Some Stamps I Just Could Not Let Get Away

My most recent purchases. I finally got a Duck Stamp. My three year olds favorite kind. Quack Quack

Well done, nice stamps

Being a lad from Southwest England,
we have a lot of reasons to puff out our collective chests,
Our men actually saved England at one time or another.

Now, it seems, America may just be named after one of us as well,
You see Somerset was once South Wales,
and America may have been named after a Welshman from Bristol
(Oooh Aaar)

(PS One of our lads was born just 5 miles from me, one William Dampier
and he discovered Australia, Hah!)

Was America really named after a Welshman?

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Everyone in America, even the Library of Congress, believes that America is named after Amerigo Vespucci. This cannot be true as countries and other notable discoveries are always named after the surname of the person concerned.

Richard Amerik was the chief customs official in late 15th century Bristol. Of Welsh birth or extraction, his name was possibly derived from "ap Meriug", or "son of Meurig." Duty collecting having apparently been a lucrative occupation, Amerik was the principal investor in John Cabot's transatlantic expedition of 1497. Cabot allegedly repaid the favour by naming the newly discovered continent in Amerik's honour.

Sorry, a misconception. It's our pitiful national railroad system, AMTRAK, named after poor Amerik, and the spelling somewhat corrupted over the years. This is proven by the old engineers' ballad which contains the lines "...can't you hear the whistle Wales?"

It is also proven by the fact that, out of fierce pride and eternal loyalty, the basketball team "The Boston Celtics" always ride the train to their out-of-town games, they never fly.

They are some nice looking stamps - Nearly enough to make me think about starting a USA collection of some of the earlier issues - I wonder what would be a good cut off point to work backwards from?????

I only collect the engraved US issues. I say only but there are 1000's of them and the majority very reasonably priced from the 1930's onwards.
The majority stopped in the 70's but there were still a fair few in the 80's for example.

Nice stuff!

Thanks all.