OK ---Before they had a stamp market place in London on the Strand or a Nassau Street in New York City for stamp dealing there was the Paris Bourse .
There are records showing stamp collecting started with a few collectors around 1855,but the first marketplace was in Paris about 1860 or 1861 . So the first display of stamps were done by sellers who pinned up on boards for the delectation of passerby's.
Since starting my collection ,I have found out that at close to or at the same time the first stamp dealers in the U.S. were doing the same thing of pinning stamps to boards along the fences of New York City Hall Park .
So my collection is for stamps before 1865, that have a clear pin hole thru the center or close to the center of the stamp . If you look close at my stamp there is a nice round pin hole below the ear of the Queen just to the left of the black cancel mark . I have five stamps over the years that have clear holes in them which I find in collections that I break down .
Since they have a much lower market value than unpinned stamps. It serves no purpose for forgers to create them .
The standard I use is the overall stamp is in very good condition with only a pin hole around the center ,understood, a damaged stamp nobody cares about and they could just add a pin hole . I don't purchase them ,they come from bigger lots that I purchase and many times the former owner hides the fact it has a pinhole like the above example shows .
What is the difference in the pinhole between New York city hall park and Paris Bourse. I have read that in the !9th century children used to string stamps together to make long paper snakes. Do any sich snakes still exist? would the hole be more ragged?
From the first years of "timbromanie", as this collection was called, collectors sought to meet to make exchanges. For lack of associations then, the Parisian gardens served as meeting places: the Palais-Royal in 1860, then the garden of Luxembourg for example.
In 1887, a landowner sold the land of the Carré Marigny to the city of Paris against the promise of installing a stamp market there. Near the Avenue des Champs-Elysées and the Elysée Palace, the market of professional merchants is installed on Avenue Gabriel on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Each year, an event attracts more merchants, the "Four Days of Marigny".(translation) http://www.phil-ouest.com/Timbre.ph...bres_BF_2010 1860 card (Note the girl on the right is holding an album.The boys seem to have some sort of bidding going on !)
I think it's a great idea for an exhibit, what does it matter if it came from the bourse or not. Cannot be proven anyway...
I imagine it was windy outdoors at the Paris bourse, and the only practical way to display one's material was to pin it.
A display showing pre-1865 pinned stamps, Lallier album pages, some ephemera from club meetings etc. would be quite nostalgic. Bravo, and yes, more please.
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