What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

Last night I ordered the new Spice Girls stamps and PHQ cards (to be issued Thursday) from the Royal Mail website.

Then I watched The Tonight Show, where I knew Mel B (a.k.a. Melanie Janine Brown MBE, a.k.a. Scary Spice) would mention the stamps.

Last night I went to a meeting in the local stamp club for the first time in ages. Was good being back, and even though I am currently not supposed to buy any stamps I did pick up a stockbook with a nice selection of 1990s and early 2000s Canadian stamps.

started putting the swedish stamps of czeslaw slania together in mounts in a springback album done years 1960 to 1967 which is a total of 52 mounts with a total of 36 stamps. enjoying collecting this engraver very much. still a long way to go.

Was going to go to Orcoexpo today, but it got cancelled last minute so I got on Hipstamp and ordered a ton of stamps, probably as much as I would have spent at the show, and they have a sale today anyhow so it was all 20% off.

I call it a win-win.

Added some stamps from Armenia from 1921-22 to my collection from an old album, which adds a new country to my collection. It appears that most of these were not regularly issued and Scott has a note that says counterfeits exist, so I need to do some more research on these.

Still working on the 30lbs of kiloware I bought back in August. Getting down to the end. The last two sections- working thru 3.5lbs of Great Britain now and the last section will be 3lbs of US. The GB stamps are about 2/3 definitives, filled in quite a few holes on my Machin pages. Going to store the bulk of the Machins, maybe in a couple of years I'll have the time to deep dive for varieties. The other 1/3 of the GB stamps are commemoratives, but 75% of them are Christmas stamps. Added to what I already had I now have at least 80% of UK Christmas stamps from 1966 up thru the mid 90's. I decided to start printing out the 'Christmas Stamps of the UK' topical pages on the Album Easy website. Nice layout and these all look better together.

Signed up for Postcrossing today, it sounds interesting. I remember the joy of having a "pen pal" as a kid, so this could be a fun exchange.

I buy starter collections on the internet, Use a CD of country albums then . .

I buy Walmart black plastic binders and print my own pages.

I am moving stamps from a A-L vol 1 Big Blue to my Big Blue vol 1 along with stamps from a Minkus Master Global. The minkus goes to the 50s so I'm also adding to my sep set of Vols 2-4 that are combined to be by country. I am using this to update the Vol 1 Bbig Blue spreadsheet that will by my inventory/tracker moving forward. I'm also updating my Scott catalog I use to track my stamps (circling mint/used vlaues for stamps I have). Working on Belgium right now.

Added a stamp from another new (to me) country to my album, Transkei. This came from my ISWSC large swap circuit. My 2019 Scott Volume 6B said it was in Volume 6B but did not provide a page as I expected. It wasn't there after Transvaal...hmmm. A search through my accumulated Steiner pages revealed it is under South Africa Transkei, which is NOT in 6B. It would have been nice to have a clue from Scott. But at least I learned something.

Been weeding through U.S. on paper. Found a couple dozen plate number singles so far. Also organized my postal stationery cut squares. I don't have the patience right now to try and perfectly identify some of them. It's been a while since I mounted anything, so need to get back to that soon.

I went to the York stamp and coin fair in England. 68 stamp stalls inclding including Abacus auctions from Australia. I couldn't get any clear split back stamp mounts but got a "pre stamp" cover from circa 1770 with a nice clear Dockwra mark. I also got a crash cover from the Curtiss commando plane that crashed at Hollywood South Carolina in December 1955. some literature on British and US stamps. I also went down another philatelic rabbit hole and bought a book on British Mail boxes and many volumes of The letter box study groups, "Guide to British Letter Boxes" I don't plan on collecting Mail boxes as some of the study group do!

Added around 20 new plate number coil used singles to my PNC collection. I have another lot coming soon that should net a few more that I don't have yet. The best find so far was a 32¢ Flag Over Porch plate number 77777A VP/PV (valley peak/peak valley), although I already have one in my collection it's one of the better singles.

Restructured my want list ahead of visiting the Sarasota show tomorrow. My main (and possibly only) mission is to find anything on my list from Michael Ball (A to Z Stamps). I have not shopped his stock for at least 3 years. Will also enjoy breakfast with AndyRich before the show opens for the day.

Happy hunting! Michael and Cecilia's booth is my first stop when I go to WESTPEX — unless all the seats are full!