The truth is within and only you can reveal it 23 May 2016 05:54:12pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
Nigel, Although not terribly expensive I have had considerable trouble finding the missing stamps from the first few issues. With the values stated in Scott one would think there should be a good number of them out there but can only wonder where they are.
As to the "death mask" stamps I was unaware of hidden upside down face of King Alexander. I've made a larger inverted scan of the stamp and after studying it for a bit, I can't see anything that resembles a face. I've attached the scan wondering if someone else can see it?
From the book "Commemorative Stamps of the World" by Prescott Holden Thorp copyright 1934
On June 10th, 1903, King Alexander Obrenovitch was murdered and a year later (September 21, 1904) Peter I, grandson of Karageorge, was crowned king of Serbia. The designs of the stamps are as follows:
(a) Profile portraits of King Peter I and his grandfather, Karageorge. Below the medallion bearing the portraits is the coat of arms of Serbia with the motto "Spes mihi prima Deus"- God my first hope. The dates of the centenary of the dynasty appear to the right and left of the portraits, A peculiar feature connected with this design, and one which has furnished stamp collectors no end of interest, is the fact that if a card is held across the face of the stamp so that its straight edge will begin at the last letter of the word in the upper left corner and end at the first letter of the word in the lower right corner, and turning the stamp upside down, the death mask of the murdered King Alexander may be clearly seen. Shortly after the stamps were issued it is stated the authorities discovered this peculiarity and ordered the recall of all the stamps in the hands of postmasters.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 24 May 2016 12:04:07am
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
Thanks for the info, it certainly was not obvious to me an am surprised they detected it quickly when not even looking for it.
In keeping with it's beautiful and exotic location, the stamps of French Polynesia, have always reflected this. Also at bottom on the first page are a few stamps from Tahiti which is a very expensive area to collect, alas only the three good ones and the fake Bister 25 center
Shown are the first two pages and a late one.
Mitch, French Colonies,are a major weakness please don't stop. Do your mint/unused French Colonies have gum or has it been removed, reason being it seems most of my Colonies that have gum are heavily toned as well as most of my gummed French issues. Your examples appear un-toned and very clean looking.I soak and float all of my mint French and Colonies issues in an attempt to clean them up, with some success.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 24 May 2016 10:38:07pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
Mr Cobbs, I haven't had much problem with toning on French colonies or missing gum. Of course it depends mostly on where a stamp has spent most of it's life. If it is a damp warm climate then of toning will be greatly increased. Although I haven't had that much trouble with FC I have had a bit more with Portuguese, Spanish and Italian Colonies. I try and ignore foreign page collections when I spot several with toning. It really just depends where they've come from. The toning is most stronger on the reverse, so if you see some on the front you can usually bet it's worse on the back
For today another British Colony that I have not concentrated much on the first years; Gibraltar Shown are the first page and a couple later ones.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 26 May 2016 11:23:00pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
Any discussions on old beautiful bi-color engraved would have to include Portuguese Nyassa Anyone looking for a new country to collect could not find a better one.
Shown are the first two pages and a latter one.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 29 May 2016 10:12:25pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
Today the country that I prefer to call Persia; Iran. A difficult country to collect for many reasons, least of which are the number of forgeries of early stamps. The forgeries are most often very good and info on them is not that easy to come by.
Showing the first three pages and a latter one.
Great pages again, I think a lot of us were put off the Arab/Indian states as youngsters because of trying to read the script. Hard to work out the country involved.
The writing from right to left and also from bottom to top on occasion made things doubly difficult.
I have often wondered whether writing from right to left was because the originators of handwriting in those countries were left handed? Would certainly have made it easier to see what you were writing and less smudging from the hand passing over fresh ink.
Vic
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 01 Jun 2016 05:26:58pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
Today the French colony of French Sudan As with most French colonies there are the typical common issues and a few sets that are unique to the colony.
Shown are the 1st, 2nd and 4th page from my collection.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 04 Jun 2016 02:28:21am
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
Today the Scandinavian country of Norway I have not done anything with any Scandinavian countries for 20 years. I had nearly completed them and became bored with them. I even sold or traded a few which I now wish I had not. Scandinavia had not been very popular for the last 30 years or so but has started to make a comeback with collectors in the last couple years. I've started searching again for the few I need but it's slow going.
Shown are the first three pages.
Something I've always wondered - Obock starts off like many other French colonies. First stamps are overprints of the general Colonies issue, next, in 1892, are stamps from the Peace and Commerce issue, with Obock neatly in the little box at the bottom. For other colonies, the P&C issue is current issue until 1900 or a bit later. But after only one year, Obock goes off on its own in 1893 - designs like no other colony, odd quadrille paper, most imperf, triangle shapes, etc. There must be a story there.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 06 Jun 2016 10:49:08pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
After trying to type a long post on an unfamilliar lap top my message got erased.
Yesterday at 6:00 p.m. I fond the top floor of my house ablaze. My stamp room was on the bottom floor and I was able to get my collection to safety before the water started coming down. The bottom floor remained pretty much intact except for the water damage.
I got my computer, flat screen tv, important papers and a few other things out before the water came. I should be able to salvage most from the office because most thing were under shelves or in cabinets and the fire started at the other end of the house. Besides my tools in the 3 bay garage everything else is gone and the house a ruin without a roof over half of it. I did not have insurance on the house because I had not finished it.
I have no idea how I am going to deal with this. The mother in-law died a couple months ago and we are staying in her house for now. There is a large estate as well but we have not seen anything as yet.
As for continuing collecting, who knows?
Hi Mitchell (I hope that is your name, tis what everyone else is calling you),
Just catching up with your latest day of the page pages. Really sorry to hear about your house. Glad you are ok and have somewhere to stay. I hope you can keep up with the stamps, but I am guessing you have bit more on your mind to contend with currently. Do you have family and are they all ok?
Hi Mitch. Sorry to read about the fire. I have been in a bit of shock since I first read your post. After you have time to sit down and figure things out, I hope that you will continue your stamping. I know when I got sick last year, working on stamps helped out greatly in keeping me focused and moving forward.
Mitch, i know you have other things on your mind right now..stamps are such an important part of your life as they are with many of us. I believe you will be back with us.
Sorry to hear about the fire. That is awful. Glad you weren't hurt trying to save things. Best wishes, thoughts and prayers for you and your family. Thanks for all you have contributed to SOR.
Mitch, I learned about this just now. I join all the others in saying how sorry I am for your loss. I hope that our fellow club members will help support the emergency rebuilding of your house:
adding my thoughts and prayers to the list. Glad you were able to save your collection and it sounds as if no one was hurt. I know you will land on your feet. Hopefully sooner than later.
I just caught up with this terrible news about the fire. I'm so sorry to hear about the fire - it's everyone's worst nightmare! I do hope you and yours are OK in spite of the damage to your home and that you'll find a way forward.
Actually, finding the house on fire has been a fear always in the background for me, so I do send you my very best wishes for the future, whatever you decide to do. I was glad to read that you managed to move your collection out of the danger zone. I hope you'll soon be able to get back to the stamps - as someone has already said, it should provide a relief from the realities you're facing.
I regularly clock into A'Ra's page of the day, and am well impressed by the breadth and depth of your collection.
Best wishes and good luck from Neville, aka Strider, over here in UK!
I remember a year or two ago I mentioned on a stamp forum I needed some particular stamps, and a week later came a letter from Mitch with them. I was impressed with his spontaneous generosity.
Mitch has given to the wider stamp community by sharing his collection with scans. His private generosity, perhaps, isn't as well known.
I urge fellow collectors to help Mitch and his family in his present time of need.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 21 Aug 2016 09:02:00pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
Hello everyone! I am hoping to continue my postings from now on. I'm getting pretty far down on the list of countries and many of these are quite spotty. But many of these will be countries that are not familiar by many. Last week I finally got the special cable to hookup my new 31" monitor to my P.C. Before that I was not able to use my own P.C. with all of my info. I still do not have access to my scanner or most of my collection. I'm still mostly bound to a hospital bed and cannot get to my albums upstairs and there are so many it is to difficult to tell anyone where they are. Last week the doctor finally told me that I could put weight on my feet. I am able to stand up with the help of a walker and take a couple of steps but it is very pain full and I can see that it will be a long time before I can walk well. I have someone coming to the house 3times a week for therapy.
I was released from the nursing home on July 23rd after a couple weeks stay in the hospital. We are staying at the recently deceased in-laws house that we are inheriting (along with my wife's sister) we're still hoping to put a new roof on the first floor of our house that burned, which was mainly garage, shop and office/stamp room. Then put a new house on our property, but the future is still very much unknown.
I can't thank all of you enough for the good wishes and very generous contributions via: www.gofundme.com/28zwhqp8
It makes me feel so good to see that so many of you appreciate and value my collection and all of the work that has gone into it making it a useful tool for collectors.
For today I'm going to show a couple Olympic Games related items. The first page shows the first set of stamps of the modern (1896) Olympic games from Greece. They are some of my favorite stamps from Greece. The second page shows some more 1896 Olympic stamps that have been revalued. The third page shows the 1906 Olympic set from Greece which like the 1896 set are also very popular. There were many Olympic stamps issued in the 1930's through-out the world, but I cannot think of any earlier ones from anywhere. If anyone can think of any earlier ones please share. The last page/stamp is from Brazil. As Brazil won the gold medal for soccer in this Olympics it seemed like a fitting stamp to show. Printed in 1969 it celebrates Pele's 1,000 goal. Pele autographed a limited amount of these for collectors and Soccer fans.
So very glad to see you back in action! I really missed checking out your daily postings. Wishing you all the very best for your continued recovery. Great posting today for the closing of the games. Very cool Pele autograph.
Does anyone else find it strange that the stamp would depict the back of his head????
Quoting from "Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement", 5th ed., 2015, p.451:
"In 1920, Belgium issued a series of three stamps to assist in financing the Games. Since 1920, every host nation has produced a series of Olympic stamps. In 1924, Uruguay produced three stamps to commemorate its football team's gold medal and repeated this in 1928: both the football gold medal and the commemorative stamps. These were the first stamps issued by a nonhost nation related to the Olympic Games. Czechoslovakia also produced a series of three stamps in honor of hosting the 8th Olympic Congress in Prague in 1925, and in 1928 Portugal issued a series of Olympic stamps in honor of the 1928 Olympic Games. Since the 1920s, it has become common for many nonhost countries to produce Olympic stamps".
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 22 Aug 2016 09:56:11pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
Ernie and Doug, Thanks, it's good to be back!
Jillcrow, Thanks for the Olympic link, it was very helpful. I have all of those types but am surprised I could not remember them. It is kind of surprising that there were not more stamps issued to celebrate the games in the early days.
For today the country is French Congo. Issued for slightly over 10 years there were only just over 50 stamps produced. I would imagine that most peoples collection of these would be rather weak, as mine is, because they are all fairly pricey.
Shown are the 3 pages showing spaces for all of the stamps produced.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 24 Aug 2016 12:18:14am
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
For today the early stamps of Armenia. The stock page, first page, shows the first stamps issued in 1919. They were Russian stamps overprinted with different "Z's". Scott lists 265 of these and they are all fairly pricey. The next three pages show the issues from 1921-22.
They were replaced in 1923 by stamps of the Transcaucasian Federated Republics. After the Soviet break-up Armenia started to produce their own stamps once more.
It's great to see you getting better and back on Stamporama. Thanks so much for sharing your collection. It's wonderful to see what you have collected over the years. Keep getting better and keep safe.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 24 Aug 2016 10:22:24pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
Mike & Merv, thanks. I can stop being such a vegetable now that I have permission to get on my feet. For the last week I've been practicing walking with the aid of a walker it Hurts like hell but I can tell they are getting better quickly. Today I amazed my self and the therapist when I climbed the 6 steps up the stairs and down. It was his goal to get me doing it in another 2-3 weeks. Says he may have to cancel a week of therapy.
For today the country is the former French Colony of Gabon. It's another colorful and exotic area to collect and it is one of my favorite French Colonies to collect. Shown is my first page, There are earlier provisionals but they are quite pricey and I don't have a page for them or anything to put on it! The second and third pages show some of the colorful sets. The last page shows the beautiful and unique Postage Dues.
I know that when I have had to go through physical therapy that if it was a "he", I recovered as quickly as possible. If it was a "she", recovery tended to take a little while longer!
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 26 Aug 2016 09:19:20pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
I made a post yesterday but see that it did not get uploaded or was erased somehow. So I'm just going to do it again.
Today I'm just showing one of my favorite airmail pages. It is the first air mail page of Spain showing the first three sets. I think it has great eye appeal especially due to the two early plane sets.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 27 Aug 2016 10:10:55pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part VIII
Although very popular with many collectors I had never spent much time with Australia. In the last year I have tried to better my early issues and States but it is a slow go. I'm pretty much complete form 1940 thru the 1990's, but I'm finding many of the higher value Roo's and tops of sets elusive. Shown are the first two pages and the eight page of my collection.