Depending on what part of the world you call home, today may not feel very much like spring. Nevertheless, the Spring 2015 Supplement (228 KB, 4 files, 5 pages) for The Philosateleian U.S. Stamp Album is now available! You can download and print the new and updated pages at your convenience.
Happy collecting!
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Traffic was jammed up on the Interstate this evening, so I was late getting home and don’t have time for a full post. Instead, I’ll wish you a good weekend with this bit of philatelic foolishness.
(In case you’re wondering, the eyes are from one of the “Bright Eyes” stamps issued in 1998.)
We’re only a couple of months into 2015, but Purgatory Post’s Scott A. has been a very busy local poster! Scott recently sent this cover bearing four of his newest stamps to me.
The top pair of stamps pay homage to the world’s first postage stamps, Great Britain’s Penny Black and Two-Penny Blue. Scott tells me he issued these a bit in advance of World Local Post Day, but his is the only stamp I’ve seen that recognizes the 175th anniversary of the Two-Penny Blue. Everyone else (including Philosateleian Post) focused exclusively on the Penny Black.
One interesting characteristic of these Purgatory Post stamps, which I’m calling the Quarter Black and Two-Bit Blue, is that they feature the year and issue number in the scroll work on along the sides of the stamps. At least one popular classic British issue had plate numbers in a similar location.
The other two stamps on Scott’s cover picture jazz musicians Les Paul and Billie Holiday, both of whom were born in 1915.
A couple of weeks ago, the shipping manager at work gave a stamp off of a piece of incoming mail from Iceland to me. The stamp features a photo of Eyjafjallajökull, a volcano located near Iceland’s southern coastline.
If you follow world news, you might remember Eyjafjallajökull from 2010. The volcano erupted that year, and the resulting ash that was spewed into the atmosphere grounded passenger planes across much of Europe since ash can do a number on aircraft engines.
So, back to the stamp. When I first looked at it, I thought to myself, “Somebody spilled glue on this thing.” That’s really what I thought it was because I could see several shiny patches on the face of the stamp.
Further sleuthing, however, revealed something a bit more exciting than spilled glue. It seems that Iceland’s postal authorities decided that the stamps issued to commemorate Eyjafjallajökull’s activity should include tiny amounts of ash from the volcano. The shiny spots on the surface of my stamp are not glue spots, but the spots where microscopic bits of ash were attached to the stamp.
Is this a bit gimmicky? Absolutely, but I love it because even though I live in the United States, I can say that I own a small piece of Iceland.
When I checked my post office box earlier this evening, one of the items inside was the Quarter 1 issue of USA Philatelic, the United States Postal Service sales catalogue.
My reaction to most of the new stamps announced so far for this year has been, "Eh." The exceptions to that are the vintage flower stamps being issued this weekend.
My personal opinion is that the whole flower thing has kind of been overdone, but the vintage rose Forever stamp and the 70¢ vintage tulip are being printed from engraved plates! I’m not even certain without consulting a catalogue when the USPS last issued intaglio-printed stamps intended primarily for mail use, but I’m thinking it has been a decade or more. Sure, there was the Inverted Jenny from 2013, and it’s valid for postage, but let’s face it: that stamp was issued primary for collectors like you and me. In the illustrations I’ve seen of the new stamps, at least, they look sharp.
If you’ve received your new copy of USA Philatelic, what’s your take? Did you see anything that particularly strikes your fancy?