This is a set of worksheets designed to help US Boy Scouts (I believe) meet the badge requirements. I stumbled upon it searching for a spreadsheet inventory to download.
I think I'll be completing the series of activities in their entirety. I figured it's an excellent starting point for other beginners.
I would consider this a good basis for an introduction to stamp collecting with some useful activity based and thought based requirements. The requirements have changed somewhat since my completion of the requirements for one of the first two merit badges I completed back in the late 1960's.
One of the requirements at that time was to locate a rouletted stamp as well as imperforate and perforated stamp examples. It was the biggest challenge for me of the requirements. I finally found an example stamp at my grandmother's home while searching through a collection of correspondence she had kept and received permission from her to take the stamp. Most of the items were notes from students and parents she had received over the years. She taught elementary school English during her lifelong career as a teacher.
I do remember seeing one envelope with an attached Washington stamp which contained a deed for property and choosing not to remove the stamp from the envelope as I felt that it would further validate the integrity of the deed, strange thoughts from a then fourteen year boy. Recently while going through some papers following my step-mother's death with my siblings I found that original envelope with its content in the papers my father had received following my grandmother's death. It brought back a lot of memories as has your mention of the Boy Scout merit badge requirements.
My daughters and I will be starting a website about the vintage and antique recipe collection I've accumulated. We decided yesterday our purpose will be breathing life into history.
Your memories prove it is a worthy endeavor.
Stamp collecting and recipe collecting go hand in hand, much to my husband's dismay.
