What Did You Do Philatelically: Today Or Recently?

Tonight I am creating .pdf files from 100's of scanned images from magazine articles, mostly American Philatelist, but also some old STAMPS magazine articles. I've been scanning these for a few years and now I've decided to finally get them in order.

Attended the first day of Stampshow '18 here in Columbus. Really, really great show so far - over 1300 frames of exhibits I hope I'll be able to see them all (went through the thematic exhibits today and that took a good 3 hours!)

Nooooooooo! Be careful what you wish for, even as a joke

This week I bought three lots at my local general auction sale. A box crammed with worldwide weighing about 2kg, a bag of GB all reigns off paper weighing about 400 grams and a very floral jewellery box with loads of modern Germany and Netherlands (highly duplicated) weighing approx 600 grams. All for £32 in total, with commission.
So much sorting to do, a project for my up-coming retirement!

Researched flaws and varieties from Rhodesia and Nyasaland, my main collecting focus at the moment, just got the second definitive issue to the postage dues get, then concentrate on varieties covers and proofs etc.

Continuing to go through some old Internationals that I purchased and am plotting and planning my September auction strategies.

Finished sorting and mounting my on-hand Hong Kong accumulations and stuck to my new rule and updated my HAVE list when I finished. Much intrigue with the early watermarks (or lack thereof). And then in the more recnt years, you get the same stamp issued with different year inscriptions (or none). Good thing I have a decent magnifier. Looks like Mexico is the next accumulation in line to be tackled.

The stamp club season is starting soon, after the summer break (why do we break for the summer when we're nearly all retired...?) and we have our "Show and Tell" opener in three weeks, 9 sheets based around the letters O, P or Q. Last night I finished an Orange Free State display covering British occupation overprints and postal use by British forces.

I finish remounting a bunch of New Zealand stamps (now in the N's) from a collection I purchased. The prior owner used Dennison's so most popped off easily. The semi-postals had some nice engraved stamps of the Royal Family including a young Prince Charles. You have to wonder how many owners some of the stamps had since a few had been hinged more than once.

India looks like an overwhelming area with so many varieties and most stamps I see in collections are not in great shape used with cancellations obliterating the designs.

Waded through some better France (Ceres, Hermes, Napoleon heads) from a messy collection I've had forever and an auction lot l recently won. I brought some of the better stamps in to work to scan them as my home scanner is malfunctioning again.

Here are two similar stamps with obvious differences:



A two-franc used postage due is next; I think it is one from the earliest set.....does the pen cancel detract that much from the value? It even looks like it was already canceled:



Here are four different 80 centimes from the earIy period, could someone help me with identifying them?



I am debating whether to mount them in my old (circa 1975) Yvert French-made album, which is in excellent shape, or stick with my Scott Specialized album for France, I like their pages better. Once I decide I will condense/combine the two and sell or trade the less-desirable one. Can't decide just yet though!

Thank you in advance,

Jim Wentzell

I updated my blog: http://estampillascr.com/blog/

I reached a milestone this weekend. I put a last sheets from a ream of paper (my third) in the printer so have made almost 1500 Steiner pages.

@jimwentzel -


I do not know if you have a detailed reference for these, so I thought I could assist in case you don't:



Scanned from my Maury 2016. The 2c Bordeaux exists in two different 'reports'. It seems to me you have one of each

Yesterday I went to the Vintage Paper Fair in San Francisco and spent 4½ hours rummaging through picture postcards. I ended up buying some low-end stuff: 23 cards for $26, all but about four of which are relatively recent (1950s or later), and only six of which are postally used (the oldest postmark is a Honolulu "USE ZONE NOS. FOR BETTER MAIL SERVICE" slogan cancel from 1960).

I bought adminware's intermediaire online book and started to put my machin stamps in a stockbook according to this book. One strip equal to one page from the book. I am waiting for my mounts and I need to go buy paper to print the pages so at least this way I see more clearly what I have and what is missing. I also bought 2 new packages of machin.