Tell US About Your Stamp Avatar

Unsurprisingly, I chose my avatar because I specialize in this stamp issue.

dudley, I feel sorry for you if you only specialize
in ONE crummy stamp.


Just kidding.

My avatar isn't a stamp, by this is my grandfather's badge that was once on a hat. He was a special delivery messenger for the post office in Gadsden, Alabama.

My avatar is Canada Scott/Unitrade 388 the first stamp
I ever scanned way back I think in 2009.

It was issued in 1959 for the 200th Anniversary of the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City,
where in 1759 the British defeated the French
in battle and thereby claimed half a continent.

I have been fascinated by this battle ever since I learned
of it in primary school.

My avatar is a fantasy mock-up of the first issue of Spain. I collect the early issues of Spain, starting from the first issue, so I thought #1 would be appropriate. I also really like bi-colored issues so I turned the all black stamp into a bi-colored stamp. Just a fun thing.

What first appealed to me about stamps when I was almost 5 were their colours: the bright red of Bohemia and Moravia Sc. #O8 and the olive green of Sc.#O10 having arrived on a registered envelope from a notary public in March 1942 (the date can therefore still be pinpointed).

Nearly 50 years later, on returning from the Seurat retrospective held in Paris in the spring of 1991 (having read a passage in his treatise on complementary colours), I realised it had been the lovely bright red poppies in the young olive green corn that I had admired in the fields ever since childhood which had made me instantly like the couple on the envelope and take to stamps ever after.

But I had soon realised I could not let myself be swamped by stamps when an uncle presented me with a boxful of them but that I had to pick and choose from among them and my stamps began to serve me as reminders of both things beautiful as well as of interest to me and those dreadful that I have lived through.

So it is memorable w/w mint, pristine, impeccable stamps of appealing design and artistic facture that I collect. Chasing no rarities, having to complete no endless collections, collecting not for investment but for pleasure.

It is always less rather than a lot (and therefore out of sight and mind) that I bear in mind. And the same goes for viewing my treasures: the rarer the occasion, the greater the treat. There is nothing like opening your album after a period of time spent on hard work outdoors or a mind-refreshing experience (formerly abroad, nowadays doing some hiking in the country).

My avatar: just a lovely stamp of no CV to most collectors, yet dear to me.

I was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, lived and worked there for many years, so I chose the 1999 (SC 1779) stamp depicting the Saint John-built Marco Polo, once "the fastest ship in the world".

CP commissioned marine artist J. Franklin Wright for the picture showing the Marco Polo passing Partridge Island Light while outward-bound from Saint John.

The city's long history of ship-building is reflected in the fact that most of the RCN's frigates sailing today were built there.

I originally chose Gabriella, one of several nicknames I had when I was growing up, as the basis for my ebay ID. When I joined SCF I decided to use the same ID here.

Shortly after I joined, the topic "Please show us your Angel stamps" happened to pop up on the recent list. Luckily for me, my favorite Christmas stamp (US Scott #1363) had not yet been posted on that topic. The stamp, issued in 1968, shows the Angel Gabriel from the painting "The Annunciation" by Jan van Eyck.

Since I like this stamp so much and it fits my nickname so well, I sent in a scan to be used for my avatar. Bobby131313 and 51Studebaker cropped it for me so the more interesting top section stands out better.

I am an avid collector of Germany and all related areas. This is one of the German Graf Zeppelin issues and I simply find it an attractive design. It's probably a more appropriate avatar than a Hitler head, at any rate. The one in my avatar picture isn't even my copy, which is used. I collect the rest of the world as well, but Germany is the one I'm most serious about.

Been waiting for the mods to make this avatar..