The truth is within and only you can reveal it 01 Jan 2016 05:30:39pm
As it is the first of the year I thought it would be a good time to start this thread. As I have done on a couple other stamp boards I'm going to be showing a different "page of the Day" from my collection. I'll actually be showing more than one page, usually the first page of a country and another one or two favorites. Others are welcome to show their like pages. There will be a link in the text by way of country name to my collection which will show the rest of the country and larger scans of the pages of the day.
For starters I'm showing Monaco which first page is one of my favorites, also shown is the second page of semi postals. Monaco has consistently produced some of the most beautiful stamps in the world.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 02 Jan 2016 04:56:25pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
David thanks for the acknowledgement and others for the 9 likes in less than 24 hours.. I'll take that as a go ahead on the "Page of the Day"
For today the country is Chile.
Showing the first page which shows different issues of the stamps known as the "Colons", for Columbus who is depicted on the stamp. The next page is one of my favorite sets from anywhere. It commemorates the 100th anniversary of Independence of Chile. The third page shows a type that was used for several years showing famous people related to Chile.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 03 Jan 2016 05:56:43pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
For today the Portuguese colony of Mozambique Company. Located in South Eastern Africa it offers many colorful and exotic stamps. It is also an easy country to complete. There is only one stamp that values above $100 and only four above $10. If your looking for a new country to collect, this one can be fun without breaking the bank. Shown is the first page and a couple other colorful ones.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 03 Jan 2016 08:31:51pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
" Do you have enough pages to make it 365?"
Well, I probably have enough for several decades but not without repeating a country.
Hopefully I can just make it through the alphabet according to my A-Z index page. Then see where it might go from there.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 03 Jan 2016 08:43:19pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Tim, Much appreciate your kudos. I think it's a good way to introduce others to different countries and hopefully for them to find a new area of interest to collect.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 04 Jan 2016 03:31:58pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
The showing for today are pages from Laos. Laos, as many other countries in South East Asia before 1949 were part of the French colony Indo China. Laos began issuing it's own stamps in 1951. The early engraved stamps of Laos are among the most colorful stamps ever printed. Shown are the first page, another selected page and finally the second air mail page. The stamp at the top of the air mail page is the "key" item for the country.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 05 Jan 2016 04:20:36pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Yesterday I received the stamp that completed my Berlin regular issues, so it seems right for it to be the showing for today. Shown is the second page of regular issues. The first stamp on the page is the one I just got to complete the issues. Also shown is the first and second page of semi postals. I received the sheet a couple months ago and it is the key item for Berlin. I only need 11 of the most recent issues of semi postals to complete all major numbers start to finish. Many of the stamps issued for Berlin are the same as those issued for West Germany except they have the added inscription of Berlin. Stamps for Berlin were first issued in 1948 but were terminated in 1990 due to reunification.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 06 Jan 2016 03:38:14pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Today, one of my favorite countries; Egypt. Egypt has had a draw on me ever since I can remember. 24 years ago today I was in Egypt on a pilgrimage that lasted two weeks. My alias Antonius-Ra was made known to me at that time. Most of the stamps of Egypt are pretty easy to obtain. However there are a dozen or so stamps that are rarely seen for sale. Shown are the first two pages and another favorite page.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 07 Jan 2016 07:45:59pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
For today one of my favorite Eastern European countries; Bulgaria. Few expensive stamps as well as many attractive ones (particularly before 1950) makes Bulgaria a nice country to collect. I'm most fond of the first Lion issues and the early bi-color engraved issues. I'm showing the first and fourth page from my collection plus a page from 1935 with two of the better sets issued.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 08 Jan 2016 05:07:39pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
For today Cuba. Cuba was a Spainish possesion before the Spainish American war of 1898. In 1899 U.S. stamps overprinted Cuba were issued and used up until Cuba became a republic in 1902. In 1961 after the "Bay of Pigs" incident a U.S. embargo against Cuba was put in place and it was illegal to import new issues to the U.S. There has been much diplomatic activity lately concerning the embargo and relations with Cuba. It's not clear to me if the ban concerning the imporation of stamps has been lifted or not, if not, I suspect it will happen in the near future.
Shown is the first page (Spainish era). Then a page of the U.S.issues and the first republic issues. Finally a page with one of the more difficult sets.
Mitch: I particularly like looking at your 19th Century stamps. Posts of complete sets, or nearly complete sets, are rare.
How do you handle the problem of forgeries? That apparently was a problem with 19th Century stamps. At least, it was a bigger problem than with airmails.
Have you developed expertise in certain areas? Do you ever get stamps expertized?
Please keep posting these ancient stamps. They're fascinating!
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 09 Jan 2016 06:12:09pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Anglophile, Thanks for the link and no I don't Yankee. If I were rich I could specialize in a single stamp or country. As it is I'm just a poor lowly world collector and try to fill the spaces I have.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 09 Jan 2016 06:29:32pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Ed, But there aren't any airmails in the 19th century
Thanks, I like the 19th century stamps best, they just have more character. When I start to concentrate on a country I find all the information I can on it's forgeries.
Luckily most forgeries are easily spotted but some of course are quite good. I have also had many a wise experts help me out over the years on different issues. The stamps I am most fearful of are high priced overprinted stamps as they are so easy to fake. I have considered not even collecting them and some I do not. I rarely send anything in for expertizing as it is so expensive. If I have a stamp that is questionable, I can usually find someone who will be able to tell me if it is genuine or not.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 09 Jan 2016 07:50:15pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Today I'm showing some of my 19th century U.S. Proofs They are probably my most favorite "stamps" out of all my collection. I hope someday I can get the missing sets I do not have but they are hard to come buy and somewhat pricey. Although they are much cheaper than the issued mnt stamps they are becoming even more scarce than they once were. There are scammers out there who buy up all of them they can find and alter them to appear as the actual stamps. At this time I think they are much more scarce than Scott thinks. Shown are the first three pages for the rest and bigger scans of the pages shown here follow the U.S. proof link.
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant 10 Jan 2016 02:17:34pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Mitch: Re the Egypt stamps. Bravo!
Early Egypt perf and color variations are a real challenge. I am still painfully working on some of these!
Here are my first 3 pages in my Egypt album. (Note the major error at the bottom of page 1...I have not seen reference to that one anywhere...so is it legit?)
Cannot tell you how impressed I am by your accomplishments. Keep posting!
rrr...
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"E. Rutherford: All science is either physics or stamp collecting."
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant 10 Jan 2016 03:08:16pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Mitch: Re Cuba. Fascinating area to collect, Early Spanish, and US administration in particular...not the Castro era stamps. My interest in Cuban stamps began when my wife bought, 10 years ago in the Havana flee market, an old Scott album (mind you, Scott in Spanish) of early Cuba stamps, from 1855 to 1900. She paid the equivallent of one year average salary in Cuba, which is still not much by our standards! The Spanish era was well filled, but of interest were several pages of US administration early o/p on Cuban Spanish stamps.
Turns out, most of the US administration overprints on Spanish stamps (1899-1900) were counterfeits.... I had them looked at by experts, and just one was genuine (and I must say that it paid for the album..so my wife got away with it)! I is still a nice page to show off, and as I added more counterfeits to it over the years, it is fairly well filled, yet alas not genuine.
There is a study groups -The Cuban Philatelic Society of America - that presented a fabulous series of display frames at the 2015 Wescon show, and it was truly amaizing, whether you collect Cuba or not!
I think some of these were covered in a recent APS magazine issue. Check it out if you are interested in Cuban philately.
Just an aside, here is a page of a less well known story on Cuban philately. The 1897 War of Independence, and the Correo Insurecto stamps, or Mambi Stamps. Correo Mambi, insurrection mail were issued by the patriots fighting Spanish colonial rule during the War of Independence.
While I did assemble one set of Mambi stamps, I found out that actually there are much more intricacies to this issue:
Quote:
"" The 1st issue is believed to have been issued in 1874 during the Ten Years War (1868-78). It is believed to been designed by the infamous Samuel Allan Taylor. Printed by the American Bank Note Co. issuing 100,000 and is questionable if they ever were used.
The 2nd issue in 1896 was ordered by Salvador Cisneros y Betancourt, then President of the Republic of Cuba in rebellion against the Spanish, from Tomas Estrada Palma, a revolutionary since 1868, who was publishing the Cuban newspaper Patria" in New York were printed again by the American Bank Note Co. This time 4 values were issued. The design very similar to the original design.
A 3rd issue not shown were ordered by the Morales junta based in the province of Pinar del Rio & Philadelphia.
The design used the Cuba Flag draped downward in 5 values, inscribed Republic of Cuba / Cuba libre.
A 4th set was supposed to have issued with the portraits of famous Cuban revolutionary leaders no copies are known to exist.
A 5th set were overprints during the rebel occupation of Cienfuegos on Spanish Cuban stamps. There were 3 different overprints in 3 different values"
Here is my page of the less well known Mambi stamps just before the US administration took over, and the last Spanish (not circulated) series of stamps for Cuba. rrr...
rrr...
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"E. Rutherford: All science is either physics or stamp collecting."
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 10 Jan 2016 04:55:34pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
rraphy, Thanks for your very nice showing. I have hesitated going deeper into the Sphinx/pyramid issues as there are so many forgeries. I have a friend who specializes in them and has showed me much information regarding the forgeries. However, my eyes start to go crazy trying to figure the differences from the crude originals. I have also found it very difficult to find the first Turkish issues in decent shape. Unlike yours
they are most always banged up. As for the Cuban stamps I have several of them but thought they were revenue or telegraph stamps. Looks like I will have to take a closer look at the stamps that I've put on my revenue pages.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 10 Jan 2016 04:59:35pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Another one of my favorite areas is the Baltic countries. They are mostly quite colorful and have a style sets them apart from most other countries. Today I'm showing Lithuania. The first page shows the very primitive first issues, the second page of famous Lithuanian which contains the major error of the country (8 instead of 6auk) and last page showing the very colorful diamond shape Memel issue.
It was hard to pick the three pages as there are several others just as attractive, so please follow the country link to see the rest.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 13 Jan 2016 07:29:32pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
For today The Azores. Part of Portugal it basically uses Portuguese stamps that are overprinted Azores, for use there. Shown are the first page, the third page with the Prince Henry the Navigator set and the fourth page showing the St Anthony of Padua set.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 15 Jan 2016 06:20:56pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
For today Thurn and Taxis. These stamps were made for use in Germany where the Princes of Thurn and Taxis had a long time monopoly on the postal system before the German empire came into being. They began as postal couriers in 1290 in Italy and for hundreds of years after were the primary agents of postal delivery in much of Europe. Every stamp collector should google them to read of their history.
Shown are the two pages of issued stamps. The third page are reprints, note that all reprints have the letters ND in script on the reverse, as seen in the example at bottom of the page.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 16 Jan 2016 03:15:59pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Today, one of my favorite South American countries to collect; Peru
Three pages do not do it justice so please click on the link to see the rest. Shown are the first page and two other favorites.
Love Latin America. Thanks for posting these Mitch. I really liked the Portugal series with the monks. Very elegant stamps. Especially the 75 value.
Ernie
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 17 Jan 2016 03:35:25pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Today I won a set of stamps from Austria. The set shown at top consists of 4 of the 9 stamps I needed to complete the regular issues, putting my level of completion at 99.63%. So it seems only fitting that I show Austria today. Shown are the first, second and 6th page from my collection.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 18 Jan 2016 06:25:52pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Today I'm showing the Ryukyu Islands The Islands were part of Japan until 1948 when they were placed under control of the U.S. In 1972 the islands were returned to Japan. Shown are the first two pages of regular issues and the first page of airmails.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 19 Jan 2016 03:38:37pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
If you look at all my pages it should be rather obvious that I prefer Black mounts. The one thing I dislike about hingeless albums is that they always use clear mounts. When starting new countries I would always buy collections and sometimes the previous owner used clear mounts and replacing them is hard on the pages.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 20 Jan 2016 06:37:35pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Roughly the size of an American major city, Luxembourg[image]/upload/2000738213.jpg[/image] has produced many a beautiful engraved stamp since 1852. Shown are the first page and two other early pages.
Accustomed as we Europeans have become to American gigantism, surely we cannot let pass the amazing suggestion above that Luxembourg is "roughly the size of an American major city"!
A list of American major cities by size may be found here:
where it will be seen that no American major city is as big as Luxembourg, and the only ones that qualify are in Alaska, where geographical factors might stretch a traditional view of what constitutes the boundaries of a city.
Hi Mitch,
Very nice pages you are posting, makes me want to start on another country collection. I didn't get the feeling of "American gigantism". I think I got the message of a small country about the size of a city, no more no less.
They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin 21 Jan 2016 08:31:03am
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Mitch
You might want to start a "Part II" thread, this one is becoming a little slow to load.
Bobby
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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund Burke"
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 21 Jan 2016 07:50:38pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day
Redneck and Vinman, Thanks much! Yes there are lots of beautiful stamps in the world and I'm just getting started showing them. Part of why I am doing this is show other country collecting options. I'm hoping it will encourage readers to start new areas to collect.
Bobby, Yes I know the thread is getting heavy. I was trying to get to the end of the month before I started part II but that would probably be to many. I've showed 20 so far and that's as good a number as any to start the new one. So I'm going to start out Part II today with Portugal. If things go as planned it will take between 10 and 15 threads to finish up.
So on to part Two...............
I really enjoy going back through these old postings. And since I recently acquired an Austria Scott Specialty album, your showing of Austria gives me something to aim for. After removing the stamps that came with the album, and doing some minor repairs to the pages, I am now officially at 0.00%.
It's easy to see why you have put in the effort to build such an extensive collection: you start almost every listing with "Another one of my favorite countries.."! It is probably fair to say that I am in the Will Rogers camp of Philately along with you, in that "I never met a country I didn't like."
Bravo!
-Steve
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"What are you waiting for? Those stamps aren't going to collect themselves."
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