Stamps Blog

Janet Klug Appointed to Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:50:27 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog Postmaster General John Potter announced yesterday the appointment of Janet Klug, the former president and current member of the board of directors of the American Philatelic Society, to serve on the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC). According to a USPS press release, Janet, a lifelong stamp collector who says she “never [...]

Postcards Document Early Train Wreck

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:49:11 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog “Plane crashes are today’s headlines, but train wrecks were the major newsmakers 100 years ago,” writes reporter Matt Surtel on New York’s Daily News website. According to Matt, local resident Mark Milcarek came across four old postcards that documented a train wreck that happened more than a hundred years ago. “The resulting [...]

The Happiest Mail Boxes on Earth

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:48:05 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog Patricia Raynor writes on the National Postal Museum blog, “If your vacation destination this year happens to include Walt Disney World® in Florida, try playing the game of who can spot the most mailboxes. From Main Street U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom® to the international pavilions at Epcot,® careful observers [...]

A Printer, a Gallery and the New Abstract Expressionism Stamps

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:01:18 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog Tom Buckham writes in the Buffalo News about a “serendipitous convergence of business and art.” Tom reports, “When Ashton Potter USA Ltd. in Amherst bid last year on a contract to print a series of postage stamps commemorating the art movement known as abstract expressionism, no one there realized that Albright-Knox [...]

USPS Considers Post Office Lottery

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:46:56 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog A post on the USPS Inspector General’s blog asks, “Could Longer Lines Be Coming to Your Local Post Office…Lottery Lines?” It goes on to report, “According to a representative on the Postal Regulatory Commission’s staff, a Postal Service-run lottery ‘could offer the potential for substantial profits for the Postal Service and [...]

Space Stamp Artist Robert McCall, 90, Dies

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:47:07 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog Space.com reports, “Artist Robert McCall, whose visions of the past, present, and future of space exploration have graced U.S. postage stamps, NASA mission patches, and the walls of the Smithsonian, died on Friday of a heart attack in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 90.” According to reporter Robert Z. Pearlman of CollectSpace.com, [...]

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:15:30 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog Emma Kat Richardson writes on the Bookslut website, “War is hell, and Sarah Blake, author of the new novel The Postmistress, has 101 ways to prove it.” The story takes place in 1940 and tells the story of events in pre-World War II New Hampshire as well as bomb ravaged London [...]

Bisected Stamps

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:21:52 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog According to the Alphabetilately website, “A bisect is a postage stamp cut in half (usually diagonally), and used to pay half its face value, e.g. half a ten cent stamp to pay five. The practice has been permitted (in the US at least) only for special situations (e.g. a shortage [...]

Five Myths About the U.S. Postal Service

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:21:00 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog Postmaster General John Potter writes in today’s Washington Post, “For 235 years, the U.S. Postal Service has delivered your mail in snow, rain and dark of night. However, tough market conditions are creating new challenges for our business. Misconceptions about the future of our enterprise abound; dispelling these myths will [...]

Korean War Memorial Sculptor Wins Stamp Photo Appeal

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:20:04 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog The Am Law Daily reports that the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled, 2-1, in favor of 85-year-old sculptor Frank Gaylord regarding a photo of his Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. that was used on a U.S. postage stamp. According to the article, “John Alli, a retired U.S. Marine [...]

Mail Delivery 12 Times a Day!?!

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:19:09 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog Randall Stross writes in the New York Times, “In Victorian London, though service wasn’t 24/7, it was close to 12/6. Home delivery routes would go by every house 12 times a day — yes, 12. In 1889, for example, the first delivery began about 7:30 a.m. and the last one [...]

“The King Arthur” of Stamps

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:25:28 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog A tip of the tongs to Round-Up reader Richard Cannata of New York! Richard sends along a listing on eBay about a 117-year-old mystery stamp that is being hailed as “The King Arthur” of stamps because “supposedly all of the experts have heard of the legend, but no one has ever [...]

Stamp Jewelry

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:43:04 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog Wear a piece of history with postage stamp jewelry from around the world! Anna Van Tuinen’s Dad collected stamps as a boy in the ’60s and she loved sorting through stamps with him when she was a kid. Now she’s making pendant necklaces using stamps from their collection. Anna can also custom [...]

Yul Brynner - Stamp Collector

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:30:22 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog Shown above a photo by Sid Avery of movie star Yul Brynner. Taken in 1953, it appears Hollywood at Home: A Family Album 1950-1965 along with other celebrity photos. In Avery’s 2002 obitiuary The New York Times wrote, “Mr. Avery’s work in the 1950’s and 60’s was a departure from the [...]

The Penny Post: Wi-Fi for the Victorian Era?

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:04:06 +0000

Submitted by Stamp Collecting Round-Up Blog Dr. Catherine Golden will discuss her new book, Posting It: The Victorian Revolution in Letter Writing on Sunday, January 10, 2010, the 170th anniversary of the Penny Post. The Smithsonian Institution points out in a recent announcement about the upcoming talk, which it is sponsoring, “As you type out a text [...]