It took almost exactly one year, but earlier this month—at long last—I finally completed my goal of creating album pages for all the stamps in my landscapes collection. What a huge project that turned out to be!
I ended up with just over 300 distinct LibreOffice files. Some contain a single page with spaces for a stamp or stamps from a single country; here’s an example for Trinidad and Tobago.
Trinidad and Tobago landscape stamp album page
Other files contain multiple pages for stamps from a single state or province, or even pages for stamps picturing a single location. For example, here’s my page for Denali in Alaska.
Alaska landscape stamp album page
I printed my pages on 65 lb. Astrobrights cardstock. I’m not quite as pleased with how these look as I was with the half-sheet pages I had previously created for part of my collection. Full-size pages do hold more stamps, and having a page for a state or country takes up less space than half a page for each individual site, but even with that, the new pages fill three Scott Specialty binders. (A big thanks to Purgatory Post’s Scott A. for hooking me up with those!)
As for how many stamps and postal cards are housed on those pages, I really have no idea. There are hundreds, obviously, but how many hundreds I don’t know.
There was, quite frankly, a little bit of a sense of relief that accompanied completing the last of my landscape album pages. I have a tendency to start projects that take far too long to complete, and this certainly seems to qualify. But I’m happy to finally have it done. With my landscape stamps completely organized, they now seem less like a simple accumulation or hoard and more like an actual collection.
When I posted a week and a half ago about a big stack of business reply envelopes that were sitting in my mail tray, I thought I was all caught up on such things. That was until last week when a couple more such items showed up in my post office box, and then today a third arrived in our home mailbox.
The first is from SPCA International. It bears four stamp-sized designs picturing a beagle, a kitten, a golden retriever, and a white horse.
SPCA International business reply envelope with preprinted stamp-sized animal designs
This envelope has a very similar appearance to one I wrote about in May, but with different preprinted designs.
The second BRE is from Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch. This envelope has three copies of a yellow rose design printed on it. Those images are very similar to ones used on one of the envelopes I mentioned earlier this month, but on the new envelope, shading completely surrounds each envelope.
Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch business reply envelope with rose images
Finally, our third BRE arrived today in a mailing addressed to my wife. This envelope from Navigators has three images of a cup with orange leaves and the wording “Hello Autumn.” The border around the center design is in a different color than those around the other two images.
Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch business reply envelope with autumn images
And just in case you’re wondering, yes, this envelope was folded in half in the mailing we received.
Solo American Indian cover shows fast mail service
Last week, a new addition to my 14¢ American Indian collection arrived in my post office box: a solo use example of the stamp on a special delivery cover mailed from Yonkers, New York, to East Cleveland, Ohio, in 1934.
14¢ American Indian special cover mailed from Yonkers, New York
Although the stamp overpaid the applicable postage rate by 1¢, I see no evidence that this envelope represents anything other than commercial usage of the stamp.
What’s most interesting about this cover to me is it was postmarked in Yonkers on one day and arrived in East Cleveland by 7 a.m. the next day! You’d be hard-pressed to get that sort of service today, and it would cost a whole lot more.
Seven Purgatory Post stamps released since early July
I have been rather on the tardy side in mentioning the latest local post stamps from New Hampshire’s Purgatory Post, and as a result, I have a whole stack of new issues that have been released since the beginning of July to share.
First up are stamps commemorating the 250th anniversaries of the Quartering Act, which the British Parliament passed to authorize the housing of British soldiers in unoccupied buildings in the American colonies, and the Quebec Act, which authorized the expansion of Quebec into what are now parts of half a dozen states in the United States of America. The stamps are denominated 3-sola and 4-sola, respectively, and were issued July 2.
Purgatory Post Quartering Act & Quebec Act stamps
Another recent Purgatory Post stamp continues the same series—but we’ll get to that in just a moment.
Next up are a pair of 8-sola stamps issued August 8 to honor American astronauts Bill Anders (1933–2024) and Tom Stafford (1930–2024). Stafford flew on Germini 6, Germini 9, Apollo 10, and on the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975, while Anders was on board Apollo 8 and captured the famous “earthrise” photograph.
Purgatory Post Bill Anders & Tom Stafford stamps
On August 20, Purgatory Post released the latest in its series of stamps picturing famous New Hampshire steamships. The 5-sola design in red and black pictures Mount Washington, which traversed the waters of Lake Winnipesaukee from its 1872 launch until it was destroyed by fire near the end of 1939.
Purgatory Post Mount Washington stamp
The Mount Washington stamp was quickly followed by an August 30 release picturing the Meriden covered bridge in New Hampshire. The 80-foot-long bridge cost approximately $700 to build in 1880; Hurricane Carol damaged the structure in 1955, but the citizens of Plainfield decided the next year to pay to repair the bridge. This 24-sola stamp is the latest in a long line of covered bridge stamps issued by Purgatory Post.
Purgatory Post Meriden Bridge stamp
Finally, we come to the most recent Purgatory Post issue, which is part of the same series with which I started this entry. Issued September 5, this stamp commemorates the 250th anniversary of the First Continental Congress. In my opinion, the design is far more interesting than that issued by the United States Postal Service to commemorate the same event.
Purgatory Post Continental Congress stamp
And with that, you’re up to speed on all the latest stamps from Purgatory Post. Scott A. has been very productive this summer, and I’m sure we’ll see additional new stamps from his operation before long.
While I’ve never really gone out of my way to acquire first day covers (other than those included in my 14¢ American Indian collection), a few have made their way to me over the years. The most recent came courtesy of longtime reader Kenneth M., who had a FDC bearing the Loggerhead Sea Turtle stamp issued in June sent my way. The stamp was issued in Corpus Christi, which is a couple of hours down the road from me.
Loggerhead Sea Turtle Forever stamp on first day cover
In addition to the sea turtle stamp, the cover has a printed impression of a 2¢ George Washington stamp from the third Bureau issue. This was neither valid nor required to pay postage, of course—the Forever stamp took care of that—but it did make the envelope stand out in my post office box! Receiving the cover was a nice surprise.
As far as the first day postmark goes, it seems on the heavy side to me. The stamp itself is already dark, and planting a big dark blob on top of it doesn’t do it much good. That’s not Kenneth’s fault, of course, just an observation regarding how the stamp was canceled.
