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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.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 2002

November is a time of thanksgiving and of our rededication to the future. Abraham Lincoln was at Gettysburg in November 1863 to dedicate the battlefield and remember the sacrifices made there. His address was an eloquent call to the Union to reaffirm its convictions in the struggle for freedom and unity. Fittingly, Lincoln also proclaimed the last Thursday of the month as a time of Thanksgiving.

November 19, 1863 - Library of Congress
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/today/nov19.html

Gettysburg Address
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/4403.html

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SOS

The Ships on Stamps Website is not only a solid club online communication site but also a great hub for information and links about all things maritime related to stamps and postal history.

The Ships on Stamps is a unit of the American Topical Association shows how anyone can get started and enjoy collecting ships on stamps.

The SOS site has a very simple layout. The self-explanatory intro page has links in context that lead to pages of further details. This style of putting links within paragraphs makes sure you “read” rather than “skim” the page, and is how all the Web looked circa 1995. I like it.

The Ships on Stamps
http://www.shipsonstamps.org/

A related site is the US Navy’s online historical center. This is the sort of site that, like the mother ocean, seems simple and navigatable at first, but has areas so vast and deep, you'll be lost without a chart. Some bits of history are covered by bibliographical references, while others have complete texts from published sources online. It’s a big, big site, and well worth the time. Bring your coffee.

US Navy Historical Center
http://www.history.navy.mil/index.html

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Cookies Manager

This small utility allows you to organize and manage the cookies on your computer. When open it shows three window panes; cookies to keep, new cookies, and cookies to destroy.

When a user opens the program, he can move his cookies from pane to pane, and then delete those he wants. Upon exiting the settings are saved so that new cookies that were previously deleted once again appear in the “to destroy” pane and those to keep in their pane.

The latest version is 1.1, and it’s dated “20-Nov-2000” on the page with other bits of freeware written by the developer Pierre-Marie Devigne. Cookie Manager is for Windows 9x/NT4/2000/XP, Internet Explorer 4 or higher.

Cookies Manager
http://home.nordnet.fr/~pmdevigne/

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Bulgaria

All stamps tell stories, and history on stamps is a very popular topical. Of course a single site can’t cover global history, so this site focuses on Bulgaria’s history on stamps. It does it well with a tour with stamps and text through easy to click pages.

I knew little of Bulgaria before I read this site, and enjoyed learning what all those Bulgarian definitives I have are all about.

The Bulgaria section of the site covers history, unlisted stamps, forgeries, perfins, covers, cancels, and postal stationery.

There’s also a budding section on the related history of Romania to keep you hooked.

History on Stamps
http://home.no.net/bhb1/stamps.htm

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SCADS

SCADS is a group of philatelists and collectors combating shady tactics by sellers of stamps. SCADS wants to educate the philatelic community about issues such as fakes and forgeries, alterations, scams, and shill bidding.

SCADS: Stamp Collectors Against Dodgy Sellers
http://wwww.scads.org

A related Web page is a listing of fake stamps offered through eBay, showing how essential philatelic education is.

http://www.slingshotvenus.com/stamps/fakes.html

For its part, eBay, the Net’s largest stamp sales service, does have some mechanisms in place to sort out problem sales, and you should be aware of them.

eBay
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/investigates.html

In August “The Jim Lehrer News Hour” on PBS aired an interview with Richard Doporto about stamp fakes and eBay censorship. Doporto is SCADS' forensic philatelic investigator (FPI), and there’s a link to the report’s audio on the SCADS site.

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spamlaws [it should be lower-case spamlaws as it isn't Hormel's product]

A very user-friendly site called spamlaws is a great place to see if your state has protections on the books. It lists the laws concerning spam from around the world and the US, and there are links to the original legislative bodies should a user wish to contact their lawmaker.

With all the pending legislation in the pipeline and the obvious need for passage of strong anti-spam laws, it does make you wonder what the disconnect between constituent and politician is all about.

Back in the spring the "CAN SPAM" act ran into a pro-business and GOP roadblock when Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., halted committee action by invoking a procedural move.

To round off the site, Webmaster David Sorkin has a fine set of links to online articles and anti-spam sites.

spamlaws
http://www.spamlaws.com/

“E-mail users plagued by rising tide of junk”
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/3108519.htm

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Sharing

Share your stamp site recommendations with the rest of the APS family. Your experience may help many other stamp collectors learn and enjoy their hobby more, and spreading the word about a good online resource is one of the best ways to say thanks to a hardworking philatelic Webmaster.

As Tim Sanders, chief solutions officer at Yahoo, has been quoted as saying, "Knowledge sharing is the basis of everything. Share knowledge with reckless abandon." Afterall, that's why Berners Lee created the Web in the first place

Realising the Full Potential of the Web
http://www.w3.org/1998/02/Potential.html

E-mail me at
Mike@GlassineSurfer.com

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French Web Philately

Philately may have started in France, and many of the early hallmarks of stamp collecting come from French philatelists, such as the perf gauge and many of our everyday terms. Though today there are hundreds of French sites about stamps, many are outside the reach of most Americans because of the language barrier, but that's really no reason not to surf them.

One of the best I've seen is Guy Maggay's web site that covers the development of post marks and cancellations of France.

Guy Maggay's Site
http://www.chez.com/memorial/

My French is good enough for navigating, but too vague for the important things so, if you're like me, you can use Google's online web page translating service. Copy the target URL into the form on Google's page, and you're set. The nice thing is that Google will automatically translate all the other pages you click on.

Translate with Google
http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

French Post in the Ottoman Empire

This rather in depth site covers the offices, the cancels, rates and stamps used by the French postal administration throughout the Ottoman Empire. It's profusely illustrated and detailed.

French Post in the Ottoman Empire
http://robert.desert.chez.tiscali.fr/index.htm

2,20 F Freedom of Gandon

A study of the 2,20 Franc definitive, the Freedom of Gandon, or as it self-titles itself, "the enthralling study of a stamp of everyday usage modern." Reminds me of the FOP, only nicer.

Freedom of Gandon
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/chbarret/

Paris Cancels

Just a small expo of the numeral and star cancels of Paris from 1863 through 1876.

Paris Cancels
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jef.estel/

Timbre-Post.com

A stamp site from France covering definitives, varieties, cancels, removing self-adhesives, the Marianne stamps, etc. It's easy-to-use and self-explanatory.

Timbreposte.com
http://timbreposte.free.fr/

French Colonial Issues

From 1851 to 1891, France's colonies used omnibus issues, which is the focus of this little site. Among them are the eagles of 1859-65, the 1871 issues, and the next year's Ceres type.

French Colonial Issues
http://site.ifrance.com/aigles/

French Cancellation Sampler

A detailed and informative article on French cancellations can also be found at the APS Chapter Activities Committee Website. It's in English.

French Cancellation Sampler
http://www.stamps.org/cac/artf006.htm

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Grabber

Screen capture programs are generally used to document and preserve a computer screen's information and appearance. Some people use them to save sales information, and some Webmasters screen capture just about every novel design idea they see.

Whatever you use it for, screen captures are a handy tool to have around. Suppose you see a suspicious stamp for sale on the Web, you could simply capture the screen and save it for reference before it changes. Likewise, they’re just an easy way to save pictures.

Grabber 2k Lite is a freeware, easy-to-use screen capture program that has all the bells and whistles you should need. For Windows 9x/NT/ME/2K.

Grabber2k Lite
http://www.webattack.com/get/grabber2k.shtml

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Sarawak Society

The Sarawak Specialists’ Society can now be found at their new location.

Sarawak Specialists' Society
http://home.freeuk.net/johnmorgan/sss.htm

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Deck the Hall Early

Christmas only comes once a year, but it can be such a blessing that it’s a shame that it has to end. The only thing to do is to get into the Christmas mood early.

Finland Post says that Santa Claus lives in the Lapland town of Rovaniemi, and over the years they've delivered millions of cards and letters to him. Finland Post even replies to the kids on his behalf, so if you know someone who needs to write to the Man In Red, the “real” address is:

Santa's Main Post Office
FIN-96930 NAPAPIIRI
Finland

Finland Post and Santa
http://www.pmk.posti.fi/santa/engl/mainoffice2.htm

Santa’s Post Office may take a little time to load, but the Flash presentation will delight the little ones.

Santa's Post Office
http://www.santaclausoffice.fi/

Naturally, you ought to bookmark the USAF’s site to keep an eye on the Man’s progress on the 24th.

NORAD Santa Tracker
http://www.noradsanta.org/

Here are a few links to get music and screensavers to do up your computer for the Christmas season.

Sunset Angel's Christmas
http://www.sunsetangel.com/holidays/christmas/index.html

Christmas Music
http://www.netstrider.com/music/christmas/

Christmas Lights screensaver
http://www.ncn.com/~tjohnson/lights.htm

Lots of Christmas screensavers
http://www.christmasscreensavers.net/

A couple of sites will tell you more about the Holiday season throughout history and the world.

Merry Christmas in 350 languages
http://www.flw.com/merry.htm

Joy to the World
http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/christmas.html

And of course Christmas Seals are philately’s most important contribution to the Holidays.

Christmas Seal and Charity Stamp Group
http://cscss.home.att.net/

Christmas Seals
http://www.christmasseals.org/

The Christmas Philatelic Club
http://www.hwcn.org/link/cpc/

Lastly, if you need some last minute gift tags with stamps on them, and who doesn’t, just visit the Glassine Surfer and print them out at home.

Christmas Gift Tags
http://www.glassinesurfer.com/f/gsstamptags.shtml

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Ontario LPS

The London Philatelic Society of Ontario, Canada, invites everyone to visit their site. The site welcomes potential members and lists regular meetings, club activities, and how to get in touch with the club.

Currently on tap is their "Elgin County Tidbits" on 12 November and their auction on the 26th. But if you’re in the area on 10 December you might want to join a sing-along at the annual Christmas Party.

The London Philatelic Society of Ontario, Canada
http://londonphilatelicsociety.freewebtools.com/

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Happy Turkey Day

Before I say goodbye, here’s a little help for what I hope is your most troubling task this month.

Norbest: Carving a Turkey
http://www.norbest.com/d_carving_a_turkey.cfm

Bon Appetit: How to Carve a Turkey
http://www.epicurious.com/b_ba/b02_howto/carve.html

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Glassine Surfer

The Glassine Surfer maintains an online column archive and links to just about everything about stamp collecting, so if you’re looking for a site, you can find it there.

And if you’re out surfing with your keyboard on Sunday or Wednesday evenings, you’re welcome to sit in at the Sociable Stamp Society. Just go to the site and click “chat.”

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

Thanks for supporting the “Glassine Surfer,” and remember to renew your stamp club dues. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.