Philatelic Tidbits - Stamp Collecting News and Opinions

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I was browsing around Google News this morning looking for stamp collecting related news items, when I happened across this: The Art of the Stamp. This is a virtual exhibit on the National Postal Museum’s website, and it is without doubt one of the best virtual exhibits I’ve ever seen. I would love to see more like it for a lot of subjects.

The exhibit covers the original artwork that went into the creation of many United States Stamps. There is also a real exhibit, featuring the real artwork, at the Museum in Washington, DC. until June of 2008. The exhibit has been there since November of 2006, so I guess this isn’t actually real news, but it’s news to me and it might be to you too. It’s still well worth your time to have a look around.

art, exhibit, museum, philately, postal, stamp collecting

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It sounds like India may consider starting to issue stamps featuring living people in the near future. This post over at Our Bollywood carries part of an interview with the Minister of Communications who mentions that there is no actual law that forbids India from issuing such stamps, that in fact all that is required is a policy decision.

It’s beginning to look like this may be a global trend, though I don’t think the United States will ever follow it. The closest the US will ever come to that is the photo stamps that you can purchase from commercial sources other than the post office.

Canada has issued several stamps in the past few years featuring living celebrities, and other countries have been doing it all along. The most extreme example I can think of is the Australian Olympic stamps that were issued only moments after the event. As we all learned then, immediate issue of commemorative stamps may not necessarily be a good idea. Featuring people who have life-long accomplishments worthy of note, though, doesn’t seem like a bad idea to me.

India, philately, stamp collecting, stamps

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If you’re like me, you’ve probably spent many hours at eBay looking for items for your collection. After all, it is the single biggest auction site on the Internet, and certainly has the widest selection of philatelic items of any site on the Internet. Sometimes, though, it’s kind of difficult to find exactly what you are looking for.

I can’t remember how exactly I found this, but there is a great tool here for finding philatelic items on eBay. Compare the results you get with this tool versus what you get if you just do a straight search on eBay and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. This is really a great resource, so make sure you bookmark it and keep it handy the next time you’re looking for that hard to find item for your collection.

auction, ebay, philately, stamp auction, stamp collecting, stamps

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I found this really interesting post over at Mavi Boncuk about a postcard sent from Constantinople to the US from a US expatriate living in the region in 1916. The card is very well researched and the post is just plain outstanding. It’s really cool to happen across something like this on a blog that doesn’t really have anything to do with stamp collecting. Enjoy!

blog, Ottoman Empire, philately, postal history, Turkey

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I found this over on YouTube, and thought it was just great! It was around this time that I began collecting stamps, and it might have even been this commercial that got me started! Just kidding…I got started when one of my teachers started up a Ben Franklin club in my elementary school. Still, this is pretty cool and I hope it works here.

philately, stamp collecting, stamps, usps, video, youtube

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