The Original Ponzi Scheme

Apparently the original Ponzi scheme was created by a stamp dealer, well sorta.

Charles Ponzi initially started buying international reply coupon (IRC) in one currency and exchanging them in stamps in another currency during the 1920's, so basically a currency exchange using stamps, and was initially successful at it. To make a short story shorter, when the money started rolling in he stopped attempting to make a profit and paid old investors with new investors.

Link to wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ponzi

Related video:
http://www.travelchannel.com/video/...n-huge-fraud

So this is where the US Social Security administration learned the Ponzi scheme.

I figured this thread would head this direction. Though I was expecting something like 'Doesn't his family now run the _____ Stamp Company'.

What a great scam for future heirs to become owners of major stamp holdings. I'm curious now as to the ________ but have my guesses. Wouldn't all the USPS retirement funds being heeped into various other Gov't coffers equate to the same. Ah the shady world of stamps.

Of course the stamp collecting hobby is Ponzi scheme of sorts. The dealers sell you stamps along with hinges & encourage you to use the hinges to destroy the gum perhaps the stamps themselves on perfectly good MNH stamps and once those stamps are devalued they will try to sell you more MNh stamps claiming yours are no longer collectible. Once it comes time to sell the collection they will low ball any offering telling you that you destroyed the value of the collection by using stamp hinges. Stamp hinges are the Bane of stamp collecting.
Any business that sells you a product along with telling you the only way to save them is to destroy them is questionable.