In the 18th century, The Punch and Judy show could be found in taverns, halls, and large tents.  You could often find sizeable crowds gathered at the tell-tale red and white striped puppet booths waiting for the Punch and Judy show at seaside resorts throughout England.  It did not take long for the show to cross over the Atlantic and grace England’s American colonies.  It was so popular that even George Washington is said to have bought a ticket to see the show! 

In September of 2001, Great Britain issued a set of commemorative postage stamps to pay tribute to the much loved characters that have provided hundreds of years of entertainment to countless amounts of people.  If you would like to add the Punch and Judy postage stamps to your collection, contact Stamp Center today.  We offer free shipping to our US customers and $4.50 flat rate shipping to our international customers.

Before mail post boxes were created, post offices had a slot in the door to place the unstamped letters in.  France is credited with creating the first mailbox in 1653. The first post box appeared in Jersey in 1852.  Initially mailboxes were only of the pillar variety (free standing) and they were all painted green.  Over time others were created to include the wall box, pedestal box and lamp box and they were all painted red.  Here’s an interesting bit of England’s mailbox trivia…when the IRA bombed a shopping center in England in 1996, one of the only things that survived the bombing was a Victorian pillar mail post box that dated back to 1887.

Be sure to stop by Stamp Center to check out all of our fantastic postage stamps and philatelic supplies.  We offer free shipping to US residents and $4.50 flat rate to our international customers.

The Little Prince

In 1998, France issued a set of beautiful postage stamps to pay tribute to The Little Prince.  The postage stamps depict five original illustrations from the famous novel by Saint-Exupery.

At Stamp Center you will find The Little Prince – two color trial proof sheets that feature all five illustrations from the famous novel.  Additionally, Stamp Center offers free shipping to our US customers and $4.50 flat rate shipping to our international customers.  Stop by Stamp Center for these and hundreds of other beautiful postage stamps.

The two joint stamps are The Very Hungry Caterpillar from England and Maisy’s ABC from the United States.  There was one difference in the stamps when they were issued though.  The British version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar featured two “bites” from the hungry caterpillar and the US version did not.  Other books represented in the British set include The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher, Kipper, The Enormous Crocodile, Paddington Bear, Boots, and The White Rabbit.

You might not be able to find these cute Great Britain issued Animal Tales Illustrations from Children’s Literature joint issue postage stamps in England, but you can find them available at Stamp Center.  The great news is that we offer free shipping to our US customers and $4.50 flat rate shipping to our international customers too.

Once the artist for the stamp design was chosen for the Wildlife of the 50 States set, he went about his task of creating a list of the 50 forms of wildlife.  To his surprise 46 of the 50 that he submitted to the Citizen’s Advisory Committee was approved, at least initially that is.  This set of stamps sparked a series of debates and changes that lasted for quite some time within the Committee.  All of the members of the Committee went to great efforts to make sure that each state was adequately represented and that each detail on every stamp was perfect.  By the end of the planning period, some of the original designs were changed and this beautiful set is the end result. It should be noted that the stamps were not identified as belonging to individual states; rather each state was represented in some way within the set.

The next pane of 50 postage stamps issued by the United States Postal Service came in April of 2002 and was called “Greetings from America.”

The Wildlife of the 50 States would make an excellent addition to any stamp collection and Stamp Center has them in stock and ready to ship out.  We offer free shipping to our customers in the United States and $4.50 flat rate shipping for our international customers.

One of the reasons that the Citizen’s Advisory Board chose to create these wildlife postage stamps is that they found that the general public was more interested in animals than the other suggestions that were coming in from the public.  One road block that they encountered, however; is that not all states have a particular state animal that they claim as their own.  So it was decided that the stamps would depict one “wildlife” representative that lives in each of the 50 states instead.  Up for consideration for the postages stamps were mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, fauna, and crustaceans.

Here’s a little stamp history for you to enjoy.  The first wildlife postage stamps appeared in 1869.  They were in 10 cent and 30 cent values and pictured the bald eagle.  The USPS did not issue the next animal postage stamp until 1923 and that was of a bison.  It took the USPS another 24 years to issue the next animal postage stamp.  In 1947 they issued one of the great white heron.  Since 1956, animal postage stamps have been popping up at a much more regular pace, usually to promote environmental protection or conservation issues.

Please check back on Monday for the conclusion to this post.

This extensive stamp set was released in Toronto, Canada at the CAPEX ‘87’; which at the time was Canada’s first international philatelic show in almost 10 years.  Interestingly enough, at the CAPEX ‘78’, there was another USPS souvenir sheet set released as well.  Those stamps were also of wildlife, but had no relation to this stamp release.

The Citizen’s Advisory Committee decided in 1982 that the 50 pane sets should only be produced no more than every five years, even though the public continued to send in requests for a variety of different sets to be produced in more frequent intervals.  This was never official policy, just a standing rule of sorts.

Please check back on Friday for part II of this post.

Bats provide a beneficial service to the environment.  They devour a tremendous amount of night flying insects and also help keep pests out of farmlands.  In Austin, Texas, onlookers often flock to watch the largest urban bat colony in the world emerge each night.  From March through November about a million and a half bats take flight from their roosting spot under a bridge and ingest up to 30,000 pounds of insects.  It is truly and amazing site to witness!

The four bats in this particular set are the red bat, the pallid bat, the spotted bat, and the leaf-nosed bat.  Each bat has their own unique look and unique roll in helping our world’s ecosystem.

Stamp Center has these cool American Bats postage stamps in stock with free shipping for our US customers and only $4.50 flat rate shipping for our international customers.  Give us a call today!

The airplanes that are showcased in this particular stamp set were chosen because they illustrate American innovations and technology that benefited not only the needs of general aviation, but the military as well.  The stamps feature the 35 Bonanza, the F6F Hellcat, the B-29 Superfortress, the B-24 Liberator, the YB-49 Flying Wing, the PBY Catalina, the Ercoupe 415, the P-47 Thunderbolt, the P-80 Shooting Star, and the 247.  All of these airplanes were icons of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

The American Advances In Aviation postage stamps would make an interesting addition to any stamp collection and Stamp Center has them in stock for you.  We now have new shipping rates available for our customers as well!  Free shipping to all US shipping addresses and only $4.50 flat rate for our international customers.

The first stamp shows the view in which a Snowbird pilot is seeing.  When you first look at the second stamp, it looks like there are only three airplanes on the stamp.  What makes this stamp so neat is that upon closer inspection, you can see other ghosted planes that represent the Snowbird’s nine plane formation.  Many people don’t know that the name “Snowbird” came about by the elementary school children who lived on the Air Force Base at the time of the airplanes creation.

If you would like to add these cool Canadian Forces Snowbirds postage stamps to your collection, stop by Stamp Center today.  Stamp Center has a fantastic selection of postage stamps to choose from and shipping is free to our customers in the United States.  Our international customer shipping rate has been reduced to only $4.50 flat rate.