What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

Received and processed my 100-stamp swap large size circuit from the International Society of Worldwide Stamp Collectors (ISWSC). Found a lot of new (to me) stamps to add to my collection and passed on a number of my duplicates. Now to get them added to my albums...

still busy putting czeslaw slania stamps into album, upto year 1982 at the moment will let you now how many of the 236 stamps that he engraved for denmark I have when I put them in the album.

Just finished laying out stamps for the Scott France Part II Specialty pages (1959-1976) that I bought a few years ago. These pages are generally for unused stamps, unfortunately most are hinged, but there are a few used stamps in there as well since I only have the one copy. I have almost all of the stamps through 1975. So what this means is many many hours ahead cutting mounts and putting them on the pages.

For the first time, I used old stamps on some Christmas cards I mailed out today. The largest denomination used was 15 cents. Was kind of fun adding up to 66 cents per card. A very good use of some old unused but otherwise hinged, toned, thinned stamps. Saved $5.28 in postage.

I also used stamps on my Christmas Cards this past week, some from discount postage purchases and some forever stamps. I had to buy labels at the post office for the last few, and they had a holiday snowman on them, so I saved some of them for my collection as well. I saved a lot on the discount postage as I used stuff that turned up in box lots, some that had nearly as much as I paid for the lot!

On TripAdvisor, this would be a negative post.

This weekend, I visited in friend who lives near Bordeaux. I stayed at the Mercure Bordeaux Gare Atlantic hotel, across the road from the main Bordeaux Saint Jean station.

I find most French hotels have a star to many, at least. One of the big companies is Accor. Its brands relate to the classification. Sofitel tends to have five stars. Novotel is a superior four-star chain. Mercure is a 'normal' four-star brand. Ibis is a three-star brand and IBIS budget is a cheaper alternative to Ibis.

I did like the Mercure Bordeaux Gare Atlantic hotel. I think I got a superior room. It was located at the corner, facing the station, on the second floor (we start with a ground floor). It was far better than I am used to, in France.


Like many hotels, there was a rack on which to place your suitcase. After two nights, I packed my suitcase and noticed a small piece of paper underneath the rack. I picked it up to check it was not something that had fallen out of my suitcase. It had not. Apparently, the maids had missed it the previous day when they cleaned the room. It, probably, had got stuck in the rack and fallen out when I used it.


It was a Bulgarian stamp issued in 2014. I wonder how long it has gone unnoticed.

today finished putting czeslaw slania stamps for denmark into a springback album. of the 236 stamps he engraved, I have a total of 169. which means I have a total of 67 to find. enjoying this very much.

The purpose of my trip to Bordeaux was to visit friends and celebrate the birthday of a a little friend. I brought her some presents for her birthday.

I celebrated my birthday a little earlier. But the little girl insisted on buying me a present for my birthday. She had bought me a book about the posts in France. When I was a boy, I watched French animated series about history called 'Il Était une Fois.' After an initial series, there were series on individual subjects. The title translates into 'Once Upon a Time, There Was ....'




The book that came in a matching casing is titled 'Il Était Une Fois La Poste.' Inside the book are reproductions of an old postal almanac with a map of the railway network, postcards, a telegraph form and the first Ceres issues.

I, now, am the lucky owner of two '100' graded blocks of mint Ceres stamps.



It is very nice that this little girl bought me a birthday present relating to my hobby.

Spent some time trying to reconstitute my original 1978 Scott National that contains only MNH stamps. After I started getting yearly supplements, it seems I misplaced (or tossed) a handful of original pages that were effectively replaced by the supplements. Part of the collection I acquired four years ago also included a 1978 Scott National, but with a 1979 copyright. I paged through both and found the pages that I was missing. There were also a couple extra pages due to the later copyright. All is good again. I'm also cataloging (via spreadsheet) my main U.S. collection. First step was the 1978 National.

I bid on some stamp auctions, bought some postcards, and sent out some mail.

I went to the Swiss Post website and ordered all four J.R.R. Tolkien mini-sheets.

Just laid out two more pages for items I won in an October Kelleher auction. Today I mounted eight more blocks of 4 with designer(s) signatures in my Scott Specialty album. All tolled, I've added 15+ pages to my album from the auction lot. I wish it could be that way for every auction.

I've been creating a spreadsheet to record accurate inventory of my U.S. stamps. Focus is on unused. I have over 20 different storage locations from albums to stock books to mint sheet files to glassines to 102 cards and more. I'll finally be able to know what I really have and where everything is located, including on which page of an album. I'm recording all formats, whether it be singles, pairs, blocks, plate blocks, booklet panes, sheet panes (parts of a full sheet), full sheets, or modern panes. I'm also recording MNH vs MH and other data, such as toning.

hello all. today put the presidents of the united states. sheets in the liberty stamp album lucky I had the right size mounts for them, four sheets in the set, done for ameripex 86 international stamp show in chicago in 1986.

Today I joined this community, happy New Year!