This Is About Stamps!

Stamps are fascinating. As I leaf through the pages of my albums I'm amazed by the number of (mostly) rascals from around the world depicted on them whose main purpose has been to deny people their freedom. (Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Patrick Henry, and possibly even Kennedy and Reagan, excluded.)

Hey it took almost 20 years and numerous petitions to get Chesty Puller on a stamp. Meanwhile clouds, dogs, cats and mermaids were slapped on a stamp left and right.

Food for thought!

I agree Mac.....

.......a few critter stamps is ok but there are still plenty of true hero's that deserve to be honored.

Actually collecting topicals has something going for it: it's politically neutral and (mostly) scoundrel free. I still prefer my two volume International Part I, however.

It has always been my contention that most "silly" topicals are all about money. Is Bugs Bunny really stamp worthy? What about comic book characters? They are about how many they can sell and are never used. This creates almost pure profit. How many Elvis stamps were sold vs. how many were used! This is part of why I rarely add a new issue to my collection.

I agree. But then so are music, movies and other forms of 'cultural' entertainment. And that's about all topicals amount to: entertainment. It keeps a certain segment of the collecting public happy. Yes, the old business adage of 'find a need and fill it' even applies to the USPS.

By the way, have you ever considered how many tons of cheap metal were pulled out of circulation with the 50 state quarters?

I have a set of state quarters. But, I didn't pay for them. I found one of the error ones and selling it paid for the set. So I don't feel so bad about keeping them.

That's the way to do it, if you can.

What would be classed a 'silly' topical do you think ??

And are not ALL stamps topicals ?

This is an interesting thread, it would be nice to get some opinions from the group.

Londonbus1....Then I'll know if my topical is silly or not !

I think there are clearly, to me, some people who don't deserve to be honored on a stamp. I can list a few if desired.

However all people come with warts. Someone as iconic as George Washington was not without flaw. Does he deserve to be on a stamp. Again, my opinion, yes. His virtues perhaps outweigh his flaws.

Thomas Jefferson? Perhaps yes he should be on a stamp. However, the slaves he owned might not agree that his virtues outweighed his flaws.

Are there silly topics put on stamps? Of course there are. However, perhaps we should see stamp issues as a snapshot of the culture of a country. Fads come and go. Stamps do no more than illustrate those fads.

Agreed, so maybe I should clarify what I'm getting at.

When it came to government and governing, did the person stand for liberty or some form of social tyranny? Kennedy, for example wasn't perfect, but liberty was an integral part of his governing theme, unlike Johnson who followed.

Yes, probably, in the sense that they can by their very nature fit into some category. But there are topicals and there are topicals. Where at one time someone interested in botany might have searched out even very obscure examples of flowers on stamps, stamp issuing countries now provide him with complete, multicolored gardens, there for the picking. It kind of changes the whole concept of topical collecting from being one of searching out to one of being marketed to.

Last Sunday, I met a topical collector, at a show in New Jersey who collected kayaks on stamps.

He was sitting at a table, which had large box of Worldwide stamps
at a nickle each.

I saw him pull out two stamps depicting kayaks, and you could see how excited he was with each find.

So I asked him, how big is your collection ?

He pulled out a 16 page stockbook, and showed me , he had about 75 stamps.

Maybe it's because "cultural" things get paid more attention
than real heroes anymore. For the last 30 years or more, Elvis
has garnished more attention than any war heroes, or any law
enforcement heroes, or firefighters, etc,etc. I think it's a
reflection of our world, naturally led by we Americans. Too bad
that Lady Gaga gets more notoriety than the police officers that
do more difficult work everyday.
I would love to see more commemoratives about the service oriented
parts of our lives.

Sliding further down the slippery slope...

When you see a set (especially one that is sold or cataloged as one item) that includes several different topical themes that are (i) unrelated to each other, and (ii) unrelated to the issuing country, then it sure seems like a purely commercial enterprise intended to fleece as much money as possible from collectors.

That being said, this is in the grandest stamp-issuing tradition of very many countries for more than 100 years. The new ones are just less subtle about it.

Some of the implausible issues are worth a chuckle, but they don't really bother me. I feel no compunction to purchase them.

Collin