Collect Modern Stamps On Commercial Covers (By Me)

Just thought I'd let you know that as part of the American Philatelic Society's series of online Stamp Chats, I'm presenting a talk on how commercial covers present a challenging way to collect modern stamps.

The talk is officially called 'Collect Modern Stamps the Hard Way.' I'll be showing examples from Australia in the 1980s, but naturally the concepts involved in collecting commercial covers apply to any territory and any era.

I haven't seen a huge amount of detail about these Stamp Chats on the board, so just to recap... they are live video-conferenced presentations in which philatelists present a topic of interest to a worldwide audience who can join in or ask questions. There have been over 20 so far, covering many and varied topics, with plenty more to come. And all the past chats are posted on YouTube. The full details on the talks and how to join in can be found here:
https://stamps.org/news/c/news/cat/...day-march-23

My talk is on Friday, May 15 at 7PM US Eastern Daylight time. But I'll be coming to you from the future, because it will be Saturday morning 9am in Australia. Hope to see you there!

PP

(Mods: I was tempted to put this in General Philatelic Discussions because of the worldwide scope of the Stamp Chats, the variety of topics presented, and the fact that you don't have to be an APS member to be involved. I played it safe, but if you agree that it has a broader appeal then feel free to move it!)

Welcome to SCF, Punk Philatelist! Your blog is loads of fun!

Thanks, erilaz! I've been lurking for ages. Thought it was about time to chip in occasionally.

The challenge is to find modern stamps properly used in their period of issuance especially where one stamp pays the intended rate. Collecting stamps on cover avoids the many pitfalls one faces in soaking self stick stamps in this forever era. We still face the issues of acid envelope paper and the chemistry of the stamp and its printing with respect to long term survivability.

Good to se you here Punk.
Your blog is great.

(John in Ireland)

Excellent talk Punk. Once we get it posted to YouTube, I'll share it here. Thank you for participating in the Stamp Chat!

Scott

Yes a great program tonight. You attracted a real international audience. Age old problem finding non-philatelic covers. Hard to find an 1890s Hawaii provisional overprint high denomination on cover that is contrived. I have better luck finding pre-1900 #1s of the world on cover than anything post 1940 that is not a FDC. For many of the post-1940 I have succumbed to using FDCs as long as they are addressed and went through the mail. At least until something better domes along. Kurt

As promised, the recorded version of the talk has been posted. Please enjoy.

Thanks for posting that Scott, and thanks to those who watched the chat or said hello here!

Welcome to Stamp community Punk, it is a lot of fun to read your blog.

I really enjoyed it.
I became interested on Irish stamps on cover about five years ago when I bought several covers that had slogan postmarks. They covered national rate postage from 1929 (first commemorative issue) to around 1960 with only about eight issues missing. And I have obtained some more. My modest ambition is to get all national rate stamps on covers to say 1966 or 1971 (decimalisation). I tend to merge at least one cover into my stamp album pages and as I sometimes have five or six of copies of each cover, I can change the display.
An unexpected bonus was the accidental discovery that one of my 1934 GAA covers was actually a First Day Cover. It is also rewarding to look at Irish postcards as commemorative stamps are often used.
I suppose for me its more about mail (letters and postcards) than envelopes (covers) themselves.
As most issues thru 1929-1971 have a national rate stamp and an airmail rate stamp, it is considerably more difficult to get an authentic airmail stamp on envelope/postcard as they are posted around the world. On occasions I post two airmail stamps to friends in Scotland, Finland, Germany etc and ask them to send one back to me in due course.
I now regret soaking so many stamps.
Again, accidently thru postcard exchange in the last five years, I became interested in having commercial mail from all 193 UN members plus de facto nations like Northern Cyprus, Taiwan, Vatican, Palestine, Kosovo and the UN itself....199 in all. I have now got 185 so only 14 left to get.
A lot of fun and it adds texture to a "stamp" collection.

That was an absolutely fantastic presentation! Thank you very much for that contribution to the community - totally changed the way I look at covers. Cheers!

Thank you pdxjmorris, happy to have changed your world view!

FitzjamesHorse, you and I have discussed your cover-from-every-country collection elsewhere of course. I still think it's a great concept. I should get your updated hitlist sometime.