It has been quite a long time since I ran across a new website offering free stamp album pages, but a poster on the Stamp Bears forum today mentioned one I had never seen before: GB Stamp Albums. The site, which is operated by Gerard McGouran, offers free downloadable pages for Great Britian including regional issues for Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, and so forth.
I don’t really collect British stamps except for those that fit into my landscapes collection, but at least at first glance, these appear to be complete through 2017. I’m pleased to see another collector offering free stamp album pages just like I do with the The Philosateleian, and if you collect British stamps and are looking for a source for free album pages, you may want to give GB Stamp Albums a look. Hopefully Gerard will continue preparing album pages for 2018 and beyond!
As a local post stamp producer, I always enjoy seeing what other local posters have created, and Purgatory Post’s latest stamp issues are a real treat! The 2- and 5-sola stamps issued earlier this month commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, and are appropriately inscribed “Peace.”
Purgatory Post Peace Centennial stamps
Purgatory Post’s operator, Scott Abbot, based the designs of his stamps on a pair of United States stamp essays originally prepared with the idea of commemorating 100 years of peace between the U.S. and Great Britain. Those stamps were shelved due to the outbreak of World War I, of course, and the 1919 Peace stamp used a completely different design. It’s nice to see these designs actually being put to use.
The centennial of the end of World War I was the subject of World Local Post Day back in January of this year, but Scott opted to delay issuing stamps marking that anniversary until this month since the armistice ending the war was signed in November 1918.
Bicolored reproductions reimagine 1934 National Parks stamps
It has been a long time since I did any stamp production beyond printing and perforating additional copies of Philosateleian Post’s Contemporary Art stamp issued earlier this year. Last week, however, I finally got around to working on something that had been on my want-to-do list for a long, long time: bicolored reproductions of the 1934 National Parks Year stamps.
National Parks Year bicolored reproductions
I scanned a mint set of stamps that I picked up from the local stamp dealer, then modified each of the designs to remove any references to U.S. postage or face values; these are not real stamps, and I don’t want to give the false impression that they are! After that, I turned the frame of each stamp black, and modified the color of the vignettes for the Acadia and Great Smoky Mountains stamps since the originals were printed in black.
Beginning in the 1930s, United States stamps tended to minimize frames in favor of a larger vignette, so bicolored variations are arguably less impressive than they might otherwise have been. Nevertheless, I had fun doing these, and it got me back into some stamp production work, so I think it was a worthwhile project.
If you like what I’ve done, copies of this sheet are available through my online shop.
Earlier this week, I received a copy of longtime local post stamp producer Tom Betz’s latest creation: a 50¢ parcel rate stamp for Minnesota’s Como Park Post.
Como Park Post 50¢ parcel rate stamp
To my eyes, the stamp is printed in a lovely lavender shade.
The ¢ symbol makes up part of the right edge of the “0” in “50,” but that appears to be about the extent of fanciness in this design. That simple appearance belies the skill required to carve such a design, however; in my opinion, it’s no small feat at all!
Purgatory Post commemorates Apollo 7’s 50th anniversary
Purgatory Post has been commemorating the anniversaries of the various United States space flights for a while. This month marks the 50th anniversary of the flight of Apollo 7, and the New Hampshire-based private local post operated by Scott Abbot, another Local Post Collectors Society member, has released a pair of stamps commemorating that mission. Both stamps have face values of 7 sola.
Purgatory Post Apollo 7 stamps
The first stamp in this pair pitctures crew members Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walt Cunningham, along with Apollo 7 just after liftoff. The second stamp depicts one stage of the Saturn rocket used to propel the crew into space.
I understand from Scott that he plans to continue this series to commemorate the rest of the Apollo missions, so we should see plenty more stamps along these lines over the next year or so.
