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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.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 1998

[Fire to Inspire.]

The Net is little more than a latter-day printing press, a TV and telephone hybrid with a lot more buttons.  But still just another way in which to inform, entertain and tell stories, and stamps like people have stories to tell.  

A stamp's first story is that of their nativity, the place and circumstances of their coming into this world, in stamp parlance when and where issued.  Their family explains the how and why of its creation, something of the stamp design, what it represents and production detail.

The chronicle continues with the story of its travels and adventures through the hands of senders and carriers around the world, each adding their own stories to this simple account.  These are the sagas of journies, first flights, forwarded, lost, misdirected mail, historical personages and the news brought to them.

Then as the wind blows cold and the journey ends, the stamp comes to your desk to mingle with its friends and and enjoy its retirement in your collection.

Collectors are relating illustrated philatelic bios to hundreds of thousands over the Net, and there's even some good fiction with the fire to inspire.  Afterall, it's not the baseball card that inspires.

It's the story that compells a collector to seek out small pieces of history.

2

[Stamps: Book and Site]

When a mystery writer mines his hobby for stories, can the book be far behind?  And in this age, how long before the web site or e-zine appears?

Stamp collector, Frederick Highland wrote "The Mystery Box," a collection of 20 mystery and adventure tales complete with background on the stamps and stories.  His web site lets you read two of the stories and contains other inspirational armchair reading to pique anyone's interest, young and otherwise.  

(An e-zine (said as: e-zEEn) is, of course, the combination of "e" for electrontic, like e-mail, with "zine" for what was pre-Net called a 'zine, a shortened form of "magazine," a publication used by hobbiests of various stripes to share information.  But these are not "mooks," and that, as they say, is another subject.)

The Mystery Box
http://www.themysterybox.com/

3a

[Santa's Post Office ]

Arccording to Finland Post, the Lapland town of Rovaniemi, which rests of the Artic Circle, is five miles south of Santa's Main Post Office and they ought to know since they've delivered millions of cards and letters sent to the town's well known resident over the years.

In addition, Finland Post sends replies on behalf of Mr. S. Claus to hundreds of thousands of children.  If someone you know needs to write to the Man In Red his address is:

Santa's Main Post Office
FIN-96930 NAPAPIIRI
Finland

And be sure to visit the site for details.

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

As well as this companion site for background and lore about the Rovaniemi post

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

3b

[Labels of Xmas Past]

In 1904 Danish post office worker Einar Holboell created a "Christmas Seal,"  and that year Denmark, Sweden and Norway's post offices sold seals to raise money for charity.  The idea spread, and the first American seals, designed by Emily Bissell, raised $3,000 for the Amrican Red Cross 1907.

Seals are part of philately, and today are issued by the American Lung Association.  They're a great introduction to collecting and also help people help people in need.  I have an accumulation of American seals and even a small set of Finns from the 1930s.  Though termed a "label" and not a stamp, which verifies a fee paid for delivery services, every year I get a one card where a misplaced seal does double duty.

You can learn more from the Christmas Seal and Charity Stamp Group which promotes collecting seals of all sorts, charity and non-TB and otherwise.

CSCSG
http://home.earthlink.net/~rwstuart/cscss/

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

The American Lung Assoc.
http://www.lungusa.org/index2.html

3c

[The Yule Log]

And if you'd like to burn a yule log every month you'll have to join the Christmas Philatelic Club, an APS affiliate specializing in all Christmas philatelics.  But actually, since it's the name of the club's official publication such practices may be frowned upon as unbecoming and entirely unsuitable for roasting chestnuts.

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

4

[Stories From the Land Down Under]

E-mail newsletters are becoming increasingly popular, and stamp collectors can get "On This Day in Philately" free for the asking.  It's a daily non-commercial e-mail bulletin of stamp-relevant history and events from collector Russell Turner that you should try out.

The September third's posting covered the Zemstvos issued in Russia; Sept. 17, London's first GPO; Sept. 19, Vancouver Island's first stamps.  It is one of the first things I read in the AM, and each is a philatelic gem.

To sign up send an e-mail message to Mr. Turner and in the messages's subject line write "On This Day in Philately."  Russell's in Australia so his day and yours may vary depending on your time zone.

"On This Day in Philately."
russellt@melbpc.org.au

5

[Evolving, in the Process]

Philately.com is a growing site of lists with an emphais on topicals backed up with biographies and cross indices.  Creator Jim Yeaw calls it "a demonstration of the possibilities that the World Wide Web brings to philately. It is far from complete."

The globalization of the Net, led the site to use "International Numbers" to identify stamps, which in turn are hyperlinked to the commercial catalog numbers that vary from printer to printer.  

This site keeps growing and looks as if it's evolving into an e-cyclopedia.

Philately.com
http://www.philately.com

6

[Stamp Traders List]

Thank goodness for me that stamps are so light and that a little altruism can go a long way, otherwise stamp collecting and myself would be a lot poorer.  Trading stamps with collectors, whether by packet, value or quantity, has long been popular, and now it's easier than ever.

Phil Guptill's stamp trader's list is now mirrored around the world four times.  Five sites: no waiting.  Sign up: no fee.  Check the list of collectors' wants, contact them via email to see if you two can trade successfully and you're off.  

The list now has online searching, or you can download the whole thing to your PC.  Either, or: trading doesn't get easier than this.  There are monthly updates so don't forget to submit your trading wants and haves.

Guptill's Stamp Trader List
http://users.cybercity.dk/~dko1366/frames/stlmain.htm

7

[Beginner's Central]

People and ideas count, and geography vanishes on the net.  How else could an Idaho web design studio called "Northern Webs" have one of the best online tutorials aimed at net newbies?  It has a non-sizzle, all-steak, informational approach on how to use the Net to do what you want.  How to FTP, download, save file as: All the instructions that should have come with your PC.

The on screen text is small so hit that font enlargement button, or save the screen to a file and open it up into a word processor.  At least bookmark this little devil.

Beginner's Central
http://northernwebs.com/bc/

8

[Stack of Links]

Some dealers do double duty on the Net.  They buy and sell through their web sites and try to help collectors use the Net by putting links to stamp sites on their pages.  Typically, these links are user-submitted, non-discriminated links, and each of the sites below has anywhere from 800 to 1700 stamp-related links.  

These accumulations are more comprehensive than Yahoo!'s, but like eveything need sorting and grading.  There are "finds" here, so sift through those 404s and those spurrious sites submitted under the radar.

These ought to be part of your Net Address book, and either of them is just liable to soar to a new level without advance notice.

Joe Luft in USA
http://www.execpc.com/~joeluft/

Francis Chan in Singapore
http://stamps.s-one.net.sg/stamps.html

Stamp.Com in Germany
http://www.briefmarke.com/inhalt/index.htm

Malte Aronsson from Sweden at Geocities in California
http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/6534/

9a

[Online Villages]

An online community is a collection of content-related sites sharing a common address on the Net.  Some large mega-portals, like Tripod and Geocities, host millions of sites, arranging them in groups called "neighborhoods" or "pods" and binding them together with a common directory or search page.

Philatelic.com, dealer Gregory K. Deeter's site, is a stamp online community, akin to a city stamp show.

Philatelic.com
http://www.philatelic.com

9b

Still, the best way to find what you want is to find someone who already has, and the best sources for stamp sites are stamp club homepages.  Take for example the American Air Mail Society's site.  

The AAMS covers its subject clearly and quickly, laying it all out to read and at the end they have recommended links to sites important to their topic.  Now, when you have a question about US airmails, where would you go?

American Air Mail Society
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/aams/

10

[Aim high, Tally]

Face it.  One day you're gonna want to post your want list to a web site, hoping to find that elusive early postmark from that obscure plebescite region your spouse still thinks is that country in "The Mouse That Roared."  Well, you may as well get started before you have to start raking and mowing again, and here are four tools I'd recommend to get you tinkering at your keys.  Two are programs, two are sites: and there all free.

Siteaid is a free program that writes web pages.  It is very easy to use and understand.  You make a choice, click a button and then you can check to see what effect it had on your page.  You'll be saying, "Ah-ha," all night long.

Siteaid
http://www.siteaid.com

"HTMLib 3.0" is a web language handbook stuffed into a Win 95 Help file for easy, universal use.  Quick and easy and semi-precious.

HTMLib 3.0
http://subnet.virtual-pc.com/~le387818/
Mirrored at  
http://www.terminalp.com/htmlib/

Then you may need or want clarifications, and the HTML site at The Mining Co. is something like a library reference section and coffee shop, where you can learn more, ask and check out topical links.

Html Mining Co.
http://html.miningco.com/

The other essential freebie is the "Html Primer" from NCSA, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.  Save it to your desktop for reference as needed. It ads details to the HtmlLib.

NCSA Html Primer
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimerAll.html

With Siteaid and the HTMLib open side-by-side and the NCSA file at the ready, all you gotta do is repeat "HyperText Markup Language," in a slow rhymic voice over and over and relax, or ask the 12 year old next door to do it for you.

But if a team of daffy archers win world peace, you too can conquer the www,  Tally.

10b

[Oh where, oh where?]

Speaking of online communities and writing your own web site, check out this quick list of large host sites.  If you're thinking of going Net, experiment with one of these hosts.

Portals
http://www.geocities.com
http://www.tripod.com
http://www.xoom.com
http://www.theglobe.com

11

[A Thousand Pictures]

A good story is worth a thousand pictures, so the next time you're with friends, tell them something you learned through stamps.  Maybe something about the CCC from your uncle's covers and letters, or maybe a tidbit of the turbulent history of your valley's past that you unearthed in your search for the old post office.

Life's stories are there in your collection, and you've held a magnifying glass up to the stamps that tell the stories of people and their times.  

Remember: Philatelists love stamps, but everyone loves a good story.

12

[Our Best Defense]

When the "Noviye Izvestia" newspaper asked a Moscow nerve specialist how Russians could ease thier stress when the country became slighly unhinged this fall, Professor Alexander Wein said, "The best cure for any crisis is your hobby.  Your organism's defences are stamp collecting, exercise or a cat."

Well, we all knew that, though in the US a man's best friend is his dog.

Judging by the continued troubles, there's no philatelic renaissance underway in Russia, but I'll be looking for a Russian commemorative showing the good professor jogging with his cat and a stockbook when they release the '99 stamp program.

Next to Last

[Christmas Chestnuts.]

The people of the world celebrate the mid-winter festival of light in hundreds of different traitions, and there are thousands of sites on the web to learn about everyone's favorite season hope, light and giving, and Christmas.com is a good place to start off:

Christmas.com
http://www.christmas.com/

And one of the nicest is called "Christmas Music."  It's a simple list of Chistmas songs.  Click on the title and listen to the melodies.  You can sing along by following the lyrics, or just let it loop over and over while you work.

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

And though it's been said many times, many ways: Merry Christmas ... to you.  Good night, sweet dreams.