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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

December 2000

Every Christmas Santa Claus brought me something for my stamp collection.  I got my first stamp catalog on Christmas, a 1968 Scott US Specialized, and a Minuteman or a White Ace cover album other years.  Because of that Christmas and stamp collecting have always been linked in my mind and when I starting writing this month's column I had my '68 Specialized on my desk.

Back in '68 the 2¢ Hawaiian Missionary on cover was $37,000, about the price of two modest single-family homes in the NYC suburbs, which in in today's money would be $182,874, according to the US Federal Reserve.  Of course, stamp prices have risen, and years ago I would have said I wish that I knew what I know now, especially as Scott's 2001 catalogue gives the 2¢ Hawaiian Missionary on cover a value of $2,100,000.  

But today I'd be happy just to see a 2¢ Missionary at an exhibition.  If I owned it, I'd probably worry over it too much, and now I realize that back in 1968 I never made $37,000 on my paper route even with tips at Christmas.  

Post Office in Paradise

Scott groups the stamps of the Kingdom and Republic with its US listings, which I guess is fitting, since the islands are now a state, but in general I think it's a disservice to the rich legacy of Hawaiian stamps and their aficiandos as the Hawaiian listings seem to be a mere afterthought in the US galaxy of stamps.

However, two things have occured that may change all that.  One is a two-page essay on the double overprints of the 1893 Hawaiian issue by Fred Gregory in the "Scott 2001 US Specialized Catalog," and the other is a web site called "Post Office in Paradise," an allusion to chesseburgers, parrot heads and of course, singer Jimmy Buffet.

Briefly, "PO in Paradise" covers Hawaiian stamps, postal cards and stationery, foreign mails and covers, locals and inter-island mail, postal markings, and news and notes.  And it covers these topics in depth.

The left-hand side navigation table will tell you all you want to know about what's on site.  There are sections for  Missionary Stamps, Boston Engraved Issue, Numeral Issue, Boston Lithograph Issue, Bank Note Issue, Provisional Government Issue, Pictorial Issue, et al., under "Stamps."

Under "Foreign Mails & Covers," the site covers Pre-Treaty Mail, Mail Rates, Treaty Period, Inaugural Treaty Period, et al., ad astra, not to mention Soldiers Mail.

"Post Office in Paradise" was set up to function like an online study group, so users are welcome to share information, questions and discoveries, and this collaborative process has already yielded some interesting discoveries.  Under "News & Notes" you'll find "Discoveries" and a report of a 1893 provisional overprint on a orange-red 2¢ Kamehameha IV.

"Post Office in Paradise" was set up by Fred Gregory who acts as host to online guests and collaborators.  He's has been collecting for more than 45 years and delving into Hawaiian issues for nearly 25.  He's a member of numerous clubs, the Royal Philatelic Society, CCNY, US Classics, Hawaiian Philatelic Society, US Possessions Society and APS among them.  

Credits for the site's lay out and design go to Andy Wang and Marketing Dynamics Associates, and additions and expansions are planned for material such as auxillary postal markings and a section on forgeries.

Post Office in Paradise
http://www.hawaiianstamps.com/

Ad Blockers

Once long ago in a galaxy far away the Web was without marketing, without advertisements and pop-up windows.  That was sometime before 1994, before Windows 95, the Pentium chip and AOL's flat-rate pricing.  Now, advertising revenues are expected to pay the frieght charges on Web sites just as they do in Tv-land, but the real downside for us, the bleary-eyed surfers, is that those ad laden Web pages can take quite a while to load on a 56k line.

And true to form, where there is a problem, someone on the Net will craft a solution, and in this case, it's ad blockers.  These are simple programs that stop the advertising images from loading in your browser.  The effect on load time does depend on the site and your connection, but it's safe to assume that you won't be waiting as long for the next Reuters sports story about Penn State basketball to load.

One of the more interesting ad-blockers is Naviscope.  It's self-stated goal is Web "acceleration," which it done by a variety of techy functions, such as DNS resolution caching, pre-fetching, persistent connections, MTU/RWIN optimizations and advertisement blocking.

Naviscope can also block cookies, backgrounds, blinking text, Javascript and sounds, but as you do need cookies and Javascript on some sites, you can easily configure what sites will be blocked.  The program also shows Web activity as you browse and lets you do Internet diagnostics, such as getting Website registration information.

The pre-fetching option is an excellent choice for anyone who uses "search" capabilities at Websites.  While you read page one of your search results, Naviscope will fetch the "next" page of results to your browser, so it's waiting for you at the click of your mouse.

And Naviscope is free.

Naviscope
http://www.naviscope.com/

AdSubtract is another worthwhile ad-blocker.  Like Naviscope the ad-blocked pages are sent to your browser from the Web site through a proxy server that in effect blocks out the ads before they are sent to your browser.  

There are three flavors of AdSubtract.  AdSubtract SE "Standard Edition" is free for personal use and the best place to start.  It's two main features are blocking web ads and cookies.

AdSubtract SE
http://www.adsubtract.com/index.html

If you're interested in using these programs, be sure to read everything on the program Website before you install the program.

Princely States

The "Princely States Report" debuted in October as the online journal of Indian States philately and history.  It's commercial-free and so far the only Website for and about the stamps of India's states.

PSR is the brainchild of Ron Rice, a Website and software user interface designer, whose passion is the stamps of India and her states.  Ron had a strong interest in the stamps of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ceylon, even when he was collecting as a kid.  

Then when his children began collecting, Ron grew more and more active and began to concentrate on the Indian Feudatory States, which he prefers to call "princely" for good reason.  He's now a member of the India Study Circle, the APS, the American Philatelic Research Library, and the Philatelic Computing Study Group.

Currently onsite are several feature stories.  "Rajasthan Fiscal Overprints Catalogue," "Care and Storage of Indian States Documents," and "Fake Alert," an ongoing series on forgers and forgeries.

You'll also find "Morley's Philatelic Journal," subtitled "A Monthly Paper for Collectors of Postage, Revenue, Telegraph and Railway Stamps."  It appeared in January 1900 and is reprinted here, along with a glossary of Indian States terms, philatelic and otherwise.

But one of the more intriguing pieces to the site I found to be the "Idea Bin," in which users suggest things they'd like to see on the PSR site.  What better way is there for a Web publisher to know what his users want to read about next.

One area Ron hopes to expand upon in future issues is forgeries.  They've been a problem for Indian States collectors, and can turn people away from the specialization. So Ron hopes to help clear the air and empower collectors with the information they need
to validate their stamps and avoid questionable transactions.

"Princely States Report" plans to publish new articles and material each quarter, like a
traditional magazine, and all articles can be found in an archive section.  The next issue of PSR is due January 2001.

"Princely States" may very well become one of those handful of Websites even non-states collectors go to just to see what can be done by someone who knows his stamps and who knows the Web.

Princely States Report
http://princelystates.com

Clubs on the Net

Your Christmas cards will be arriving and no doubt you'll fret that your friends and relatives didn't use some of 2000's more obscure commemoratives issues on their cards.  That of course is worse than the postman cancelling all incoming with black magic marker because when they don't use that commemorative, you'll never even have a chance to get a crisply canceled copy.

But imagine the chagrin of Christmas Seal collectors.  Their hunting season is only open about a month.  I have no idea what they think about Christmas Seals used before Labor Day, but if you want to find out, you can go to the Christmas Seal and Charity Stamp Group Website.

Christmas Seal and Chariry Stamp Group
http://members.aol.com/betsychuck/cscss.htm

The Scandinavian Collectors Club covers some of the world's best stamps.  The Scandinavian countries have many highly regarded philatelic bureaus and stamp issuance programs and the SCC site is a good place to delve into them.  The site contains details on membership, officers and bylaws, as well as an article archive from their official publication, "The Posthorn," in .pdf format.

Scandinavian Collectors Club
http://www.scc-online.org/

The Philatelic Society of Puerto Rico is in Spanish, but I don't think languages ever stopped a stamp collector from pursuing the stamps he wants.    At the SFPR site you'll find a membership form, information on activities and news about stamps relating to the island.  Webmaster Luis Gonzalez Perez in Puerto Rico speaks English so if your Spanish has faile you, you can e-mail Sr. Perez.

Sociedad Filetica de Puerto Rico
http://www.yunque.net/primedia/Homepage/sfpr.htm

Christmas Time

Yes, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere I surf, and I like the season a whole lot more now that I avoid the traffic, parking lots and checkout lines and shop online.  The Web's filled with nice Christmas touches and here are a few.

There's a nice and simple Christmas screen saver you can use for free without any ads.  It's a black screen with falling snow which accumulates and covers more the screen the longer you computer is idle.  A strand of Christmas lights twinkles across the top and a Christmas tune or two plays in the background.  It is configurable, and you can select the tunes you want, how fast the snow falls or the lights blink.  I was waiting for the penguins to come out, but I could never leave my PC alone for that long.

Christmas Lights Screen Saver
http://new.chemeketa.edu/~rlj/files/lights02.exe

This is a simple page of Christmas gift tags.  They're for the presents you give and each features a stamp design, Christmas or otherwise.  Choose a tag design and click on it. You'll then get a page of 10 tags of that design and all you have to do then is print them out.  The paper or card stock you print them on is up to you, as is perforation, though I think imperf is the way to go.

Christmas Gift Tags
http://stamps.about.com/library/weekly/aa112299.htm

Of course, if you're looking for a bevy of nice Christmas graphics for your seasonal mailings, your html projects or just want to see a gallery of good art, then check out "Sunset Angel's Christmas page."  It's a much better than average graphics site filled with tiled background, animations, java applets, clip art, bars and bullets, and that sort of thing.

Sunset Angel's Christmas page
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Lane/9068/christmas.html

And if you want a quick dose of online Christmas spirit because the boss won't let you leave early or you're too tired to drive up town, then check out this site.  It's not the biggest, but it is a good directory of Christmas links.  It's one of those places you can click around and not realize that an hour has passed.

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

If you need new wallpaper for your desktop, you can get a free desktop calendar featuring a Christmas Angel from an old Russian postcard.  The days and numbers will help keep you focused on the big day.

Christmas Desktop Calendar
http://stamps.about.com/library/weekly/aa112299.htm

I love the Yuletide, but after three weeks the needles on my Xmas tree begin to hurt my feet, but I make one concession to the season and leave my outside Christmas lights up throughout the year.  On the Web you should drop into the Christmas Philatelic Club's web site where it's Christmas every day of the year and the trees are truly evergreen.

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