Category: Collecting Topics
My Philatelic Interests: John Deutch
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)
Stories of the Dead
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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Grading Stamps
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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