I collect worldwide blocks from any country, postage, revenue, mint, used, CTO, or anything. I am starting a new thread for anyone who would like to share scans of blocks, just for the enjoyment. I will start with one from my collection from Hungary. I love the engraving and the smoke and the troops in battle on this one:
And here is another one from Ceylon I recently acquired...
I invite everybody to upload a scan of a favorite block in their collection, off cover or on cover, just for the visual beauty of collecting stamps.
What's the story behind that British Guiana block Linus? Looks like it went through 3 stages in it's life; 2 provisionals and before that the parent stamp, but I can't make out what value that was.
British Guiana, Scott #150- 1 cent on $3.00, there is no value on the underlying parent stamp. It was a green postage stamp that could be overprinted in black with any value they needed at the time. 2016 catalog value is $1.40 per stamp. I just bought that one at a postcard/paper show, and that is about all I know about it.
A large accumulation I picked up a couple of years ago had a 3 pocket photo album with blocks from around the world mounted in it. About 50-60 pages. There was also a binder with most of the plate # singles in it from the majority of the unused blocks that were mounted in the album. Here's a random sampling of the blocks.
One of my favourites, issued June 18, 1927, just 28 days after Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris on May 21st following his solo Trans-Atlantic flight.
And another, Netherlands C10, issued in 1933 to pay a surcharge for special airmail flights:
My understanding is that 100% of the money generated by sales of the stamps went to KLM airlines. The Scott catalogue states that the aircraft is a "Fokker Pander," and Stanley Gibbons Collect Aircraft on Stamps states that it's a "Pander S.4 Postjager". Neither is correct. As Stamporama member Jan-Simon says on his web site, Jan-Simon's stamp pages, "...the description 'Fokker Pander' is stupid...", noting that Fokker and Pander were competing aircraft companies. And the stamp certainly doesn't show the Postjager, which is accurately portrayed in a nice art deco design on this postcard:
Hmmm.... It seems you can't completely trust stamp catalogues!
These were part of a St. Vincent collection/accumulation I bought back in the 1990s. There were 8 of these blocks, but I quickly resold them and the duplicate singles to help defray the cost of the remainder of the collection. As usual, it was the engraving that attracted me!
Although my scans weren't always color accurate back in those days, I think these were pretty close.
  4 Members like this post. Login to Like.
"I no longer collect, but will never abandon the hobby"
I rarely visited stamp shows and rarely looked through dealer inventories when I did visit. However, one of the few exceptions to that habit led to my discovery of the Spain Scott 426-430 engraved stamps, including the three triangle stamps showing the Columbus ships. I didn't collect Spain, but these were blocks of four and the triangles looked fantastic with decorative selvage. I couldn't resist. Later, I happened to see an auction listing for Spain Scott 418-425 in blocks of four. These large format stamps were lithographed and had two different views of the "Santa Maria." Very nice designs. That group would complete the set of blocks of four. So I did what any red-blooded philatelist would do. I completed the set!
(I posted two of the triangle blocks of four with decorative selvage in another thread here at SoR in November, 2015.)
  3 Members like this post. Login to Like.
"I no longer collect, but will never abandon the hobby"
Back in the 1980s, I bought a fairly complete mint Liberia collection with stamps up into the early 1950s. This is one of the blocks of four in that collection. As usual, as a way to recover some of the cost of buying the collection, I sold those blocks many years ago.
  2 Members like this post. Login to Like.
"I no longer collect, but will never abandon the hobby"
Yes Phil. However I happen to find them. Mint, used, CTO, minor defects. If the price is OK and I like it, that is what I buy at stamp shows. I do like a good cancellation though, and prefer postal usage. Just like a good cover, a good used block can tell a story, too.
Everyone should collect blocks. Think of them as "back of the book." Put them on a blank page in the back of your albums. Next thing you know, the page is full, then 2 pages, 3 pages, and on and on. Next thing you know, you are just like me, hunting for another block, just for the fun of stamp collecting.
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant 24 May 2017 12:47:03pm
re: Worldwide Blocks
I don't save Worldwide Blocks per say, but have recently come across a bunch of Austria B4 (photo attached) which I will gladly sell/exchange/or list in an Approval Book, should there be interest.
Not the best photo, and not a scan..but it will convey what I am referring to.
rrr....
PS: I find that the addition of blocks to an album collection can be highly pleasing esthetically, but I don't really try to collect them, I just keep some on some pages when appropriate, for artistic reasons.
  2 Members like this post. Login to Like.
"E. Rutherford: All science is either physics or stamp collecting."
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant 24 May 2017 01:23:38pm
re: Worldwide Blocks
Ottawa cancel
On a US Postage Due B4?
(actually Ottawa Kansas!)
Stuck to a page with a bunch of others, including Mint, as one would expected from a professional collector (LOL)
rrr...
  2 Members like this post. Login to Like.
"E. Rutherford: All science is either physics or stamp collecting."
For all of you in the USA that are tired of messy inkjet, ball-point pen, and Sharpie cancels in your daily mail, I will share a few neat cancels, from the good old days, from my WW block collection.
Strange to say, but I have a complete aversion to blocks. I just don't find them aesthetically pleasing. They scream to me "Please break us up! We don't wish to stay together for eternity!"
I tend to oblige them in that request, or at least find them another home. Can't stand the whining...
When you get a SON CDS on a single stamp, how thrilling is that? And likewise, how rare?
So, whether or not you like blocks, there is (possibly) a statistically better chance of having such a beautiful postmark. Like the 7c Canada Goose Airmail posted by linus - or rrraphy's US Postage due - or Webpaper's Denmark issue. All gorgeous!
And I don't know why, but I find having some MNH "plate blocks" of certain stamps also is very appealing.
Lovely blocks! Here is one from Australia that I was trying to figure out what town this is in Victoria. I think I am missing a couple letters. Can anyone figure out this town name?
I added this block to my WW block collection today. From Austria, "The Post in Art" series of 1964 showing a postal sleigh (truck) in the mountains, a used block of 4. We have snow on the ground here in Iowa, USA, as many of you do, so I thought this was appropriate for a cold January day.
I have this rather ratty looking Russian block, believe Scott #72. If you want send me your mailing address through SOR message system and I will get in the mail. It is just barely hanging together. Has some reinforcement.
My two cents, rather seven blocks. I just accumulate occasional blocks left over trades and buys with no real purpose, maybe one day I will make an album. I picked blocks quite randomly for good sampling and just realized, human beings, animals and even a flower, they are all facing right.
These stamps were issued 19820216 in honor of John Bauer 1882-1918.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bauer_(illustrator) ... John Albert Bauer was a Swedish painter and illustrator. His work is concerned with landscape and mythology, but he also composed portraits. He is best known for his illustrations of early editions of Bland tomtar och troll, an anthology of Swedish folklore and fairy tales. Bauer was born and raised in Jonkoping.
This cover was postmarked 19930222 in nearby KORSBERGA:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korsberga,_Vetlanda ... Korsberga is a locality situated in Vetlanda Municipality, Jonkoping County, Sweden with 694 inhabitants in 2010
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey (who will happily admit that his first thoughts were of Where The Wild Things Are)
  1 Member likes this post. Login to Like.
"I collect stamps today precisely the way I collected stamps when I was ten years old."
Unfortunately what you see is all that I know about them. They were on a page at the front of a very old spring back album containing general stamps grouped by country on blank pages with little to no descriptive content, typically just the country name. The blocks are pretty though.
The album itself was in a grab box that yielded about fifty mint stamps for my International 1840-1963 albums including several for Australia, New Zealand, Ceylon, and Malta plus five mint stamps for the Smithsonian Stamp for Every Country album on which I have been working. There are two or three specialized pages relating to Australia stamps which I can try scanning if there is any interest.
Found a couple of more blocks from the Belgian Congo while going through an International album that were on a page in the wrong place. Fortunately from an acquisition.
I think it is a clever design. I never looked closely at this design or thought about the meaning. I guess it was a sign of the times, 1950's.
What stands out to me is the zone (58) on the cover. I believe that was a predecessor to the new Zip Code system we now use.
My contribution to the topic is this item I was adding to my WW block collection awhile back. Brazil Scott #1073 featuring Olavo Bilac with planes, tank, and warship. Who was this guy?
(Source:Wikipedia)
Olavo Bilac was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and was a famous poet and writer. As a young man, he was a brilliant student, enrolling in the school of medicine at the age of 15. He began studying medicine, but did not finish the course. He also tried to study law but did not finish that course either. Instead, he found pleasure in writing and in journalism. In addition to poetry, Bilac wrote texts, chronicles, schoolbooks, children's poetry and satirical works. In 1891, he was arrested for opposing the government. In 1897, Bilac lost control of his car, crashing it into a tree. He was the first person to suffer a car accident in Brazil.
He is also the patron of the military service in Brazil due to his campaigns in favor of conscription.
Bilac never married and never had children. He was engaged to Amélia de Oliveira, but their engagement was short-lived since it was opposed by another brother of Amélia, who said Bilac had no future. But a legend says that Amélia was very faithful to Bilac: she never married, and, when Bilac died, she put a lock of her hair in his coffin.
Bilac died in 1918. His last words were "Give me coffee! I'm going to write!"
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant 22 May 2019 01:35:00pm
re: Worldwide Blocks
For the World Block collectors, I have, among other things that just resurfaced as I am disposing of unwanted parts of my collection, a large number of blocks from East Germany. Most but not all seem to have a Berlin cancel Dates span 50s-80s.
Many (most) are CTO, but a few are MNH. There are also B6, 8, 9, 10 etc...
I have no interest, and would gladly trade them for stamps I neeed, or sell them selectively or all at once, cheap. If interested, drop me a note.
I would say there could be as many as 1000+ stamps!
rrr...
Login to Like this post
"E. Rutherford: All science is either physics or stamp collecting."
One of the more prolific eBay dealers seems to have an unending supply of this block, cut the way you see it. I'm thinking that the USPS philatelic unit sold the blocks prior to destroying the sheets in inventory?
Yes, another one of those "Hit the eBay BID button" impulse buys!
Another page from my USA collection...
Philippines 226 block of 89 that I own. Not the greatest and stuck to glassine but she's the largest block of Bens I own!
USA 314 postally used block. Any usage on 314 is philatelic in nature since the sheets were to be sold to companies developing postage vending and affixing machinery. Of course they were sold to collectors and a lot of the usage I have today on cover is to or from known philatelists and dealers at the time.
And a large block of USA 300 precancels. This probably came from the Filstrup collection as Covell Manufacturing was located in Benton Harbor.
As a collector of cancels on stamps, this is an appealing thread to me. Lots of nice cancels here. I no longer remember where I got the set below, but it apparently looked good at the time. I still find it attractive even though they are undoubtedly favor cancels.
"Don, those are cool blocks and would've found their way into my USA album too!"
Thanks, BenFranklin.
Back in the 1990s I belonged to the Iowa Postal History Society which published a quarterly bulletin. The member who mailed them always included blocks of four in the franking. The plate number blocks below were on one of his mailings. His efforts enhanced my cancels collection, especially that of my home state, Iowa.
Norden Handicraft
Country: Iceland
Catalog codes:
Michel IS 556
Stamp Number IS 532
Yvert et Tellier IS 509
Stanley Gibbons IS 590
AFA number IS 557
Issued on: 1980-09-09
Perforation: comb 11½ x 11¾
Printing: Photogravure
Colors: Multicolor
Face value: 150 kr - Icelandic kr?na
Print run: 1,500,000
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey (who gets a thrill from multiples)
  1 Member likes this post. Login to Like.
"I collect stamps today precisely the way I collected stamps when I was ten years old."
Country: Indonesia
Catalog codes:
Michel ID 1341
Stamp Number ID 1425
Yvert et Tellier ID 1217
Stanley Gibbons ID 1968
Themes: Plants (Flora)
Issued on: 1990-03-01
Colors: Multicolor
Perforation: 13½ x 12¾
Printing: Photogravure
Face value: 1,000 Rp - Indonesian rupiah
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey (who is going to take a steam iron to that cover, and gladly answer for it in Hell)
  2 Members like this post. Login to Like.
"I collect stamps today precisely the way I collected stamps when I was ten years old."
No apology necessary, ikey. When I originally started this thread back in May of 2017, I was taking a chance that other Stamporama members liked blocks, and was just trying to get "a" response from anybody out there. I thought I was the only crazy person who liked blocks, but I took the chance, and the responses far exceeded my expectations. We have all started topics that seem to go nowhere quickly, but this one has managed to live on, thanks to all the members who shared their scans of some beautiful blocks, including Ningpo and Guthrum, who are no longer with us. I keep waiting for the moderators to kill this thread, as it does take a long time to load the whole thing, but until then, on we go...keep posting all the blocks you got ikeyP. I love seeing them all.
Nice find on the Indonesia registered cover, my kind of material at a stamp show. I have not tried the steam iron method, as my own process involves an old lens-cleaner spray bottle that I fill with water that sprays a fine mist. I would lightly mist the left edge, top, and bottom right corner, leaving the stamps and typed address dry. Then blot the misted area with a soft towel, place facedown on a drying board under a Scott Catalogue or two, and stack every heavy book, cement block, anvil, or car engine block you got on it for weight. Wait 2 or 3 days and it will come out looking beautiful. I know 51Studebaker is just shaking his head "no!" right now, but this is only a dollar cover that 95% of the people reading this right now would not even pay 25 cents for, so I say, go for it, ikey, and I will join you in Hell someday.
I’ve spent some time this morning reading over this thread. I had noticed some multiples and blocks as I’ve been going through a few lots of mixed worldwide in packets I picked up recently.
I had been wondering what to do with them since I collect primarily singles. After seeing all the blocks and multiples in this thread, I’m thinking I will set them aside as I sort through the lots and swing back at some future and make an album for them.
I bought the Turks and Caicos 25th Anniversary of the Coronation of QEII at Capex '78, issue date June 2, 1978. I don't know the Scott numbers, but Stampworld lists them as #354-357. Way back then, I had never seen gutters like this before.
Consider collecting blocks like back-of-the-book items. Look for gently used Vario or Hagner pages at stamp shows or stamp shops to hold your blocks. New 1-pocket and 2-pocket packs of 5 pages can be purchased at Hobby Lobby for $3 using the weekly 40% off coupon on your smartphone. I think blocks make a beautiful display, on cover or off. You will never complete it, don't even try, just add to it from time to time, and enjoy it!
Here is my favorite cover currently for sale on eBay, reduced price is only $400. ikeyPikey will enjoy this one, but it is way out of our league! Dream on.
Linus
Nice Turks and Caicos blocks there, Brighton Pete!
A first-day cancel on a block of four, Argentina, Sc. 569. Sc. 569 is the unwatermarked stamp of this design. I found this in a sales circuit book and couldn't resist adding it to my Cancels on Stamps collection. Note the event this stamp commemorates -- the exhumation and relocation of the bodies of Jose de San Martin's parents!
I found these first-day cancels blocks of four in a sales circuit book. Either soaked off first-day covers or favor cancels, but I couldn't resist buying them for my cancels collection.