I Have Not Played With My Stamps For SomeTime,

but I still receive emails, 

from companies I have bought stamps from in the past, with special offers or news of shows in the UK like this company above, Mark Bloxham Stamps Ltd.

and in this email there were both, firstly news of Stampex September 2018, a huge stamp show, with dealers from all over the UK in attendance, the show will be in held in the Business Design Centre, Islington, London, N1 OQH,

below the opening times,

OPENING TIMES:

Wednesday 12th September 11.00 to 7pm
Thursday 13th September 10.00 to 6pm
Friday 14th September 10.00 to 6pm
Saturday 15th September 10.00 to 5pm

 and if you are going the nearest Tube Station is Angel (Northern Line), and if you want to call in to see Mark he will be on stand 110, I wish I was there!

  the second item in the email was my dream stamp, SG456a 1935 Silver Jubilee 2 1/2d, the fabulous and rare Purrsian Blue, which was un-mounted mint with a PTS Certificate,

a real treasure to have an to hold, there is quite a story behind the stamp, it all started with the printers printing sheets of the stamps before realising they were using the wrong coloured ink, all of the sheets were destroyed except the few that made it to the post office in Upper Edmonton, Stanley Gibbons and GB philatelists confidently claim that a maximum of 480 of these stamps have ever existed in circulation, for the full story have a look here, and the price of this beauty? just £9,995, if only I had the money it would make my collection of 1935 Jubilee stamps one nearer to being complete.

Lets Start The Week With A Quiz,

and as I like the series,

a Harry Potter quiz, just go to this link and answer the 15 questions about harry Potter films, it is not as easy as it looks!

I Have Not Played With My Stamps For Some Time,

but I still read articles about stamps,

 and was intrigued to read about the pigeon post, I term I have often heard of, but never knew that the first pigeon post took place in 1898 and 1899, the competing services began to use stamps of various designs, these were likely the world’s first airmail stamps, the pigeon post services continued to play out their drama (Parkin dropped out in 1899) until 1908, when underwater telegraph cables enabled telegraph service to the mainland,

the area served was New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island, an island about 60 miles away from the mainland city of Auckland, a pigeon post service flourished there for almost a decade, being one of the first and only commercial pigeon post services, several competing pigeon posts that served the island during these years also bear the distinction of being likely the first service in the world to produce a stamp specifically for airmail use, in November 1898, over time, stamps from the pigeon post have become prized by collectors,  

 the reason for the beginning of the service was a tragic one, a few years before it was established, in 1894, a steamship named the S.S. Wairarapa, en route from Sydney to Auckland, broke up on a reef near the island and sank, more than 140 passengers died, yet it took three days for news of the wreck to reach Auckland, the ship’s destination, the island clearly needed a better means of communicating with the mainland,

 but the idea for a pigeon post didn’t arise for another two years, writes Margo White for New Zealand Geographic, in 1896, a New Zealand Herald reporter who was attending an anniversary service for the deadly event filed his story to the mainland using a pigeon named Ariel, it took the bird, who was owned by an Auckland pigeon fancier named Walter Fricker, less than two hours to reach the mainland, 

this event sparked a long tradition of pigeon mail to the island. Fricker started the Great Barrier Pigeongram Service in 1897, according to Barth Healey writing for The New York Times, the pigeongram service ended in 1908, when a telegraph cable was laid, so I now what the original pigeon post was all about.

I Am A Known Philatelist,

or in simple terms someone who collects stamps,

but I have to say I keep my collection to old stamps, but I still look at a few new issues, like this set from the Royal Mail, featuring eight non-human characters from Star Wars, so if you live in the UK, you can use them to send letters, but for Americans and I guess the rest of the world they are collectable only, the stamps, designed by UK digital artist Malcolm Tween, have images of Maz Kanata, Chewbacca, Snoke, a porg, BB-8, R2D2, C-2PO, and K-2SO, You can can pre-order the stamps online from the Royal Mail before they become available on October 12, will they ever become rare and as collectable as some Star Wars memorabilia? well look out for any with printing imperfections is a good way to start, but for myself I will not be adding these to my collection.

I Think This Is A First,

one stamp, two totally different images,

the United States Postal Service is released a new stamp yesterday that uses thermochromic ink to give us two different images on one stamp, the eclipse stamp is a commemoration of the total solar eclipse that will cross the U.S. on August 21, the stamp image is a photograph taken by astrophysicist Fred Espenak, aka Mr. Eclipse, of Portal, AZ, that shows a total solar eclipse seen from Jalu, Libya, on March 29, 2006, in the first U.S. stamp application of thermochromic ink, the Total Eclipse of the Sun Forever stamps will reveal a second image. Using the body heat of your thumb or fingers and rubbing the eclipse image will reveal an underlying image of the Moon (Espenak also took the photograph of the Full Moon). The image reverts back to the eclipse once it cools those of us that buy the stamps are advised to store the stamps away from sunlight to preserve the effect. You can buy a special envelope for them. The First-Day-of-Issue ceremony will be at the University of Wyoming library in Laramie yesterday, during a summer solstice event, the eclipse stamps should be available at post offices across the country soon.

I Should Have Heard Of These Earlier

to celibate the August 21 eclipse,

the US Postal Service will soon release a first-of-its-kind stamp that changes when you touch it, the Total Solar Eclipse Forever stamp, which commemorates the August 21 eclipse, transforms into an image of the Moon from the heat of a finger, the Total Eclipse Forever stamps may be pre-ordered at usps.com/shop in early June for delivery following the June 20 nationwide issuance,

the eclipse will travel a narrow path across the entire country for the first time since 1918, the path will run west to east from Oregon to South Carolina and will include portions of 14 states, the back of the stamp pane provides a map of the August 21 eclipse path and times it may appear in some locations, visit NASA’s website to view detailed maps of the eclipse’s path, for more information here is the US Postal Service page concerning the stamps.

I Have Not Mentioned My Stamp Collection Lately,

so here is just a small mention,

 I had just successfully bidded on a stamp which in the Stanley Gibbon stamp numbering system, is SG214, it is a 1/- Queen Victorian red and green postage stamp, which was unmounted mint, meaning it had not been used and was never stuck in an album with a stamp hinge, the picture is the actual stamp taken from the ebay page, the price of these has been creeping up, I was lucky and outbid the competition at £46.10,

also taken from an ebay page, at the same time this one's auction was nearly ended, but it was slightly different from mine, firstly it was used and had a 'Halifax Cricket Ground' 1902 c.d.s. (circular date stamp) on the 1/- (SG 214), but the second difference was that the stamp was the very scarce M516, not the standard SG 214, and the difference is? well as I type this there is still 12 hours to go on the auction, there has been 29 bids so far on this stamp, the price is £1,555.00, and rising, the devil is in the details!

Great News For American Philatelist,

the U.S. Postal Service are going to issue stamps highlighting NASA’s Planetary Science program,

 on Wednesday they released a preview of its new 2016 stamps,

the Pluto stamp is of special interest for the NASA team, from the article from NASA, 'The Pluto stamps are of special significance to NASA and the New Horizons team, which placed a 29-cent 1991 “Pluto: Not Yet Explored” stamp on board the spacecraft, on July 14, New Horizons carried the tiny postage stamp on its history-making journey to Pluto and beyond, as members of the mission team celebrated with a large print, striking the words “not yet.” “Our stamps articulate the American experience through miniature works of art,” said Acting Stamp Services Director Mary-Anne Penner, “Our diverse stamp topics for 2016 are sure to appeal to everyone, and with the New Year just around the corner, now is a perfect time to get started in stamp collecting, it’s an educational hobby the entire family can enjoy.” the “Pluto Explored!” stamps will be dedicated in late May of 2016 at the World Stamp Show in New York.

With Christmas Taking Centre Stage,

a quick post for New Year which is just around the corner, 

 in Japan the postal service prints New Year’s postcards known as nengajo, nothing special so far, until you look closely, almost hidden there are tiny details, they’re so small that it’s easy enough to miss, it is a popular product with 30 million cards being printed every year, take a look at the card on the right, it looks like there are tiny flower petals on it

 but closer inspection revels that each petal is actually a shrimp, why a shrimp? because of their long antennae and curved body (like the curved back of an elderly person) shrimp are symbols of longevity and are commonly served as part of osechi ryori, Japan’s festive New Year’s feast,

but some of the details are a little larger, like this one, this year stamp designer Ayaka Hoshino was chosen to design the stamp, she also designed the stamp 12 years ago, in 2003 the sheep was depicted knitting a ball of yarn, 12 years later the knitting project was complete,

and for next year? in 2004 one of Japan’s famous snow monkeys was depicted soaking in a hot spring, as 2016 is just around the corner and that same monkey has a surprise, it has a baby monkey and a baby monkey bath, the reason the same animal is used every 12 years is the Japanese use of the 12 animals of the Zodiac, the design team at Japan Post comprises 7 individuals, who are responsible for designing all of Japan’s new stamps, each year there are about 40 new stamps released, the sheep is the 2nd most popular zodiac animal, the most popular animal is the rabbit and the least popular is the snake, no surprises with the last one then, also worthy of note is that in Japan the sending of New Years cards far outnumber Christmas cards that are sent.

What Do You Call A Piece Of Paper,

that measures less than 1.5" inches square that is worth $9.5m (£5.6m)?

 the 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp, it has a long history being owned in it's time by a school boy, a Count and a murderer amongst others in it's history,

the details of the stamp can be better seen in this image of the 4-cent stamp of the same issue, and the good news is that it is now on display to the public at the Smithsonian, which is great news for philatelists, it is estimated that of the almost 140 years since being discovered,

 the One-Cent Magenta has been on view for a period of less than a month, these are the viewing times,

The 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta, the world’s rarest postage stamp, is now prominently displayed in the museum’s William H. Gross Stamp Gallery for a 2.5 year period. The exhibition of the stamp will be the longest and most publicly accessible showing ever.

Please note: the 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta may be temporarily unavailable for viewing should preservation, conservation or presentation issues unexpectedly arise. Please check with the museum in advance of your visit for specific exhibit dates and availability.

In addition, the stamp will not be on exhibit at the National Postal Museum on the following dates (subject to change):
November 27 — December 10, 2015
May 23 — June 10, 2016.

do I have one in my collection? I wish!

I Have Not Posted Anything About My Stamp Collection,

for some time, so here goes,

 firstly I was lucky enough to be the winning bidder on a complete set of 40 railway poster stamps for 1935, basically the railways would produce posters to advertise various holiday destinations, then they were made smaller and issued as stamps in various publications,

then I was lucky enough to bid on the sister set and again was successful, I had mention Skegness before, and I did already have a Skegness stamp which we had featured on our blog, but it is interesting to note the difference in colour of both stamps, beside each stamp is a copy of the description of each resort,

then from the same seller I managed to buy the third stamp, (the red one), for the 1911 Festal of Empire collection that I had started, many thanks to stevecanddan on eBay,

lastly I manged to buy a couple more of the 1912 Philatelic Congress stamps, these were printed and were given away/purchased at each yearly meeting of congress, like the railway poster and Festival of Empire stamps they could not be used for postage but were souvenirs, not many people collect these types of stamps which many purists class as 'back of book stamps' but for me they are nice for what they are.

I Played Around With A Few Stamps,

yesterday,

I had completed collecting the 1935 King George V Jubilee set of stamps, most are like the ones above, a coloured fame with a engraving of Windsor Castle in the middle,

but some like these from Southern Rhodesia had not only a different outer frame,

but also the Windsor Castle did not appear but the Victoria Falls did, in all a really coulourful set of stamps, 

having said I have the set there are three that are missing, the 'Prussian Blue' and two that were issued on the island of  Tristan da Cunha overprint on 1/2p and 1p Great Britain Silver Jubilee issues, these overprints were prepared and applied in Britain after the postmaster of Tristan, Rev. Harold Wild, requested it, the overprint was applied to only thirty-six 1/2p and 1p values with each stamp individually numbered, if only I could find a pair of the only 36 printed what a find that would-be.

As I Was Plying With My Stamps Yesterday,

today I thought I would put a few on the blog,

the first one is a bit of fun really, some time ago we mentioned that one of the most famous posters to promote travel by rail was the Jolly Fisherman of Skegness, the term 'its so bracing', is thought to have been dreamed up by an unknown member of the Railway Staff, the poster and many like it were then produced as stamps, well it just so happened that I noticed the exact stamp for sale, so for just £1.65 plus postage the stamp is in my collection,

next I was lucky enough to find these, they are stamps that were printed and given or sometimes purchased by people attending stamp or philatelic exhibitions, I have been collecting stamps issued at these exhibitions for some time but this is the first time that I have seen some from the 11th philatelic congress that took place in 1924,

even earlier and rarer is this card with what I think is a printing proof of the 4th. philatelic congress that took place in 1912,

and to make my collection of the 1929 Postal Union Congress complete this £1 postage stamp, all great fun if you are into stamps, if not this post must be so boring!

I Have Been Bidding For A Few Stamps,

here is one that is coming up,

printed in India it is a four annas stamp, it was one of the first multi-coloured stamps in the world at the time, the outline was printed in red and the head of Queen Victoria was in blue and was added within the frame, but in Calcutta in 1854, the Queen's head was accidentally printed upside down on the stamp, the stamps were printed in 12 to a sheet and more than 206,000 stamps were produced, it is thought the error was made on three sheets,

David Parsons, a stamp specialist at Spink's, said: 'this is an incredibly rare stamp, with about 25 known examples in the world, collectors of stamps love inverted stamps because they are so startling', the question of course is how much? to add it to my collection, £50,000 - £70,000 is the experts expectation when Lot 87 comes up for auction at Spink's on January 23, and there was me thinking I would get change out of a tenner!

150 Years Old,

and still going strong,

so to celebrate the birthday of London's underground railway the Royal Mail commissioned a set for the Tube’s 150th anniversary, showing the London Underground from its formative days as a steam locomotive on the Metropolitan Line, in 1863, to the opening of the Canary Wharf station in 1999, the ten stamps go on sale today,

Andrew Hammond, of Royal Mail, said: ‘after a year where images of London were beamed around the world, showing this great city in all its glory and splendour, it’s quite fitting that we should begin 2013 celebrating one of London’s hidden treasures', taken for granted by millions all I can say is Happy Birthday!

As Many Of My Friends Know,

I collect stamps,

as many people do, but I have never found any thing of great rarity, unlike Reinhold Hoffmann who thinks he has a one cent stamp dating from 1861 and bearing the portrait of Benjamin Franklin, it appears that only 3,100 of them were ever printed during the American Civil War and stayed in use until 1867, Reinhold, from Dresden, said it was actually his partner Baerbel, 71, who bought the book containing 4lbs of stamps for $25, all he has to do now is take it to an expert in America to have it authenticated,


rare US stamp dealer Craig Selig from Fort Wayne told a German newspaper; 'a certificate of authenticity can be issued in this case only by the Philatelic Foundation in New York, it is very exciting', while some one cent stamps from the civil war era are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, others can change hands for around $20, I am not an expert but I found this site that lists values of American stamps listing a 1 cent Franklin blue at $125 in mint condition, on the other hand there are so many variations that could make the stamp much more valuable, Reinhold believes his stamp could worth up to an incredible $3 million! time will tell.

We Had A Quiet Day,

on Saturday,

 well it started like that, in the morning I continued playing with stamps,

all great fun if you like stamps, Mr. Tony called in as did Phil later in the afternoon, I continued till our evening meal, then feet up, in the evening Mark called in so we watched some of the Pawn Stars programmes et al, after Mark left a few more till 01.30 then for us we were off to bed.

As A Few Stamps Had Arrived,

I decided to spend some time playing with them,

the first is a sheet of what are not really stamps these were issued in 1898 to raise money for the Prince of Wales Hospital Fund,

they are beautifully engraved, but think how much 10/- was in those days, a small fortune to most people at that time,

I had also purchased two 'Seahorse' postage stamps, considered by many to be the most attractive of all UK stamps, above the 5/-,

and here the 10/-, I have a space for the green £1.00, but at to days prices a mint unused one will remain well and truly out of my grasp, but I am pleased the ones above are now in my collection.

As Many Of My Friends Know,

I collect stamps, so this article will have me looking through my collection!

for a plate 77 one penny red, the extremely rare penny red stamp (left) from 'plate 77' is on the same piece of paper as the regular four penny red (right), the perforations did not match up on that particular plate, so all of the test sheets were destroyed, but at least one sheet was released into circulation by mistake - making the 77 every stamp collector’s dream, so if you have any one penny reds in your collection here is what to look for,

this is an unused penny red from my collection, look down the right hand side at just about the bottom of Queen Victoria's hair bun, between the scrolls there is a series of numbers that give the plate number, the number are on both sides but in this example it is easier to see the number on the right hand side,

there is the plate number I have included a part of the hair to make spotting the number easier, in this case plate 167, why all the fuss? dealer Stanley Gibbons heralds it as the 'most valuable single stamp' the company has ever had for sale in their 156 year history, with a value of around £550,000! so only another 3 pages of penny reds to look through, you never know!

There Was Nothing That We Found Interesting, Amusing Or Just Plain Weird In The News Today,

so straight on with today's post,

 I popped round to see Phil, then we were off to Jack Levey's office on Pattaya Tai,

next stop to the Punch & Judy as Phil had not eaten breakfast yet, after dropping him at his home I went in search of some clear tape, I wanted to put a small piece on the corners of some of the pages in our stamp albums to keep the plastic covering sheets in place, so I stopped at, in order, a 7-11 another 7-11, a Family Mart, Tesco Lotus Express and another 7-11, there is a shortage of clear tape as not a single one had any, almost feeling like going home I tried one more Family Mart and was lucky, they also had some soda which again none of the other stores had, so home I went to continue playing with stamps,

 today I was updating the collection of non-stamps that commemorate annual stamp congress meetings,

the stamps can not be used for postage, they are printed as souvenirs for people that attend the congress,

the The Association of British Philatelic Societies, (ABPS) organises each year the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain, the first congress was held in Manchester in 1909, (I am still looking for an example of 1909 if any one has one), but the ones above are from the 1932 Brighton congress, both the blue and green are perforated, but for some reason the red is not, so far I have never seen a perforated red stamp for sale, Phil then called round for a drink and a chat, as I got up disaster struck,

I had not noticed a small nail sticking out of the coffee table at nearly floor level, as I went to fetch another drink I ran the side of my big toe across it and made a rather deep cut on the side of my toe, hobbling back from the kitchen with a pair of pliers the offending nail in the coffee table was removed, luckily so far it has stopped bleeding and I have put some antibacterial cream on it, after Phil left and our evening meal it was feet up, rather slowly for

Pandorum, two astronauts awaken in a hyper-sleep chamber aboard a seemingly abandoned spacecraft, it's pitch black, they are disoriented, and the only sound is a low rumble and creak from the belly of the ship, but some thing or some one is out to get them, nice twist at the end,

we have now started on Palin's adventure Around the World in 80 Days, thoroughly watchable both Diana and myself have enjoyed his journey so immensely, as each part of the journey finished we just had to watch the next so at nearly 02.00 in the morning we were off to bed.