans into a .zip file that you can download into your directory.  They are scans of stamps from the USPO.  Just download, create a directory and unzip the scans into it.

Flasher
http://www.sinton.org/flasher/

Stamp Pix Zip
http://stamps.about.com/library/graphics/stamppix.zip

Ethiopia

I knew nothing about Ethiopean philately before I saw Ken Doig's Ethiopia Stamp Catalog, and now I know I have a lot to learn.

The opening page is a long table of contents which lead to in depth reports on particular issues, cancels, usages and the like.  Here are reports on issues such as the 1930 Haile Selassie Coronation, the 1930 Coronation Monument and Reprints, the 1931 Definitives, the 1935 Akaki Radio Station and the 1936 Red Cross Semi Postal.  

There are also several special sections dealing with prewar Ethiopian cancellations, Italian military and civilian cancels, including Eritrea, not to mention the 1942-2000 postwar Ethiopian cancellations.

Each report covers the background of the stamp; historical setting; stamp data, such as number printed, plates, colors and important information on stocks not used for overprints; as well as clear, detailed scans.

This is an incredible site that has all the hallmarks of being the source of Ethiopian information on the Web.

Doig's Ethiopia Stamp Catalogue
http://doig.net/EthiHome.html

Ghandhi

Mohandas K. Ghandhi led the civil disobedience against the British Empire that freed the Indian subcontinent.  His life and teachings changed world history and has been instrumental winning civil rights for the oppressed in many countries around the world.

Needless to say, many countries have issued stamps in his honor and this site by R.V. Rajan, "Topical Philately Related to Mohandas K. Ghandhi," does a great job of perpetuating his memory and legacy through those stamps.

Individual issues are arranged by country and chronology.  Click "Country."  That leads to a list of continents, under which are the issuing countries.  Each country listed has a map and brief history with links to the Ghandi stamp issue.  Each Ghandi issue is shown along with date, printing and perf.

The chronology section is arranged by periods, the Early Years, Pre-centenary, Birth Centenary, Post-Centenary, 50th Anniversary 1997-98 and Century-Millennium issues.

The philatelic materials section of the site covers first day covers, souvenier sheets, cinderellas and other such ephemera, and a biographical section on Ghandi is now under construction.

Rajan entered an exhibition of his Ghandi topicals at the National Topical Stamp Show 2000 in Buffalo, NY.  It is availble for download and offline viewing in Acrobat format.

Topical Philately Related to Mohandas K. Gandhi
http://www.topicalphilately.com/Gandhi/

Slania

Sweden recently released a stamp showing "The Great Deeds of Swedish Kings,"
which hangs in the Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm, not to honor the palace, the monarchy or the country, but to commemorate the stamp's engraver, Czeslaw Slania.  It was the 1000th engraving he'd done for the Swedish Post.

No other person associated with stamp design or production is as well known as Czeslaw Slania and no one will ever match his output in terms of quantity or quality.

Born in Poland, in 1959 he engraved his first stamp for Sweden and is now the Royal Court Engraver in Sweden, Denmark and Monaco.  He's won numerous awards for his work and shows no signs of slowing down even in his mid-'70's.

Slania's work has appeared on stamps in Argentina, Denmark, England, Estonia, Faroes, France, Germany, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Monaco, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, the United Nations, the United States and many others.  

If you'd like to know more about Slania check out this page by Chuck Matlack at Toke Nørby's web site.  You'll also find information on the Czeslaw Slania Study Group.

Czeslaw Slania
http://www.norbyhus.dk/chuckm.html

Polar Philately

The Polar Philately Mailing List Web site covers both North and South Pole polar philately.  It's hosted by Michael de Jong in the Netherlands.  

De Jong's a member of the American Society of Polar Philatelists, the Polar Postal History Society of Great Britain and the Polarpost-Sammlervereins Bielefeld.  He started the site in August of 1999 and now the associated mailing list has over 120 members.

There are featured articles covering various aspects of polar philately, such as "The 1931 Polar Flight of the Graf Zeppelin" and  "North of Sixty - The Northwest Territories of Canada: A Philatelic Perspective."  

A recent "Cover In The Spotlight" was the "1924-1925 Amundsen 'North Pole Mail' Cards," though my favoriate section on the site is "Polar Post Offices," which features photographs of the PO's.

The site is well stocked with links to polar stamp sites, as well as to sites dealing with other aspects of life in the polar regions, such as ham radio, history and research and exploration.

As de Jong says, "Polar philately is the ideal way to learn about and document the polar regions, its history of exploration, its geography, and the adventures and activities of the men and women that go there."

It's a different sort of stamp site with the emphasis on the collectors and the members of the site's mailing list, and the site is really a jumping off point to involvement on the mailing list and other web sites.

Polar Philately Mailing List
http://home-1.worldonline.nl/~madejong/polaris.htm

Sites to Join

The Polar Philately Mailing List Web site is a growing site for its virtual stamp club on the 'Net, and is a great way for birds of a feather to flock together.  There are also quite a few other clubs on the 'Net looking for some fine-feathered friends.  

The Society for Costa Rica Collectors, known as "SoCoRico," has a doorway on the Web for anyone interested in the stamps and postal history of that unique Central American land.

Currently SoCoRico has about 200 members in the States and among the republics in the Americas and they publish a well-regarded quarterly magazine called "The Oxcart."

The Society for Costa Rica Collectors
http://www.socorico.org

The Ethiopian Philatelic Society has a news and announcement section at their gateway site, covering shows, stamps, awards and publications about Ethiopian stamps.  A useful part of the news page is the reports of upcoming auctions of Ethiopian material and lists of prices realized.

The EPS site has an application form for prospective members and a useful list of philatelic and non-philatelic Ethiopian links.

Ethiopian Philatelic Society
http://members.home.net/fbheiser/ethiopia5.htm

Thanks for reading the "Glassine Surfer."