What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

I mustered up my courage and disassembled and cleaned the underside (interior side) of my scanner glass this afternoon. (It had gotten cloudy in places.)

I looked up how to do it for my particular scanner model, and it turned out to be surprisingly easy to take the scanner apart, clean the glass, and then reassemble it.

I should've done this years ago.

I spent the last 2 days mounting my Dominica stamps and adding to my Stamp Manage database.

Dominica also went Disney after 1980 or so.

I finally sorted out and labelled my British Somaliland minor overprint varieties. These aren't listed by SG but some are mentioned by Robson Lowe. They include "split D", raised and thick "D", small "first L", small "second L", dropped "S" in Somaliland, etc. 17 pages in total.

I joined the International Society of Worldwide Stamp Collectors. I sorted out my mishmash of worldwide by country and put in glassines.

I've been topically sorting a batch of mid-century US mint singles I picked up a few months ago and have been sitting on. Sadly I can't spend too much time on this task because it's super hot and humid and I can't have the fan on when sorting stamps.

Finished writing the 12th article in a series on the National Parks stamps and sent it off to the USSS editor. Also been adding 1930's mostly FDCs to the database and scanning them.

New issue yesterday. Papal visit to Ireland. Bought some and sent some to myself.
The second Irish stamp to feature an Argentinian within 12 months.

I've just started processing a hoard of Great Britain 1d reds. I think I've got enough material to keep me busy for the rest of my life

I am enjoying going through a set of Internationals that I picked up recently at auction. Lots of fun.

Adding 20th century Japan prefecture issues (on Steiner pages) to my collection.

Bought 4 large boxes at a stamp auction. Took me two trips to carry them all home, as it was 30kg per time (in a rucksack).
Went to another auction and got outbid on both the lots I wanted. Most annoying, but I suppose I have enough stuff to be going on with.

I have finally finished writing up the non A-listed Estonia postal history items that have been tucked slightly haphazardly into cover albums, 497 covers and cards in total. There's a lot more research to do, especially on postal stationery. Higgins and Gage have missed a lot, as has the Estonia handbook.

New issues Ireland last week.
Yesterday, I paid my annual visit to Glasgow in Scotland and its excellent stamp shop.
I had been hoping to pick up some pre-owned albums as they are no longer made in my original choice of colour.
I did manage to pick up some authentic (non FDC) mail from Fiji, Maldives, Senegal and Bangladesh which means I now have mail (mostly postcards of course from 115 of the current UN members and other defacto nations.
Picked up some used stamps from Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador and Dominican Republic. I always think that Collecting has "hubs"...areas where some countries are off the radar. In my "hub", Central America, South America and (former) French Africa are not on the radar.
Yesterday was slightly disrupted by various European Championships...swimming and cycling taking place in Glasgow and road closures for the Cycling Time Trial ...which meant I had less time than I would have wanted. Ironically I have been enthusiastically watching the sport and TV and it did not register with me that this was a bad day to choose.
So maybe a second trip later in the year?

Which colours are you after, assuming these are the Utile/Senator/Simplex type?

Well, I have to say. Surgery recovery has its benefits. I've done a lot in the past few weeks. Firstly, I hinged my mint KGVI Kuwait and Leeward Islands into the Palo albums. It is now complete. I really love the look of hinged engraved stamps. They look so nice!

Secondly, I made a major headway into my GB mint and used Davo collection. I am currently working on QEII. The definitives - Wilder and Machin - are MNH while the commemoratives are either mint or used (mostly used). The Davo's are hingeless so I made progress really fast. I literally completed the QEII commemoratives portion of volume one and all of volume two! Plus I ordered the QEII MNH Wilders and Machins. When I receive and mount them, both of these volumes will be complete except for the postage dues and Regionals.

This was fun. I should get sick more often!

Jack Kelley