Show Stamps That Remind You Of When You First Started Collecting

When I first started to collect at around age 8 or 9, I was initially attracted to stamps from the British Commonwealth. My parents had provided a Traveler's Stamp Album kit, which included several packets of assorted off-paper WW stamps.

My Mom pointed out that several of her regular magazines had ads for stamps (Women's Day and Family Circle). So to grow and explore I sent away frequently for free stamps with approvals. By far, my favorite was Kenmore Stamp Company (still operating!). They offered deals both like those in my mom's magazines and on the matchbook below:





You couldn't beat this with a stick! In each approval selection was a packet of another 100 stamps from the Colonies for $1 that were all different from the selection given away for 25 cents. I was hooked, and to this very day Commonwealth remains a strong collecting area for me (mainly KGVI and QE2 to about 1970 or so.

Below are images scavanged from various sources that represent stamps often found in Kenmore's selections. They not only remind me of the beginnings of my adventures into philately, but likewise of my elementary-school-aged life in the late 1960's/early 1970's.

What stamps remind you of when you first started collecting stamps, or remind you of your childhood?

The 1950's and 1960's Statue of Liberty stamps remind me of when I started collecting. Specifically, these trigger a memory of looking through a person's box of stamps. It was my first discovery that there could be variances of a single design.

I am not sure of my age at the time, perhaps eight years old.

My early stamp memory is of the Champions of Liberty Series, and the 8c Magsaysay issue in particular:





My grandfather collected stamps, and died when I was 3 years old. One of his stamp friends, a grandmotherly-type, had me and my mother over when I was 7 or 8 and gave me a Magsaysay plate block of 4, and explained when and why it was issued, and explained what a plate block was, etc. It got me interested in stamps, and plate blocks specifically. I told my parents about my interest and they went and got my grandfather's collection from my grandmother (no one else in the family had shown any interest) and gave it to me. I have been collecting for the 50 years since. I worked for a few auction houses for a number of years in the 1980's, worked on my own for a few years, and have made plenty of friends along the way.

Some additional stamps from the beginning:

I lived in the states as a kid and me and my brothers all collected stamps.

Our main source of stamps was those terrible Harris bags!

Just a mixture of common junk basic rate definitives, of which this Spanish value was the most memorable -- we called it the "2 Espana"

Steevh ----Don't laugh ,I still got my Orange Bag ,it was loaded with the green 80 cents Franco stamp , think they are still in the bag .

For those of us that did not spend our youth in the USA, what is the "Orange Bag"?

Peter

One of my childhood memories was buying the $5- Hamilton from the post office for $5-. The post office is gone but I still have the stamp.

Jack Kelley

Jack, I must be a few years younger. I remember watching the SCV of the $5 Hamilton going up, up, up, year after year starting in the late 1960's. As soon as I had saved up enough money from my 25c weekly allowance and lawn mowing $$$, I went down to the PO and bought a single and plate block of the $5 Moore, hoping it would do the same thing as the Hamilton issue. Fast-forward 50 years and you can still get the Moore stamp for under face. Haha!!!

Yup. The Franco stamps and lots of Turkey for some reason.

When I started branching out beyond British Commonwealth that Franco set was one of the first I added to my collection.

I got a Whitman Voyageur album for Christmas around 1970. Knowing absolutely nothing about stamp collecting, I grabbed the stamp below from my mom's desk, licked it, and stuck it in the album. My cousin, who was a collector, told me about hinges a little later ...




Not long thereafter, I signed up for the Garcelon Stamp Approvals. They would sell lots of short sets of things. I remember the following stamp as typical of those I would buy doing that period ...

I first became interested in stamps by looking through my father's old Imperial Album. I was captivated by the pictorials showing what seemed to me to be very exotic scenes. I especially remember being impressed by these French colonial issues depicting a leopard (I think)

This one -- first mint stamp I purchased as a kid.
Still in my album.

As a nine year old, I was interested in space, dinosaurs, and stamps that seemed exotic to my preadolescent eyes. I was also amazed when I received mail from one of the comic book approval dealers who used a "valuable" 1075 Statue of Liberty souvenir sheet for postage.

This is the stamp that started it all for me.

I no longer have my original one. When I started collecting, I trimmed off the perfs to make the stamps look nicer. Fortunately, my uncle taught me the error of my ways soon thereafter, and I eventually threw away all those that I had trimmed.

Other U.S. stamps from the early '70s, such as the 6 and 8 cent Eisenhower definitives and the 7 cent Franklin definitive, also remind me of my early days of collecting. Here's one that my seven-year-old self particularly liked: