What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

I wish that some specialty catalogs had an English version even if somewhat abridged. I do not speak Russian and likely never will at this point.

Sorted through some modern Japan with my daughter. Then stared at my Germany on paper, but didn't do anything with them. Browsed Hipstamp for things I don't need.

Today, I finished printing my new album pages for:
Controlled substance tax stamps (state issues marijuana),
Federal Marihuana stamps,

Now I need to move the stamps into them.

Next up: Narcotic, although I really don't have many of those (yet). These are the last of the 11 categories of "Sin Tax" stamp pages/albums.

Opened up a box of a several thousand covers that was part of an estate sale that I bought a few years ago and had set aside. I took a look this morning just out of curiosity and found several hundred covers from 1862 to 1920 and about 50 of these signed covers from Congress. A lot of used and unused embossed/stamped covers. Still searching...

The congressional free franks you show are all pre-printed facsimiles, rather than actual autographs.

John Becker: Thanks but, I do realize that and it's obvious when examining them. Immediate give away is the M. C. in the lower right corner of the signature. Interesting addition to my officials though. As I go through I've found more, all unique so far.

I was unsure what you knew, since you had originally called them "signed covers from Congress".

Understood, not a problem an assist is always appreciated... I didn't mean "live signature" (autograph). Just signed in the sense of bearing an "authorized" signature, per requirements for such mail, be it preprinted, rubber stamped or other. The original recipient lived in DC and was a stamp collector that did have business with congress so I'm sure he got as many as he could while he could. Looks like he managed to get 58, at least in the lot I bought.

Nicely addressed Don and very well explained.

I still go back to Gibbons 1963 general catalogue for designers and engravers.
Each have a role to play.

Sorted modern German from a massive lot I bought last year. Made easier by the Germans printing the year on their stamps.

Spent my day licking my wounds after the Schuyler auction bloodbath. And got nice a stamp from Loral in the mail.

Nicholas- sounds like you've got a perfect situation for years of fun.

Continued pulling some of the GB Commonwealth stamps out of a 1950's Worldwide album. Surprising at the number of stamps to be removed and re-placed. Also ,dug into the new American Philatelist that arrived Saturday.

Have become quite addicted to the Mexico Architecture and Archeology series of definitives (1950 - 1975). Enrique Sanchez, one of the gurus (some say THE guru) of the Exporta series stamps, also has created a complete listing of all printings for the Architecture and Archeology series. There are a lot of interesting paper and shade varieties. Over the past 6-7 months I have acquired a fair amount of material for comparison so I will need to organize all the stamps and work on sorting them.

I've been able to find quite a few of the scarcer pieces, which in each case represent a single printing, yet there are a few run-of-the-mill items that I have not been able to find, for example Scott C134, C139, and C220Eq. I suspect the latter stamp is hard to find since it's a shade.

C177c has also been a challenge. Lot's of examples are offered for sale, I suspect due to the high catalog value, but none of them seem different to me than basic C177's. Might be a very difficult shade to ID- I'm not sure yet.

Still taking a break from mounting. Have catalogued the remainder of loose 1940 to 1973+ for the A-C countries, except countries in South America and Czechoslovakia. By loose stamps, I mean anything not still mounted in the old albums (which contain pages from 1940 to 1971) or already remounted on my Steiner+ pages. I am now starting Czechoslovakia, easily a top 10 by volume, so this will take a while.