What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

Started work on making page inserts for my Straits Settlements-Singapore collection.

Ignore the margins this was a grab of the PDF in photoshop and it didn't give me the full page layout but rather closed in on the content.

And I have a few typos to fix LOL

Yesterday I went through an accumulation of definitives from Hong Kong and filled in some spaces, mostly the dated (or not) varieties from 1987-1991. These are beautiful, colorful stamps.

previewed some stamps up at auction next week

Yesterday I finally got a very large batch (a couple of hundred or so) of Estonia covers sorted and mounted. They have been sitting around for too long. Today should see a similar number of postcards dealt with.

I have completed mounting recent purchases (at least identified ones) and started updating my inventory file in Stamp Manage.

Recent activities.

Upgrading my Dutch collection from a 32-page to a 60-page stockbook. Its spent over a decade in the old book, which is now way too small.

Preliminary sort of 4 envelopes full of Cyprus. then checked the George VI for perf varieties on the 1 piastre orange and 2p red and black. None found. One that was marked by a previous owner as being a rarer type turned out not to be. he'd written all the info on the back in ball-point, so it turns out he'd only ruined a common stamp, not one worth £27 or so.

Preliminary sort of 4 envelopes full of Gibraltar. Tons of perf. varieties to check on the George VI issues. Will surely prove more rewarding than the Cyprus check.

Took delivery of 4 new 64-page stockbooks.

Thank heavens it wasn't the rarer version. What are people thinking about sometimes? Is ball-point fiend related to marker monkey?

As predicted, the Gibraltar was much more profitable.
I had only two copies of the George V 3d. blue pictorial, and both were the rare perf. (cat. £40 each).
Sadly no good perfs. among the dozen or more George VI high values (1/- to 5/-).
But also several of the rare George VI 1 1/2d. carmine (cat. £30).

Went to the local general auction. Only one stamp lot, and I got it at well below what I was willing to pay for it. 12 albums and 4 shoeboxes of kiloware and loose stamps.

Highlight so far was a Germany 1930s Wagner charity stamps set. CV. about £400 in 2018 Gibbons. Fills a significant gap in my Germany collection.

1...Caught up on recent Ireland new issues
2...Completed sorting massive Ireland kiloware. Mostly Stamps on A Roll but all are useful to me. I now have a collection of over 3,000 issued in 778 post offices (in 2008 there were 1400 plus post offices and now about 1,100). As these stamps can be about Fauna and Flora (about 6 years of 8 different designs), the Easter Rising (16 designs) and the new TReasures (16 designs so far) and the amount shown can range from 1 cent to several euros, it is a lot of fun.
The law of diminishing returns applies....harder to get a new post office.
So far I have travelled and taken pics of about 200 post offices. I don't suppose that even with free senior citizen travel, I will get to every offshore post office or the peak of every mountain....but the whole point is fun.

3. Tried and failed to track down relevant postcards to mark the upcoming visit of Pope Francis (stamps issued next week) so my grandchildren are making some.

I have finally finished sorting out all the varieties of the various issues of Lithuanian occupation of Memel surcharges from 1923. It's been a big job and runs to 17 Hagner pages. I know where the gaps are now and I am happy that's it's done. It's "double aspirin" territory.

Started processing some albums that I picked up from Kelleher and am extremely pleased with the contents. The owner kept a tally of the contents in the front of one album that starts in 1941 and continues until 1978. So very cool.

Spent most of the day sorting a jumble of world stamps--mostly European 1890s-1950s. Spent a considerable amount of time on a blurry little number that spoke to me. My inability to ID it earned it a separate post in the World Classic Mint and Used forum.

Finished up making pages for Straits Settlements, doing the Japanese Occupation issues and the BMA Malaya overprints.

BMA issues took 2 pages once all the varieties included in Gibbons and the Malaysian ISC Catalogue were included.







Images taken from PDF so aspect is not as it would be on printed page but gives general idea.

I went to the Northeast Postal History & Ephemera Show today. I come home with 9 banker boxes of covers so I'll be busy for awhile.