The truth is within and only you can reveal it 11 Feb 2016 05:27:04pm
Today I'm starting A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3, To start out with my favorite Eastern European country: Romania The early issues can be quite challenging with a great number of perf, paper and watermark variants. There are also a great many attractive later issues thru the 1940s that can be difficult to come by. As with all of the "Iron Curtain" countries the quality of the stamps went downhill after WW II and I have not bothered making new pages for them. As always make sure to click on the country link above to see the rest of the Romanian pages I have scanned. Shown are the first page and a couple other early ones.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 12 Feb 2016 05:04:11pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
For today the current U.S. possession Puerto Rico Until the Spanish American War Puerto Rico was a colony of Spain, after which it became a U.S. possession. I was most fortunate to spend two weeks in Puerto Rico in 2000 working for IBM as a site surveyor for installing lan/wan for the USDA. It is not a very large Island but I managed to put over 1,600 miles on the rental car exploring every nook and cranny of the Island. I was able to make my own schedule usually working 2-3 hours a day, 4 days a week, so I had lots of free time to explore. It's a truly beautiful place but it's drivers and food sucks. Besides the major cities lodging is also hard to come by. After spending the first 3 days at the Hilton in San Juan it went way down hill after that.
Shown are the first three pages all of which are from the Spanish era.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 13 Feb 2016 04:34:26pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
Today, one of my most favorite countries Belgian Congo I'm not alone in thinking that the Belgian Congo has produced some of the most beautiful stamps ever created. I was thrilled to complete all but the 4 overprinted parcel post stamps last year by adding the Orange/Yellow 10fr of the second issue. Shown are the first three pages plus another favorite.
Thanks for all your posts of your collection, I look forward to many more.I appreciate the fact that you don't let the back side of the stamp be the most important component of the stamp.
Again, thanks for all these posts, Antonius. I happen to be among those who think the turn-of-the-century Belgian Congo stamps are among the very best ever produced.
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"I no longer collect, but will never abandon the hobby"
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 14 Feb 2016 05:17:17pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
For today the big one from South America; Brazil. In 1843 Brazil was the second country to produce postage stamps with the issuance of the three stamps known as the "Bull's eye's". There are many different forgeries of the early "numeral of value" stamps but most are easy to identify. The 90r "bull's eye" stamp I show is one of the better forgeries. I bid on a genuine one today but was outbid. Besides the first several issues of "numeral of value stamps" with ornate borders, collectors usually find the definitive sets with many different watermarks to be the most challenging part of collecting Brazil. Shown are the first page and a few more earlier ones.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 18 Feb 2016 05:24:12pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
For today everybody's favorite country; North Korea. Until recently it was illegal to import the stamps of North Korea into the U.S. Because of this Scott catalogs did not even list them until recently. They are still rather scarce here and my sparse collection reflects that. Most of the first issues are very scarce and there are many more forgeries than originals. I'm showing my first page and a couple others.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 20 Feb 2016 05:25:15pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
Today one of my top favorited Greece It is one of the most challenging yet satisfying European countries to collect. It's colorful history provides great subject matter for their stamps. The first issues or "Large Hermes heads" are some of the most difficult stamps to identify correctly in the whole world of stamps. The second issues or "Small Hermes heads" can also prove difficult because of the many re-issues. Shown is the first page with Large Hermes heads and the next page with perforated Small Hermes heads. The third page shows the first issue of the modern Olympics while the 4th page shows the 1906 Olympic set.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 21 Feb 2016 06:38:18pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
Today one of the most popular areas to collect; Newfoundland With some of the most stunningly beautiful engraved stamps ever produced, it's not hard to see why it is so popular. It's curious why they never made any bicolor stamp.
Shown are 4 early pages.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 22 Feb 2016 06:54:43pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
I'm showing my 1873 Continental Bank note page that I updated today after receiving several stamps. Before today the page was about half and half mint/used. Now it just has one used stamp and I think it looks very nice.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 23 Feb 2016 08:21:09pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
One of my favorite stamp books is not even part of my collection, it is my 19th U.S. stock book of duplicates for sale. It constitutes many years of breaking down collections and buying lots to upgrade my collection and add to my stock to sell. There is just something about looking at many multiples of these stamps that I enjoy.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 24 Feb 2016 09:22:25pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
Fred, Thank you. I've been building on it for over 25 years and it is constantly changing.
The very early stuff seems to go the fastest and is hard to keep for very long.
For today the South American country Ecuador
Shown are the first page and a couple other colorful early ones.
Mitch,
Great stuff! I look forward to your daily postings. It has inspired me to try a few other country's. I was only collecting US and Canada and BNA, but now I started on Iceland, Finland, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden. I like their early definitives but I am not limiting myself just to those issues, I am collecting all the issues from these country's including back of the book. Let's see where that takes me.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 25 Feb 2016 02:46:34am
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
Vince, Super! That's probably the main reason for me doing the showings. Inspiring collectors to collect different areas gives me great satisfaction. I do hope others have also been inspired to collect something new. There are a lot of countries out there with
great stamps and sometimes all it takes is a good viewing to get people into collecting them.
I must agree with Vince. There were so many countries that I "dismissed" when I was growing up. Now I see the beautiful engraved stamps of many of these countries.
Mitch, I particularly like the ones that have two colours. I also really like your stock pages of early American stamps. Great Stuff. Keep it up.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 25 Feb 2016 07:22:38pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
Today showing a sampling of Bohemia and Moravia Part of Czechoslovakia it became a protectorate of Germany in 1939. It produced it's own stamps until the wars end in 1944. Shown are the first three pages.
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant 26 Feb 2016 01:56:31pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
"I was only collecting US and Canada and BNA, but now I started on Iceland, Finland, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden. I like their early definitives but I am not limiting myself just to those issues, I am collecting all the issues from these country's including back of the book. Let's see where that takes me.
Vince"
That should inspire some Approval Book sellers to target some new books on Scandinavia.
Mitch, I am both envious and inspired!
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 26 Feb 2016 10:16:13pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
Randy, I guess you missed it, as Ryukyu Islands were already shown in Part 1. As far as B.O.B goes I stated earlier that I was going to do some BOB's of major countries after I completed the regular issues. There are just to many pages of regular issues that should be shown and showing BOB's at the same time would be to limiting. I showed one in Algeria because it's not a major country and that set is the nicest in the country. I showed a few U.S. stamps this week and there will be more but not for awhile, I have to mix it up.
Hey Randy, keep working on your wife to drive down for dinner.
@Mitch, I love the way you're rolling out the pages. Space 'em out how you see fit. I enjoy clicking on this thread and looking at the pages. Yall have a nice weekend
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 27 Feb 2016 08:06:05pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
Today a favorite of many a collector Guatemala With some of the most beautiful bi-color engraved stamps, you'd think everyone would collect it.
Shown are the first page and a few more later ones.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 02 Mar 2016 08:11:30pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part 3
Located between The Belgian Congo and Libya is the country of the day French Equatorial Africa Issuing stamps from 1936 to 1958 it is one of the easier countries to complete. Sown are the first three pages.