I ran across this in a book by Brian Baur and thought folks here might be interested...
When a former law partner's (of FDR's) daughter expressed interests in starting stamp collecting and asked FDR for advice in what to collect, he said,
"I suggest to her that she start in by specializing. In the old days so few stamps had been issued in all the world that one could collect generally. Specializing means choosing anything from one country up to a dozen, or a continent. It is my thought that: Europe is too dull; Too many people collect United States stamps; the British colonies offer a rather high-priced field.
Therefore, if I were starting over again I think I would choose either South America or something like French colonies , or Dutch colonies...or take some one country like Cuba, Haiti, or Santo Domingo."
Good advice, he might have said...do not spend much money on your collection as most of his stamps were gifted to him by foreign rulers. It would be interesting to find auction records and see the most money F.D.R. spent on a set or a single !
"most of his stamps were gifted to him by foreign rulers"
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This is not quite true. While he did receive quite a lot of stamp gifts from foreign rulers, remember he collected pretty actively from the time he was a young boy throughout his life. Though, I think it is basically true that he never paid a lot for any particular item.
BuckaCover.com - 80,000 covers priced 60c to $1.50 - Easy browsing 300 categories 06 Feb 2016 09:10:40pm
re: FDR's advice to the new collector
His collection was sold by HR Harmer, NY in a series of sales in 1946-47.
FDR had a great many covers, some of which he received regularly from the State Department. (They typically cut seals and return address out of the back before giving them to him). Such covers were handstamped on the back by Harmer's as coming from the FDR collection. They are popular, but affordable. My records indicate that I have sold over 50 such covers int he last 10 years. Here are a couple of samples:
Price range varied from $5 to $50 with a couple of higher exceptions.
Roy
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I have the book "FDR and the Post Office" written by a local. He mentioned at the book sale that FDR never threw a cover away..he had people storing them for him. And i thought i was a packrat.
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