In this presentation Pat Morgan explains how to get started using the new greatermoundcity.org website. This presentation provided only an overview of the content but the members will need to dive into the site and look around and try out all the features in order to get the most out of the site and all its has to offer. Please email webmaster@greatermoundcity.org with any correction and ideas.
Do you have a computer and are you tired of struggling with a magnifying glass to identify your stamps?? Well maybe it’s time to update with some technology. Having worked most of my adult life in the IT field (yes, I am a geek) it seemed only right that I should look to technology to help my stamp collecting addiction. So last year I purchased a Celestron 5MP Digital Microscope Pro (currently $104 on Amazon) to help me identify stamps. This week I got an email with a review by PhilaSupplies on the digital microscope I had purchased last year and I thought I’d share with the club some of my thoughts on their review and what I did to overcome a major short coming I felt there was with the product.
PhilaSupplies says: This stamp magnifying microscope is setting a new standard for stamp collectors. It´s an easy-to-use microscope, perfect for viewing stamps, coins, and other small objects at magnifications up to 200x! This stamp magnifying microscope is extremely versatile – you can use it in handheld mode to view large object surfaces and access tight spaces or just use the included adjustable stand for smaller objects. View the images from the Handheld Digital Microscope Pro directly on your PC using the provided software, and save the 5MP images or 30fps video to your hard drive!
Read the full review: https://philasupplies.com/stamp-magnifying-microscope-celestron-5-mp-handheld-digital-microscope-pro-review/
In general, I agree with the review, but I do however disagree with the claim that it is useful in the handheld mode. I personally am too shaky to hold it steady in one hand and use a mouse to capture a good image in the other. My microscope didn’t come with a USB cord that has a shutter in the cable which may help resolve my issue. Since I didn’t have the shutter on the cable, I had to come up with something that worked for me.
I found a very simple and inexpensive fix to the problem. The stand comes with a very nice, although too short, 0.625” OD (5/8”) polished stainless-steel rod to which the microscope mounts and is perfectly adequate for very tight and detailed viewing. If, however, you want to capture an entire stamp larger than a Washington/Franklin, the rod is not long enough. I tried spinning the microscope around 180 degrees on the rod and setting the base on books to elevate it but that was awkward and unstable.
Replacing the short rod was needed to fix the problem, I had originally started looking for a piece of stainless-steel tubing to replace the short piece provided but quickly found it was going to be quite expensive. A 24” piece of 304 polished stainless-steel tube was going to run $35 or more. So rather than spend money on a stainless-steel tube that I’d rather spend on stamps (of course), I opted for a hardwood dowel rod. I found that a 16” length of 5/8” Poplar dowel rod replaces the original tube just fine by simply removing the original rod by loosening the retaining ring and removing from the base (figure 1). This eliminated the need to hand hold the microscope for larger/entire stamps (figure 2) while still very useful up close as well (figure 3). A 48” piece of 5/8” Poplar dowel rod cost less than $3 at Lowe’s. I assume that if I were to use it a lot the wood would eventually wear down and need to be replaced but this is still a far cheaper approach than buying stainless steel tubing and for the $3 I spent I already have left over dowel rod for 2 replacements. If money is not an issue then go for the polished stainless-steel, but for occasional use the wood works just fine.
In summary, with the above exception I would agree with the final verdict of the review that was posted on PhilaSuppiles, that if you are wanting a microscope for examining your stamps the Celestron 5MP Digital Microscope Pro is one to put on your list!
Siegfried “Sieg” Hagen Stange passed away peacefully at home May 10, 2020 at age 90. Sieg enjoyed a long career in aerospace, starting as an engineer at Douglas Aircraft in California and coming to St. Louis as an executive as part of the McDonnell Douglas merger. Early on his career was briefly put on hold to serve in the Army for 2 years. His many hobbies included working his extensive garden, playing golf and collecting stamps as a member of the Greater Mound City Stamp Club. He was a patron and supporter of the St. Louis Muny and Stages – St. Louis Theaters. He loved to travel and was able to visit extended family in Germany as well as his bucket list destinations in New Zealand, Australia and much of Europe.
Phillip Schorr specializes part of his collection to Dead Countries. Dalmatia is one of those Dead Countries.
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Gregory Scott Ward (1962-2019) was a member of the American Philatelic Society and in Missouri, he was actively involved in the Kingdom and Columbia Philatelic Societies. He was awarded for work that he loved as a mentor to young people, providing guidance and support to youth stamp clubs throughout mid-Missouri.
Scott was the Youth Chairman for the St. Louis Stamp Expo for more than a decade, organizing amazing volunteers and resources to provide an activity room for kids during this annual event.
Phillip Schorr specializes part of his collection to Dead Countries. In this article Phil explain why collecting the Dead is a good idea.
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Stamp grades range from “average” all the way to “gem”. Grades are based on three factors: centering, condition, and eye appeal. Centering means determining how well a stamp’s design is centered within its perforations. A well centered stamp has equal sized margins, while a poorly centered stamp has margins of unequal size. Well centered stamps command a higher grade (and price) than poorly centered stamps. If a stamp is in perfect condition, grades are directly proportional to the stamp’s centering. So let’s say you have two stamps, both in perfect condition. The first stamp is well centered, and thus has a high grade, while the second stamp is poorly centered and thus has a low grade. The first stamp could be worth approximately 10-100 times as much as the second stamp because the demand for well centered stamps is so high.
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September 13, 1950 – March 13, 2018
Saint Louis, Missouri
David Michael Kols graduated from Lehigh University – Class of 1972, where he majored in Economics, and was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. After college, David moved to New York City where he started a wholesale travel company in the Bronx, later moving it to Connecticut.
In 1984, Kols established Mississippi Computer Corp. to provide software to the wholesale travel industry.
In 1990, he opened Regency Stamps, a philatelic retail store and auction house located in Warson Woods, moving the company to Le Chateau Village in Frontenac, and finally expanding to the Central West End in St. Louis.
In 1992 he bought Superior Galleries of Beverly Hills, CA incorporating many other collectibles forming Regency-Superior Auctions. David was a true entrepreneur.
A stamp collector since childhood, he revamped his business eight years later as Regency Stamps Ltd. and opened a street-level retail stamp store in the St. Louis area. The shop remained open for a quarter century and included a United States Postal Service substation and philatelic window.
Working with hobby leaders in the St. Louis area, Kols and his wife Penney, founded and supported the St. Louis Stamp Expo (EXPO), which held its first show Oct. 1-3, 1993. Expo quickly earned accreditation as an APS World Series of Philately show and has maintained that status for well over two decades. With Kols as executive director, the show was the first major stamp exhibition in the St. Louis area in nearly 20 years. It made a significant effort to engage youngsters in the first year by bringing in more than 900 schoolchildren in a single day and providing activities and gifts for them.
For 2002-2005, Kols authored the Stamp Market Tips column for Linn’s Stamp News.
In 2016, Kols was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer requiring him to shut down his businesses and step down as the Executive Director of the St. Louis Stamp Expo.
Source(s):
September 3, 1933 – April 11, 2014
Saint Louis, Missouri
Dr. Elizabeth Jane Nettles, known to everyone as “Betty,” was a prominent St. Louis psychologist and psychotherapist and internationally known philatelist. Betty began to collect stamps at age eight while recovering from polio.
She attended the College of William & Mary and earned a B.S. in psychology there in 1955. She moved to St. Louis in 1956 and has resided in the area since. She attended Washington University from 1956 to 1962 under a fellowship sponsor by the National Institute of Mental Health and earned her PhD in clinical psychology in 1978 after completion of her dissertation “Ego Development and Sex Role Expectation in Marriage.” She began her private practice as a clinical psychologist in 1960 and quickly became recognized as a specialist in psychological testing of children and adolescents to diagnose difficult cases. Betty served as a consultant in Family and Children’s Services in St. Louis for over 30 years. She also worked as a psychological consultant for the Girls’ Home, St. Louis Hospital for Children, Clayton Public Schools, The Miriam School, Mary Institute, Lutheran Family Service and St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf. She worked as a research consultant for Family Services of Memphis, Washington University Medical School, Jewish Hospital, and Illinois Children and Family Service. She was the Chief Clinical Psychologist for the Ellen Steinberg Division of Child Psychiatry at Jewish Hospital in the early 1960s. She was a long-term member of the Missouri and American Psychological Association and served as a chair of the Missouri Association Legislative Committee for many years. In recent years, she served as a supervisor in those seeking licensure as clinical psychologists. She was a skilled therapist for all age groups. In recent years, she developed expertise in forensic evaluations for criminal cases. Betty’s primary focus as an adult was her family and her clients/patients.
In her middle age, she developed a passion for her philately and became known widely in the community as a serious stamp collector and as an accomplished exhibitor. She built award-winning exhibits of St. Louis postal history and the 1904 Louisiana Purchase. She was a member of numerous national societies including the American Philatelic Society, the Women Exhibitors and Hawaiian Stamp Study Group. Some of her prized Hawaiian material is on long-term loan in an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute.
In St. Louis, Betty was an active member of the Mound City Stamp Club, 1904 World’s Fair Club and especially the Webster Groves Stamps Club, in which she was the long-term program chair, inviting outstanding speakers who collectively comprised one of the strongest club program schedules in the nation. She was founder and leader of a St. Louis area exhibitors study group, the St. Louis Bears, and for many years was in the Exhibits Chair for the St. Louis Stamp Expo, which grew to become one of the most competitive exhibitions in the country. Many of the visiting speakers and other guests were welcomed into her home, which she proudly called “The Nettles Philatelic Hotel.” Her gracious hospitality was legendary as were her Virginia style crab cakes.
In 2010, Betty received the Elizabeth C. Pope Award from the St. Louis Stamp Expo for her great contributions to philately. It was fitting that Betty should be honored with the award named for and first bestowed upon her longtime friend, Elizabeth C. Pope
Source: APS written by Alan Barasch
May 31, 1955 – October 16, 2012
Saint Louis, Missouri
In a short life, David L. Straight accomplished more in philately than many do in a many decades-long career. David was a prolific writer and researcher. He published more than 250 articles ranging from pneumatic mail, to the history of the Registered Mail system, to the disgraceful treatment of E. G. Lewis by the Post Office Department, to extreme back-of-the-book topics. He had made acquaintances within the U.S. Postal Service who gave him access to more information about Post Office forms than has ever been published.
A librarian by training and vocation, David retired at the age of 55 to write full time. He was constantly researching some esoteric subjects, whether at the Yale Library, the Library of Congress, the National Postal Museum, or the Postal Service archives. His research notes fill many file cabinets. His articles appeared in The American Philatelist, The American Stamp Dealer & Collector, Stamp Collector, Confluence (devoted to Missouri history), and countless others.
David was quite vocal about making technology work for philately, at the same time realizing that files must be constantly upgraded to new technologies to keep them viable. He was one of the organizers of the Winton F. Blount Symposium on postal history and the impetus behind Volunteer Work Week at APS Headquarters, He was also the driving force behind the Philatelic Union Catalog, the Philatelic Librarians Roundtable, and Stamp Camp USA, serving as its first Chairman.
David was a long-time member of the board of the American Philatelic Society, a trustee of the American Philatelic Research Library, a vice president of the Postal History Society, presented several topics at Summer Seminar, and served several terms as an officer of the Greater Mound City Stamp Club, APS Chapter 4, and Webster Groves Stamp Club (all three in Saint Louis). He spent more than fifteen years on the Board of St. Louis Stamp Expo, filling more shoes than many realized. David was also curator of the Hawaii exhibit that was one of the opening exhibits when the William H. Gross Gallery opened at the National Postal Museum in 2013.
Straight was honored in 2011 by becoming a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London and in 2012 was presented the Elizabeth C. Pope Award for Lifetime Contributions to Philately by Saint Louis Stamp Expo.
