What Was In Your Mailbox Today??

dudley - surprisingly, no, actually. Some neat #10A covers though.

I did pick up, from another source, a pretty neat hybrid large die proof of the 1c stamp in black on India. I don't think its listed in Scott -- these hybrids are often essentially 40P3 or 4's cut to shape and mounted on an India die-sized paper. Kind of boring, really, except that this one is black on India (cut to shape). Never seen another. The trial color printings were not in black - only the Atlanta's, but they were on card. So I think this is a special printing on India in black from the reprint plate. Its actually a pretty nice item --- if in Scott, it would be 40TC1 (black), I think, as opposed to 40P1 if it were blue, aka a 40P3 variant.

I got a beat up album full of common worldwide material. There was not as much British Commonwealth as I expected.

I got my box of 1000-102 cards..

Today I got two very nice Japanese postcards: an uprated postal card from 1989, featuring Hello Kitty, and a stamped card from 1967, featuring a runestone presented by SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) to the City of Tokyo. I've learned that the runestone is located in Hibiya Park; I wish I'd known this when I was in Tokyo! (Runes and runestones are the focus of one of my most important topical collections.)

I expected the bidding to go much higher for Hello Kitty than for the runestone, but the SAS card ended up costing me more than twice as much as Kitty. Go figure.

This sounds a fascinating collection - have you posted anything about it anywhere?

I got in a collection on Steiner pages and was pulling ones that I need for my Steiner pages. The paper does not match but good enough for now. I will just add some pages directly (post 1975 or so) since I really do not focus on those.

Followup to my last post.

I called my carrier office this morning following our getting NO mail yesterday and a couple circulars Monday. The clerk told me the carrier is new and she will talk to her, I wasn't expecting much.

About 5 PM she was at our door dropping off an overdue package, she seemed huffy and left. I walked out to the box and.. it was jammed full. The damn carrier was playing games with our mail;. Not sure if he got ripped over this but I sure hope she did. I have to wonder, how long was this going to keep up if we hadn't reported her?

after a 105 degree day

and all the post cards from Don's stamp smarter contest--thanks don

No, not really. A couple of pieces in various threads on this forum, but nothing beyond that.

Mind you, when I say it's "one of my most important topical collections," that doesn't mean it's a large collection, just one that attracts more of my "completist" tendencies. I'm interested in stamps containing either the image of a runic monument or else an inscription featuring runic characters. I'm only interested in actual Germanic/Norse/Anglo-Saxon runes here, not rune-like symbols (Nazi SS insignia, for example). I also haven't bothered with stamps showing artwork from runestones that doesn't include the runes, e.g. Sweden #592. I've managed to get all the stamps of which I'm aware within these limits, as well as a few that almost qualify, and it's not a long list:

STAMPS DEPICTING RUNIC MONUMENTS
Denmark #342 (1953) Harald's stone (DR 42)
Denmark #1263 (2003) Thyra's stone (DR 41)
Denmark #1265 (2003) Harald's stone (DR 42)
Faroe Islands #65 (1981) Sandavágur stone (FR 2 M)
Finland #391 (1962) Mora stone (re-creation)
Monaco #1359 (1982) Discovery of Greenland with Kingittorsuaq stone (GR 1 M)
Norway #586 (1972) Alstad stone (N 61–62)
Sweden #1120 (1975) Rök stone (Ög 136)
Sweden #2435 (2002) Adelsö stone (U 11)

STAMPS WITH RUNIC INSCRIPTIONS
Iceland #152 (1930) Parliament building
Iceland #157 (1930) Þingreið
Iceland #162 (1930) Law-speaker
Sweden #1346–50 (1981) Old Norse mythology (also runes on the booklet cover)

BORDERLINE CASES
Denmark #849 (1988) Ole Worm (17th-century runologist) with drawing of one of the Golden Horns of Gallehus (the one without runes on it)
Germany #1984 (1997) Heinrich Heine pane of 10 with two runes in the selvage (later removed because some people automatically associate runes with Nazis)
Great Britain #BK157 (1992) J.R.R. Tolkien Prestige Booklet with the first sentence of The Hobbit in Anglo-Saxon runes on the back cover.

At this point I'm just adding things like FDCs, maximum cards, prestige booklets, picture postcards, etc., though I'd be happy to learn of other runic stamps that I may have missed.

My username, incidentally, is a word that appears in several old runic inscriptions.

Today I got some nice early Canada & NF mint. Along with J1-10 postal dues, the highlight was a nice Bluenose (158). Definitely a step up from my previously battered ones. I know everyone says it's an attractive stamp - and they're right! It's a work of art.

Hi Erilaz

thanks for that very full reply and the link to your username - I'd assumed it was linked to Esperanto somehow. It was a very interesting read. I'm fascinated by the links between languages - it never occurred to me that a word like earl could be connected to ancient Greek


My first thought was that it might not be such a very big collection, but I guess you could go to town on connected information on the pages

Time to get busy with my small perfin accumulation.

ebay lots arrived safely and quickly.

A cover from an American collector, containing some exchange material, and with this very nice postage: