What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

Last week I viewed the Zoom symposium on war and postal innovation put on by the Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History, specifically the segment on the Paris Balloon Post of 1870-71 by Steven Walske. Thus bolstered with a good, concise and interesting explication, I ventured last night to explain to my wife Balloon Mail, illustrated with a cover I'd bought back in December as a little Christmas present for myself to tuck into my French airmail album as a custom first page.

To my delight she was quite enthusiastic about this piece of postal history and the inventiveness and adventure of the whole enterprise. She did ask how much it cost, but thought the $130 plus buyers premium reasonable for such a neat little survivor from a perilous journey in 1870.

It was carried on L'Archimede, the 27th official post office balloon and so I gave a dramatic reading of the pilot's account of his voyage which is quoted in Louis Chaintrier, Balloon Post of the Siege of Paris 1870-71. The pilot was an utter novice aeronaut! Imagine!

A nice moment to share my enthusiasm with my spouse.
Even let her handle it!

Since we all like pictures, here are recto and verso. The stamp is Yvert 29B on Gazette des Absents no. 8.







Not sure I can get her as enthusiastic about Washington Franklins, but I'll take what I can get....

Paris balloon mail is a great area.

I received 3 (new to me) album collections. Went through them to stabilize them and ensure no more damage was going to happen to them. sorted out Switzerland. Printed a new album for me, Comoro Islands. Adjusted my US BOB section of airmails to see what needs replacing, from Used to Mint, as I can afford it.
This is basically what I do every day, except the countries change. The hunt is better than the value. I have always loved the feeling of what did I get, yes I know I never grew up in that respect. I just love the ones I get no matter what they are. I'm always disappointed when they have been damaged.

Mounted some more classic:

Qatar (1 page from 1972)
Reunion
Senegal
Senegambia & Niger
Seychelles
Siberia
Sierra Leone
Singapore

Printed pages for Iran and laying out the stamps. Still need to actually mount El Salvador and a few others already prepared.

Last night, I sorted two large tubs of covers by type, issue / denomination and date - in the living room while (semi) watching movies with my family. Dates ranged from 1867 to the mid 1970's. Got them done but it was tiring.

Today, I added more weight to the base and LED lights on 2 goose-neck's to the stand I made a while ago for my digital microscope.

My mother-in-law snagged me 10 1oz bags of stamps at a garage sale for a grand total of $1. Nothing earth shattering, heavy on the Liberty and Presidential series but was able to pull out a couple dozen perfins and pre-cancels. Also a handful of 1920's definitives set aside for checking over later.

Sorted through Pakistan that I had in glassines and started thinning out my Niue to Rio Muni album (1941-1971). It's the fattest album I have left with hundreds and hundreds of stamps still in the margins and on blank pages. This album also includes Iran (still listed as Persia) and I found more classic Iran in the margins (yay, but mostly, if not all, fakes). Sadly, I'm low on glassines yet again and so I need to either buy more or mount more stamps.

Update: Found about 70 empty glassines hiding with Nicaragua. Woo hoo!

Sounds like a "treat the symptom or treat the disease" kind of issue.

Ordered some Austrian area stamps from a few sellers on Hipstamp to fill some holes.

Dale

Last week, my wife and I were in County Kerry.
In five days, we visited all 45 post offices in the county and took pics of them all. Also obtained Stamps on a Roll from the four post offices that I did not have. Saw some amazing scenery and drove up the most dangerous road we have ever seen.
But as we were told "you should have gone up the other side".

As always, 90% of people think that taking pics of every Irish post office and getting a stamp issued in each one is some kinda madness.
The other side of the coin is that 10% of people think its a cool thing to do. I was lucky enough to meet a person from County Mayo who said they would get me some SOARs from the only post office in Mayo that I dont have.

To my surprise, she sent me a letter containing SOARs from Clare Island (which as the name suggests) is off-shore and has a population of less than 150 people.

At 5:00 AM this morning, I took a comma out of a sentence for a posting on the SCF forum.
At 10:00 AM this morning, I put it back in...
Still thinking about whether I should make the post, or not.



John

Commas can save lives
Let's eat, Grandma!
Let's eat Grandma!

Coordinated various logistics and materials for FLOREX in Orlando this December. Will be representing Stanley Gibbons Auctions so would love to meet anyone who attends the show. Please come say hello.

I finish mounting stamps from Burma and now have another number one. Burma No. 1 (Scott).

To day received envelope used world stamps. Last 3 days organized
and scanned India stamps from 2009 to 2012 and USA from 2008 to 2019
years of all mint stamps.

cheers
tikithindi