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The Stamp Collector (Final Part)

Saturday, December 23rd, 2017

This series turned out longer and more work than anticipated but as we all know, all good things must come to an end.

The largest portion of my stamp ‘collection’ is still affixed to the hundreds of postcards I have stored together in a box. From all over the world and spanning over twenty years, these contain a fascinating selection of stamps and cancellations.

The New Zealand stamps on the postcards sent by Bernard were quite special and varied, but I also like the mini airmail stamp attached to the Swiss stamp and the (very unique!) Death Valley cancellation.

There’s those Star Wars stamps attached to a postcard I sent from Hawaii a decade ago. There’s the only postcard I ever received from Italy (and boring at that) followed by an example of my creative stamping from England.

Those were both from Oz last year, and you may have seen these on your cards? Australia seems to have doubled down on large and lavish animal stamps these past years, and I always seek them out to include them on postcards.

In fact I’ve got no problem whatsoever eating up large portions of the back of a postcard with lovely stamps…. like this:

Which is another specimen I sent KLS last year. I’ve done the above several times over the years, but this one may be my masterpiece!

One thing I’ve learned doing research for this series is that while collectors prefer stamps to be as pristine as possible, there are certain stamps that are more collectible if they had been used for postage. This is why I particularly like the ones attached to my postcards, since they were used to mail stuff to me!

In a few days I’m off to Australia again. This time, when you get your postcards, spare a moment to appreciate the stamps. It’s likely I put as much thought into them as I did the card itself or even what I wrote on it.

I hope you found this series interesting. I ended up much farther down the rabbit hole than I ever expected, and at times even I couldn’t see light, but I’m glad I’m out now and can move on with the usual topics 🙂

Posted in Art, Collecting, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Stamps | Comments Closed

The Stamp Collector (Part Five)

Tuesday, December 12th, 2017

It’s time for the penultimate entry in my stamp collection series. This time: ‘Chinese New Year’ stamps!

Stamps of this type represent the bigger portion of my collection, especially since they (usually) are released every time I am in Australia. But as you’ll see I have a few from elsewhere as well. Because of how many I have this post won’t show all of them. If you interested in seeing the others, ask me next time you come and visit 🙂

I’m going to do these in chronological order, and the above is my earliest – a snake stamp from 2011. Note it’s (another) Christmas Island issue. You’ll see that is true for all the new years stamps issued by Australia.

This pair (2003 & 2004) was another purchase from the stamp museum in Washington DC. They’re quite remarkable because the envelopes actually have cloth patches glued on to them. I wonder if the entire series (of 12 animals) was done over the years? I’ve never looked…

I suspect this dog stamp from 2006 is in the same series as the snake above, although it looks different. By this time several different covers were being issued since they did one (or two) stamps with the animal of interest, and an entire sheet of all twelve. For most years since then I have both covers, but as I said I’ll only show one here.

As a child of 1972, my ratlike qualities are well known. I’ve been told by an expert (thanks YZ!) that the stamp on the right actually says ‘mouse’ in Chinese 🙂

2010 was the year of the tiger, and here’s both first day covers that were sold then. Once again they use the Chinese characters in the stamp itself, but the second set contains stylized pictures of the animals. I very much like this approach, and Australia has been continuing it ever since.

Eagle-eyed readers will ask “Where are 2007 and 2009?” The answer is… I don’t have them 🙂

For 2011 – the rabbit year – I’ll only show the full sheet of twelve. Note the rabbit stamp gets special treatment being framed by a silver moon. I love the colouring on this set.

I just read online that famous ‘dragons’ (ie. born in the year of the dragon) include Bruce Lee, Vladimir Putin and none other than Jesus Christ himself! I bet all of them would love the above stamp.

Both covers from 2013. The former is impressive not just for the lovely design, but since it includes the food that the animals types like as well. I never knew Jesus was a fan of tomatoes! The latter seems to be the first year they started including the larger sheet on the second cover, which in this case depicts the serpent-goddess Nuwa, who I had never heard of and was not aware had anything to do with the Chinese Zodiac!

2014 was the year of the horse. Notice the horseshoe cancellation and the inclusion of elements with each animal. This is unusual since I believed each animal had multiple potential elements. I’m not sure how they arrived at the ones shown on these stamps.

Here we have a second year of the horse stamp, this time from Singapore! Bernard got me this when he visited. It’s very fanciful and colourful, as all Chinese new years stamps seem to be.

I think if I could have picked my animal I may have chosen goat. Not only are they cute, but I like the word ‘goat’, and since I myself am ‘calm and gentle’ (which are characteristics of goat-people) it’s seems silly I was born under the rat in the first place!

Here we notice Singapore straddling 2014/2015 with this issue, which contains both a horse and a ram. Once again, it’s a beautiful and colourful stamp with metallic-ink elements. I also suspect that ink may be pure gold, since Bernard paid a princely sum for this one:

Who else has a brother that purchased them thousands of dollars worth of stamps when he went to Singapore? 😉

And here we have this years stamp, the rooster. Note the series is still following the same style as 2008, which means for 10 consecutive years. Since I don’t have 2007 I can’t say if this began then (and will end next year) or whether my rat cover was the first (and it will end in 2019). I guess I’ll find out soon enough!

2016 you say? That was the year I shuffled around post offices in Australia looking for first-day covers that I was told at the time didn’t exist but have since learned did. I have tried to not let that bother me ever since…

Only one more stamp post to go, and it’ll come sometime next week. This series has been a lot of work; I hope you’ve been enjoying it.

Posted in Otaku, Stamps | 1 Comment »

The Stamp Collector (Part Four)

Sunday, December 3rd, 2017

It’s somewhat unsatisfying that my blog in recent months has become a “look at this thing I own” catalogue, but this has been one of the busiest semesters in recent memory and I seem to always lack the time I wish I had to spend on other diversions. Given I started this series (and enjoy it!) I’d like to finish it before Christmas.

Therefore, another installment of my stamp collection, this time ‘miscellaneous’. Here are the bits and pieces (including loose stamps) that didn’t fit easily into the other posts, including those yet to be made…

Another item I no doubt picked up on one of my annual trips to the south. Once again we see Christmas Island, and an animal. It’s exotic isn’t it? I read recently that stamps from places like this are ‘worth’ more if actually used for postage, rather than sold as collectibles like this. Doubly so if they went through other post offices on the way and received additional cancellations, as was once done.

I also read that first-day-covers are essentially worthless; a product of the 1960s/70s/80s mostly that has little interest to anyone today. This explains why I often find them for sale for a song 🙂

These were both purchased in Brighton a couple of years ago, for next to nothing, and mostly for their kitsch value. I’m sure on a postcard somewhere I have stamps of Will and Kate’s wedding, and I’ll look forward to an Ozling sending me a postcard with a ‘Wedding of Harry and Meghan’ stamp. I do like the metallic ink on the Charles & Diana envelope…

I’m not sure where these came from. I think they’re too recent to be stamps I collected myself (why doesn’t Australia put the year on stamps?!?) but I don’t know who gave them to me or when. Maybe I soaked them off letters after I got to the US? I also have this little batch:

But they were obtained as freebies at the Smithsonian. Except the bottom one of course, which was on a letter sent by Sue. It’s a lovely stamp, but the cost of international postage from Australia – it’s closer to $3 today – is notable. A significant portion of my annual ‘Australia trip budget’ is stamp costs!

This is actually how I buy most stamps when I’m in Oz. Almost every post office has a ‘stamp collecting’ section where they sell stamps packaged like the above. I suppose the sheets like this are for the collectors, but I open them and use them. In the last few years I’ve made extra effort to make sure the postcards I send have different (and attractive) stamps on them – I wonder do you even look at the stamps?

More random Australian stamps in my collection, this time packaged carefully in a little display folder. These are particularly pretty. I should have put them on cards!

Australian/Korean stamps issued simultaneously in each country and sold together as a set. I think I bought these because I liked the Korean stamps. Note only the Korean ones show the date.

This is a collectors stamp set issued by Australia a couple of years back (this is one of two sheets). You’ll note that the Doctors themselves are not actually stamps. They are in fact stickers! They would have looked sublime on postcards I suppose, but it’s a bit of a con that Aus Post charged $12 for this set when the actual stamps (the globe showing Australia) are so generic and boring.

This is more interesting. It’s a two-sheet set of ‘Mythical Creatures’ stamps issued by Australia a few years back that was packaged with 3D glasses since one of the sets is printed in 3D. I bought this in a post office for some piddling amount, and have always wondered if the 3D versions are acceptable to be used as postage. There’s nothing about not using them on the folder, so I assume the answer is yes, but I also wonder if they’d give the computerized scanning machines a bit of trouble?

Of course the USA isn’t immune to licensed stamps, and famously many years back the above sheet was printed. I bought a bunch of these and used the hell out of them, and it is very likely you’ll have a postcard or two in your drawers sent by me featuring one of the above. The postal service went a bit crazy promoting these, and even repainted some post boxes to look like R2D2! We can only hope they do it again and I can put a Porg stamp on your next postcard…

There’s also the above, which is a massive (20 or so) stamp set commemorating the Harry Potter series. It’s pretty and very nicely presented and overall one of the better licensed stamp products I’ve seen. This was difficult to find when it came out, and I drove around to a few post offices since I wanted to buy one for Florence in time for her Birthday or Christmas or something like that. I wonder if she used the stamps or still has it?

I’m sure I have more of the above around. A few years ago I actually framed some stamps and hung them on a wall, and I know they’re up in the attic or something today. I’m sure you’ll get to see them yourself during an installment of the very overdue and long-planned ‘Stuff I found in my attic’ series coming in 201X…

Posted in Collecting, Otaku, Stamps | 1 Comment »

The Stamp Collector (Part Three)

Tuesday, November 7th, 2017

A short update in this series today, focusing on a tiny subset of my stamp collection: dinosaurs!

I bought the above a few years ago because I liked the stamps. You do too, since everyone loves dinosaurs. They turn up on stamps a lot, and going forward if I ever see a dinosaur stamp I’m buying it. For now though, my collection is scant…

The above is interesting. I purchased it from the National Stamp Museum in Washington DC. I remember it well: I walked there from our hotel by myself and wandered – unknowningly – through a ‘rough’ part of town. On a street corner as I was waiting to cross I witnessed on the other side of the street a man older than me brandish a gun at another and threaten to kill him. Both participants in this disagreement were hastily separated and calmed down by a large group of other people as I shuffled away at great speed. It was a surreal experience, not easily forgotten.

The stamp museum was exceptional though, and they had loads of covers like the one above for a song. I bought this one mostly because of the dinosaur, but looking at it now I’m intrigued by the three cancellations and the fact the one on the stamp uses roman numerals (II) for the month.

Bernard got me the above in Hong Kong and it’s another lovely example of dinosaurs. Looking online I see many more (including some fantastic diamond-shaped stamps from North Korea of all places), and they’re almost all good.

I’ll end by mentioning a bookmark I gave to Adam many years ago that was made from a strip of dinosaur stamps. I really liked that bookmark, and after gifting it tried in vain to find another. Alas I never did. If you ever see a dinosaur stamp bookmark – or actual dinosaur stamps – keep me in mind 🙂

Posted in Collecting, Otaku, Stamps | Comments Closed

The Stamp Collector (Part Two)

Sunday, October 15th, 2017

Time for another in this series. This time I’ll describe some of the oldest items I own..

That’s the first first-day cover I remember actually buying for myself. From the date I would have been 10, although I don’t think I bought it on the day of release. I’ve got a pretty vivid memory of buying it at Garden City (now Westfield Kotara mall), which makes the cancellation stamp of Hamilton intriguing. Local post offices these days don’t usually cancel their own covers. Maybe back in 1982 they did? Perhaps Hamilton canceled covers that were distributed to post offices around Newcastle? I doubt I’ll ever know.

Anyway it’s in scrappy shape today, and the 3c stamp is peeling a little. But it remains one of my earliest possessions that I still own.

This guy is even older! Dating from even before I was born, this was during the time mum and dad were in PNG. Obviously it speaks to the native blood in me, and is a pride of my collection. But what is the provenance? Did Mum/Dad actually buy this in New Guinea when it came out? Or was it obtained later? I can’t remember not having it, so maybe it predates me and is what started me into stamp collecting as a child? Maybe someone will reveal the truth in the comments…

As my oldest first day cover, I was curious to see if it had any value today. A quick search online found at least two for sale, although neither in as good condition as this one. The cost? Under US$5 🙂

There was, back in 198X, a tiny stamp shop in the grimy mall in ‘Hilltop Plaza’ that connected to Charlestown Road. The proprietor had Isaac Asimov sideburns and usually ignored me as I sorted through his endless racks of stamps and covers looking for something I could afford with the pittance in my pocket. Every now and then for whatever reason something caught my eye, and the above is one such example. I recall liking the series – only one stamp is shown on this cover – that linked together to form a larger picture. I had them all separately, which is why I bought this. Into the collection it went one day 30+ years ago, and in ‘the collection’ it remains today 🙂

Here’s the full set by the way:

I no longer own any of these stamps other than the one on the envelope above, but at one time I was pleased to have all five of these arranged together in my stamp album.

These are two other first-day covers that date to the earliest days of my collection. I probably purchased these myself when I was 10 or so, possibly at the same shop mentioned above. Neither of these are particularly notable or attractive, but in those days I was usually more interested in loose stamps than covers and presumably these were very inexpensive.

The above is a mystery. Again, I recall owning it as part of my collection around the time I left Oz, and presumably it caught my eye because I loved stamps that linked together to form a bigger picture. But the date surprises me: 1986. This was after I had discovered girls and Nick Cave and was listening to Black Celebration all the time. Was I still buying stamps?! Maybe I bought this at Rices or Cooks Hill Books, since I recall both of them used to occasionally have stamps on the counter. I genuinely don’t recall…

Speaking of loose stamps, the above was also purchased at that same shop. The photo doesn’t do a great job showing the silver ink, but this is a lovely holiday series issued by Christmas Island (aka. an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean) in 1980. Christmas Island postal issues are a blog post unto themself, but notable to this one is the fact that it was pre-1980, and is therefore not a true ‘Australian’ stamp (unlike those issued today, many of which you’ll see in a future post).

I neither knew or cared about this as a kid. I just thought the above was pretty, and it was one of my most prized stamps. I’m happy it survived whatever happened to my stamp album, and is still in my possession.

Similar to the above are these two German stamps from ’76 and ’77. I’m reasonably sure dad soaked these both off letters we received from relatives in Germany (the postmark is from his hometown in Germany). I certainly don’t remember buying or being sent them, and suspect they (along with perhaps the PNG cover) may have been the earliest parts of the collection. They’re both in remarkably good condition even today, and remain beautiful examples of German Christmas stamps.

As I have mentioned here, I used to own a conventional stamp album with many different stamps from all over the world. I don’t recall exactly what happened to it, but it’s possible I simply gave it away in my early teens when my interests shifted to other things. I’m happy – if this is the case – that I kept the stamps you see here. Aside from the fact I still think most of them are pretty, there’s a lot of nostalgia associated with these particular items.

(When I came to the US I didn’t bring the items shown in this post with me. They stayed with my parents in Australia, ended up being passed on to Bernard, and he returned them to me several years later.)

Posted in Blog, Collecting, Family, Stamps, Time | 1 Comment »

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