Was A Single Stamp Your Gateway Drug?

Inspired by the resignation of the former US PMG from the US CSAC (https://goscf.com/t/38982) ...

My thinking has been that a sheet of Elvis stamps only proves one thing to the buyer: all stamps are good for is one more addition to their Elvis collection.

My guess is that almost all of us got started because we saw someone else collect, or because someone left a collection, or because someone invited us to collect (boy scout merit badge).

But if one stamp of your favorite whatever/whoever got you started, I will follow the example of Lord Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

Q/ Was there one single stamp that was your gateway drug to stamp collecting?

Q/ Was what caught your interest the subject, the beauty, the detail, the face value, the anitquity ...?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

For me it was this one --- first mint stamp I collected as a kid ...

In particular, it was the 20 Milliarden stamp that got me.



It was in my grandmother's collection which consisted of some stamps soaked off correspondence between her father and his family in Germany.

For me it had to be either the Scott #35 or #65 that got my un divided attention after I looked it up while trying to identify them and I was in awe and my meticulous and eye for detail got its fix that day for certain!

I can't think of a particular stamp, it was just the strangeness of seeing foreign writing on something and the illustrations of far away and exotic things. I do know I was fascinated by the German inflation issues myself, but I don't think there was one particular stamp or set that hooked me.

I love the name of the topic!

It was, without question, US 114.

I had been collecting for a few months when I borrowed a Scott Specialized Catalogue for US Stamps from the man who got me interested in stamp collecting (I was a paperboy and he was my customer). While browsing through the catalogue, I came across the most wonderful train stamp! I went to Mr McFee and asked him if he had one he could sell to me. He found a "filler" and sold it to me for .50. I have been hooked ever since!

Brian

KirkS: I grew-up on my father's stories/lectures/chats on WW2, geopolitics, history, et al. The Iwo Jima flag-raising stamp would have done it for me if the 4c Pony Express had not got there first. My big brother had way-over-done-it on the FDC (he must have had 20x singles, a coupla blocks, etc) and I looked at them and thought "look how many you can have!" Like, so hooked.

Rileysan: there was a stamp; but, first, there was a guy who read the paper every day ... so who/what gets the credit?

That 'gateway drug' idiom/simile/metaphor/meme/whatever is gonna continue to be the new, cool thing for another coupla weeks, so's you'd better hurry-up and use it, quick.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Without question it was #C3a. The story of the man buying a sheet of the new airmail and noticing it was printed upside down and then asking if they had anymore like it intrigued as an 8 year old. I remember asking for a "Golden Galleon" from Harris Stamp Co. for Christmas certain I would find a similar treasure.

Speaking of the HE Harris "Golden Galleon" mixture, here's a previous thread showing what it looked like back in the day!

https://goscf.com/t/20837

It might have been one of those Bosnian pictorials.

The 1931 US Yorktown stamp. I had to look up what a gateway drug was. Learned something new today.

Mine was good old Alexander Graham Bell, US Scott 893. Found it in Grandma's collection, and I was hooked.

Well, it wasn't my first stamp but that there Spanish Goya nude shore did ketch my eye. Course I am more mature now. I was about 9 year old back then.

I guess I am one of the exceptions.
I got started because I just happened to be strolling through Alexandra Park, North London on a beautiful sunny May day in 1990.

Londonbus1....Oh, the memories

I didn't. In fact, I don't think I even knew another collector the entire time I was growing up.

Okay, all: Here's a trivia question for you.

Below the denomination on the Alexander Graham Bell Stamp shown above (Scott 893) there is a symbol or logo of some sort. One part of it looks like a lightning bolt. In fact, the same symbol is used on all of the "Inventors" stamps from the Famous Americans Series (Scott 889-893).

What does that symbol represent? Does anyone know?