The truth is within and only you can reveal it 20 Jan 2017 12:10:45am
Time to start a new thread. This will probably be the last thread of World wide regular issues and then I'll move on to WW Semi Postals and Airmails.
To start this thread off I'm showing Iceland today. Shown are the first page and a few more of the earliest pages. This collection got as far as I could go in reasonably completing it several years ago. I ended up selling many of the more valuable early ones.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 20 Jan 2017 07:44:15pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
For today another beautiful French colony from Africa; Upper Senegal and Niger. The first set is probably my favorite issue used in several of the colonies. The first set of Postage Due are also some of the best
Shown are the only 3 pages from the colony
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 24 Jan 2017 12:39:22am
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
For today the Portuguese colony of Macao. Yesterday I got in a bidding war for the first set. It was complete and cataloged for close to $1,500. I'm regretting that I did not keep going because I'm pretty sure the other guy would have quit pretty soon. I Rather doubt I will see another one where I could win at a price anywhere near that one did.
Shown are 3 of the first 4 pages.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 27 Jan 2017 08:08:42pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
I posted this country yesterday but for some reason it has disapeared, so I will try again.
I's the British colony of British Honduras. As with many of my British colonies it has not been worked much so is rather spotty but still probably worth showing.
Shown are the first two pages and another latter one.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 28 Jan 2017 11:20:33pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
The country for today is Turkey. I spent sometime working on Turkey last year adding many stamps and new pages. I have a bit to do in the 1950's before I can continue scanning and updating the site up into the 90's which are near complete.
Shown are the first three pages and a couple later ones.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 31 Jan 2017 04:59:03pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
Nate, Thanks! This is the last thread I'm showing for regular issues of the world. There are 11 previous threads showing mostly the first pages of, well over, 200 countries.
They can be found under "show topics/worldwide"
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 31 Jan 2017 08:30:45pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
Going along with Turkey, Hatay are the pages for today.
Shown are my first two pages. I'll be printing up pages for these when I finish up newer Turkish pages.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 05 Feb 2017 07:28:54pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
I'm having a problem posting. A couple times in the last 9 days I found that two of my posts had been dropped/disappeared? I always check a post after I make it. These posts were showing up but vanished sometime afterwards
The last lost post should have been for Guam......So here it tis!
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 06 Feb 2017 09:29:29pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
Michael, I never thought that someone would have deleted it. Just wondered if there was another known reason or if it had happened to anyone else. After making over 200 posts on the "page of the day" threads, I've never noticed it happening before.
Received a couple of auction lots today so I thought I'd show them. The first is the one and only Semi Postal set from Mozambique. Issued in 1920, I've always thought it was quite nifty but only had one of them before now.
The second is a 1947 semi postal sheet from Monaco featuring Prince Louis II
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 10 Feb 2017 09:02:06pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
Thanks Mike.
For today the British Colony of Ceylon. A fairly tough country to collect and my collection shows that and consequently needs much work. In fact it borders on what I feel is worth showing as will be the rest of the countries I show to finish off the thread.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 11 Feb 2017 11:44:39pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
Ralph, They are very pretty pages as are mot of the colonies. They are not all that expensive but you really need to get them in complete sets. I like getting complete sets like this from auction lots more pages the better. Otherwise paying a dealer top dollar will start to get expensive. Most of the colonies of the world are much more difficult than their parent country to collect. Most collections before 1940 are pretty spotty because the stamps are just that more difficult to find. My French is pretty good but I haven't worked on it for twenty years or so. I've been working on Portuguese colonies for the last couple years, it looking pretty good in many places but their are still many many I need, cheap to pricey.
Today another spotty Portuguese colony; Horta>
Horta is part of the Azores who had their own stamps for while.
I've been bidding on the few I need for years and I almost always lose cuz I'm just to cheap. If you are going to collect this colony you might as well buy it complete as it only catalogs for $185 used and $305 mint.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 15 Feb 2017 10:31:32pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
The showing for the day is the British Colony of Pitcairn Islands. Possibly the least populated of any colony from any country with a population of around 60.
Shown are the first three pages.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 18 Feb 2017 06:00:27pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
When I took up collecting again in 1988 Chinese stamps were starting to take off. While other catalog values for most countries were tanking, China was headed the other way.
I decided that I would put China on the back burner until the Chinese market weakend.
Unfortunately it never did and I have spent very little time trying to build on that collection. Most of the stamps I have in my China collection are stamps that I collected when I was a kid.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 21 Feb 2017 09:23:15pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
For today something different.
My goal is to get as close to 99% of completion for any country of the world. 100% completion is impossible for many countries so I need settle for the next best option 99%
I have need lists for most countries and I consider them my most important collecting tool in reaching my goal. In addition I keep percentages of completion with my need lists so that I can see how close I am to my goal. Below is a list of completions for many countries.
Completion percentages of major countries for regular issues unless otherwise noted. Major numbers
U.S. 98% thru 1990, 91% 19th century
Canada 98.7% thru 1990
Egypt 97.4% thru 1970
India 98.9% thru 1974
Australia 95.4% thru 1986
Israel Complete thru 1992
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant 24 Feb 2017 10:04:52pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
Re:
"My goal is to get as close to 99% of completion for any country of the world. 100% completion is impossible for many countries so I need settle for the next best option 99%
I have need lists for most countries and I consider them my most important collecting tool in reaching my goal. In addition I keep percentages of completion with my need lists so that I can see how close I am to my goal. Below is a list of completions for many countries."
Always impressive but at the other end of the spectrum, where are you most in need?
rrr...
Login to Like this post
"E. Rutherford: All science is either physics or stamp collecting."
Antonius, I note with interest that your St. Thomas and Prince Islands (Portugese) stamps of 1895 depicting King Carlos are a straight up match for the Nyassa stamps of 1898 (Portugese as well) stamps. Instead of overprinted with Nyassa, overprinted with St. Thomas et Principe). Was this the norm for all the Portugese colonies?
Just started collecting Africa colonies so this is a pertinent set of stamps to see. Great fun.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 25 Feb 2017 07:33:38pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
rrr, jered, that's not an easy question to answer. I don't collect anything past year 2000 except U.S which my father is collecting for me. Until recently I did not collect many countries past 1977 but have in recent years have expanded most of Europe and some others to 2000.
I do not collect post independent Africa or Dunes. With the exception of San Marino and Spain my Western Europe is nearly complete as is Latin America except for Honduras and Nicaragua.
Countries that need most amount of work are U.S B.O.B., 19th century Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and early British colonies. Thailand, China, Indian States, Turkey. Iran and Iraq
Wine,Yes that is pretty much the way with Portuguese colony stamps. Many of the colonies first used the early issues of Portugal with overprints of the colony. There were also stamps made just for the colonies. many of which resembled the stamps of Portugal. These were either inscribed or overprinted or both with the specific colonies name.
"The showing for the day is the British Colony of Pitcairn Islands. Possibly the least populated of any colony from any country with a population of around 60."
While one of the least populated. It isn't the least. The British Indian Ocean Territory is the least populated colony. It issues plenty of stamps for a permanent population total of 0.
Interesting that you are missing that one 1961 set from Pitcairn Islands. It took me a long time to find a mnh example of that set. I got it last year, but those spaces had been empty in my album as well.
Anyone know why the pages are headed as Libia wheras the stamps and the country was Libya. I appreciate that the first spelling is from the Italian but by the time 1952 came along the country was The United Kingdom of Libya.
Were the pages USA produced and a retaliation for the Barbary wars?
Think my dad was there at some time during the 1940's maybe that's the problem.
Spellings of country names have changed over the years.
old Libia = now Libya
old Jugoslavia = now Yugoslavia
Names used for countries have also been replaced with new names.
old Upper Volta = new Burkina Faso
old Madagascar (French) = new Malagasy Republic
Scott made the changes during the 1970s and 1980s. Just a reflection of post-colonial-era countries. Of course Scott didn't do this with all the countries in similar situations. Just more inconsistencies.
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant 01 Mar 2017 03:08:00pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
Mitch Libya 1952 so hard to come by! Impressed even with all the holes.
Why is Scott 155 so hard to find?
Nice work. Libya is giving me a lot of trouble in the early years.
rrr..
Login to Like this post
"E. Rutherford: All science is either physics or stamp collecting."
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 01 Mar 2017 06:06:40pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
RRR, Sorry but I cannot be of much help when it comes to most of the Mideast. Although some of my countries are starting to look pretty decent I have never really focused on any of them for any length of time. I've had those Libia stamps for quite some time but cannot remember where or when I got them. The No. 155 relative to the other low values of the set is 6 times higher. That isn't much but it should reflect at least how much more difficult it is to find. It also just could be another one of those stamps where Scott is way off in assigning value to them.
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 02 Mar 2017 09:58:33pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
Today I'm filling in the gap of the two Libia/Libya issues I've already shown. Today for the period after the Italian and before Kingdom. The French possession after world War II and before Kingdom. Note, the stamps are inscribed "Fezzan"
1st two regular issues pages and 1st Semi postal and airmail page shown.
Mitch, I didn't collect worldwide past my high school years. I really enjoy your sharing all of this material from your collection. Lots of fantastic stamps I would never otherwise see! Thanks for taking the time to do this!
  1 Member likes this post. Login to Like.
"I no longer collect, but will never abandon the hobby"
The truth is within and only you can reveal it 08 Mar 2017 07:39:02pm
re: A-Ra's Page of the Day Part XII
Keesindy, I've always just like to look at stamps. It use to be difficult to find people who collected and were wanting to share. That prompted one of the main reasons for starting my site. I thought it would also be helpful for collectors to see new countries they would be interested in collecting and help expand the hobby. I hope this showing has encouraged many of the readers to collect something new.
I hope everyone is aware that they can view most any country they want any time by simply visiting my Website. If you haven't yet I hope you will bookmark now: Antonius-Ra.com