Some months back I purchased a “used” stockbook through eBay (where else?). I thought I was buying an empty stockbook, but when it arrived I was surprised to discover that it contained a collection of approximately fifty cut squares – some from the 1800s (anybody interested in these?), an old American Philatelic Association Sales Department Control stamp, and three old Philadelphia Public Herald labels (two overprinted POSTMASTER, ROHNERVILLE, Humboldt Co., CAL., and one overprinted POSTMASTER, CHINA FLAT, Humboldt Co., CAL).
Motivated by the basic philatelic principle that “one collector’s junk is another’s treasure”, I brought these labels to our February stamp club meeting. We have some pretty knowledgeable people in our club, but no one who saw them had any idea as to what they might be.
An online search drew a blank.
I have sent an enlarged computer-generated photocopy of the three labels to several dealers with the hope that someone will be able to tell me about them.
Most of us have a “what is it?” somewhere in our collections, and some of us have more than one. I have given this note and a computer-generated photocopy of the three labels to Phil for inclusion in a future newsletter. Let me know if you can answer my “what is it?” question. I will let you know what, if anything, dealers have to say about these three labels.
Article Update – September 15, 2020
Since the original article, John Deutch has completed additional research and found a few answers about these labels. The APRL Library was able to produce and send the 5 page philatelic article about the labels that John was able to locate. John will talk about to what he learned at the September 2020 meeting. There will also be a summary of the article in the September Perf-Dispatch. Anyone that would like a copy of the full article can reach out to John Deutch.
As a follow-up from the above Linn’s article, Alex was asked by Charles Epting & Michael Cortese, both APS YPLF grads who started the Conversations with Philatelists podcast to chat more about the 2020 STL Stamp Expo.
This month the area of interest is Bavaria, the largest of the states currently making up Germany. It is located in the southeast of Germany, bordering on Austria and the Czech Republic. It’s major cities are Munich and Nuremberg.
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!
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.
Figure 1. Retaining Ring
Figure 2. Large View
Figure 3. Close-Up
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!
According to Linn’s World Stamp Almanac a cinderella is a stamplike label that is not a postage stamp. Cinderellas include seals and bogus issues, as well as revenue stamps, local post issues and other similar items, per. However, a great many cinderella stamps are listed in Scott catalogues. Local postage stamps are stamps that were valid within a limited postal system.
Six stamps picturing King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenia were put on sale October 1, 1907 at the Madrid Industrial Exposition for financial support. They were not valid for postage.
Stamps were issued to publicize the Barcelona Philatelic Congress and EXPOSITION in 1929. Two postal tax stamps are listed in Scott as numbers 371-372. These were the only two listed of the several issues. The others are considered as promotional poster stamps.
The 1929 Barcelona International Exposition provided the pretext to urbanize a mountainous area and connect it to Barcelona. Nine million copies of these “Ayuntamiento de Barcelona” stamps were made of the first issue. Since then, new stamps were issued at Christmas, with some of the proceeds going to charity, a tradition that continued to 1950. Below are examples of local usage.
My stamp collecting interests? Wow, where do I begin? Like so many others of my vintage, I started collecting stamps back in 1950 or 1951 when I was in 4th or 5th grade in north St. Louis. There was no one in my family who collected stamps, but I had several friends in my class at school who did. In those days we all sent our nickels and dimes off in the mail to various stamp companies for those “wonderful offers” (with approvals, of course) that were advertised in the back of comic books and BOYS LIFE. I continued to collect sporadically until marriage and kids, and then I sold my stamps.
Ten or fifteen years ago I got interested in stamps again. I built a pretty good collection of Scouts on stamps, which I sold, Belgium, which I sold, and Denmark, which I also sold. Today my collecting interests are centered around the stamps and postal history of the Pontifical or Roman States, and the stamps and postal history of Vatican City up to the death of Pope John XXIII in 1963. I also have a small U.S. collection of stamps, souvenir sheets, covers and other ephemera from the International Philatelic Exhibitions that were held in this country in 1913, 1926, 1933 and 1947, and the same sort of material from the 1933 APS convention, the 1934 Trans-Mississippi Philatelic Exposition, and the 1937 meeting of the Society of Philatelic Americans. It is enough to keep me occupied, and mostly out of trouble. (To be continued next month)
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.
