Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Mar 9, 2017 22:47:36 GMT
It's proving to be a tough nut to crack only because I have to re-learn why I made a few design decisions along the way. Hmmm - that's sounds like about 90% of the computer programs I've ever written, when it comes time to look at them again a few months later .... ha ha ha Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Mar 3, 2017 10:09:42 GMT
I'm thinking of sorting my new Japanese stamps (thanks again Frog and Bobby!) thematically instead of by Scott number. Page/section ideas include: Mt. Fuji, temples/shrines, fish, art, sports, festivals, war propaganda, nature (general), and emperors. Do y'all have any suggestions for more sections or advice on sorting thematically? Topical collections can be fun, and they can also drive you crazy as you get more and more (and MORE and more) topics that interest you. For an idea of how overarching this could become, have a look at the current list of checklists maintained by the American Topical Association. 14 pages, 3 columns per page! As a suggestion for Japanese stamps in particular, I would definitely add cartoon stamps, if you're looking at anything modern enough to be within the last 20 years. There are an endless amount of such stamps among Japan's modern releases (good for me, as I really like cartoon stamps). Hello Kitty, Snoopy, Miffy (I see Dick Bruna just passed away a couple of weeks ago), all kinds of anime, etc etc etc. The following examples are among my favourites, especially the last stamp - Doraemon (a robot cat from the future or some such thing) is lovesick! ha ha (image nabbed from a seller) And just because I mentioned Miffy, my favourite Dick Bruna drawing - Miffy is at the museum, admiring a Mondrian. [Image link broken] Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Mar 2, 2017 6:21:17 GMT
Thanks, Chris. I'm going to see if they will clean up nicely. A few have residual gum and/or hinge remnants and I like to give my new acquisitions a brief soak before placing them in the album. I think that's a good plan, Steve. If they have residual gum on them which has turned brown, removing it could brighten the white backgrounds making the other colors pop and become more distinct. Note also that the chlorine present in treated public water will brighten paper somewhat when soaking stamps. The amount of brightening depends, of course, on how long you soak the stamps and how much chlorine is in the water. From " Preservation and Care of Philatelic Material" on the American Philatelic Society's website: Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Feb 28, 2017 2:29:27 GMT
I found some genuine mutilated postal stationery while sorting today. All of them began life as postcards. The middle cutout on the top row (15 pfennig blue Luther sketch from West Germany) brings up an interesting point (well, interesting to me - I like playing with my ultraviolet lamp to look at tagging). You can just see a yellowish coloured vertical bar to the immediate left of the design. That's the tagging used for the automated letter cancelling machine so it can find the stamp that needs to be cancelled. Different countries put their tagging in different locations on postal stationery, and I always check with my UV light if I want to trim edges to make the cutout a bit neater. Sometimes that tagging spot can be quite a distance away from the design rather than directly over top of the image, and I like to leave it behind, just because it's part of the original "printing". Because it isn't always easily visible and it isn't always in the spot where you might expect it to be, I take a look before trimming any further. Similarly, for quite a few years Canadian pre-stamped envelopes had a little bit of the image design overlapping on the back side of the envelope. I try to save that bit too. Maybe I'm just being fussy, I don't know - almost everybody cuts that bit off, I think. Certainly most of the cutouts I have are missing that bit, I usually only see them when somebody has cut or ripped the corner off the entire envelope, or if I had access to the entire envelope before anybody got to it with the scissors. Here's an example of one of those envelopes, nabbed from a Delcampe seller. Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Feb 22, 2017 22:05:09 GMT
I am talking about stamps that have been printed directly onto the envelope. Some of them have also been embossed. As mentioned earlier, postal stationery often ends up focusing on the entire envelope (or post card, or newspaper wrapper, or whatever the original happened to be). There are specific catalogues for postal stationery and many of them only price the entire piece - not so good for me, since I mostly come across the cutout pieces that have only the stamp design on it. However, many people like me are happy to have only the little cutout piece. In fact, enough of us are here that we have already started a big long thread on this forum that is filled with such "treasures". Have a look here at Mutilated Postal Stationery for some of the things we've found so far. Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Feb 22, 2017 7:23:56 GMT
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Feb 18, 2017 0:26:22 GMT
I see you're a member of INFLA-Berlin - for those interested in serious study of German inflation stamps, there are endless amounts of INFLA-Berlin books available (in German, though). Excellent booklets! I have a couple related to the cancellations (volumes 13 & 48), since I'm sure many of my examples have false cancellations (thus the italicized prices in the Scott catalogue for so many of the stamps when in used condition). I may pick up some of the volumes related to plate varieties, too - I'm a fan of plate varieties. Welcome to the forum - I hope to see some of your collection! Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Feb 14, 2017 19:09:05 GMT
Manish consider bidding on ebay auction mount lots.I often buy large assortments with so many sizes I never run out.Usually you end up paying about $3-4 per pack this way.The outlay may be $100ish but man the variety of sizes sure come in handy. There are eBay auctions for mounts too??? Wow, didn't know that. Will try to find them. Once upon a time ("back in the old days"), mount kiloware (mixes of various mount sizes, sold by weight rather than by count) used to be sort of common on eBay - I would regularly troll through the eBay philatelic supplies listings, looking for good deals on stockbooks or 102A cards or red boxes or whatever, and I would see mount kiloware once in a while. I just did a search on eBay for "mount kiloware" and mostly found listings for Lindner mounts in pre-packaged weights, but they all use the same stock photos and none of them gave me much of an idea as to what was inside. Another quick internet search turned up this photo from a site selling Prinz mounts by weight, and that at least had a photo that gave some ideas as to what sort of mix you might find inside. [Image link broken] Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Feb 13, 2017 22:55:53 GMT
Like Manish, I use Google Photos. I don't use any sort of automatic downloading - I do that manually as I use it almost exclusively for images I put on this forum. One advantage of Google Photos is that it has essentially no limit to the number of images you store, as long as the image is small enough (anything under 16 megapixels, for example 4096 x 4096). These smaller images don't count against any upload limit, so if you were to choose to scan all of your stamps and store the images online, you'd never run out of space as long as the images are under 16 MP. I'm also a Google Drive user (cloud storage for files) and if I were to choose to make huge scans (600 dpi entire album pages, for example), then the storage required would come out of that 15 GB space allowance. But I've certainly never found a need to post an image larger than 16 megapixels using Google Photos (I do have my own domain as well, so I have the same option that Falschung has with using the storage allowance that comes with the domain hosting). I've never had an access issue due to downtime and I've never seen an ad. I don't think it's as intuitive a system as it could be but I can work with it and I look forward to eventually storing images of every stamp in order to build a digital collection connected to a database or a spreadsheet (or a webpage or blog or whatever).
Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Dec 15, 2016 20:59:50 GMT
The self-adhesive stamps shown at the bottom of this page are among those with low catalogue values that are sure tough to come across. Grrr!! I see in the Scott catalogue that these were sold in panes of 17 + label. I assume that means they were available from bank automatic teller machines, like some of those early US self-adhesives printed on plastic stamps in sheets of 18. Those have an awful long wait to come across them in random kiloware mixes too. We had the same idea up here in Canada, sheets of 18 stamps sized like paper money that were sold from bank machines (and are also real tough to come across). Grrr again! Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Howdy
Nov 28, 2016 23:50:39 GMT
Post by Ryan on Nov 28, 2016 23:50:39 GMT
What make/model of scanner do you use? Any recommendations on the best value for money 1200dpi scanner? By dint of great coincidence, the most recent edition of the TSF Newsletter includes an article written by @falshung that may well answer exactly your question. See page 22! Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Nov 14, 2016 10:58:50 GMT
I've done almost nothing with my stamps for the last few months, so my drying books were full of stuff that's been sitting for a long, long time. The other day I finally went through them and sorted all the stamps into their correct country piles. I'll start soaking again in a day or two once I get some other stuff out of the way - yay, I love soaking! ha ha
Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Nov 13, 2016 14:11:54 GMT
Can't help much with your fencing label, other than to offer the hints that the bottom script bits say that the date was on the Pentecost and the location was Munich. Now who can figure out what day was Pentecost Sunday in 1912?
Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Oct 30, 2016 3:04:58 GMT
Based on the charts I posted in this older thread on TSF, The only use of the 12-1/4 perforation device was in late 1888. Perhaps you have an inverted slug on your copy with the 1886 postmark (they could put the 9 in upside down to read 6, or maybe it's actually from 1898 and the paired 98 slugs were both inserted upside down. Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Oct 6, 2016 20:18:29 GMT
Last year I learned from Admin Steve ( tomiseksj) that Amos Publishing sells off the previous year's catalogues for half price. There had already been rumblings that there would be major changes (at the time, they were talking about the potential for 10 volumes in 2017) so I picked up a full set including the US Specialized. I also subscribe to Linn's Stamp Monthly, and that gives me updates on all the new issues (plus a discount on all those year-old catalogues). So, it will probably be a while before I buy another full set of Scott catalogues - if people are interested in having a full set, you should keep your eyes open for discounted catalogues. Buy the subscription to Linn's and the membership in the Amos Advantage program that comes with that will give you a further discount on the catalogues that pays for 3 or 4 years of the subscription to Linn's. Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Oct 3, 2016 22:06:56 GMT
Remember that 1904 Stanley Gibbons catalogue I mentioned back in February (page 5 of this thread) that I saw in a used book store that my daughter took me to? Drat & blast, wish I knew about this used book store. You have Part II - guess who has had the 1904 Part I in his library for 8 or 10 years .... And guess who now has both Part I & Part II in his library - yay me! Well, mostly yay jamesw, he did the hard part. All I had to do was open my mail. Thanks very much, James! Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Sept 28, 2016 22:14:49 GMT
However, like Ryan stated earlier "Some gum comes off very easily, others (like that on Machins with security cuts) needs a bit of tender care to come completely clean with paint thinner, at least - Rod's Fuelite or something like Bestine (a kind of heptane) might be a better solvent for that gum, I don't know." Those Machins with the security cut outs don't respond as well to the Rosinol lighter fluid. I was wondering if anyone has had any success using some other kind of solvent on the Machins with security cut outs? ....
Ryan, would you please send me your soakables list?
I'll send you a private message - you can respond to that with your e-mail address and I'll send off my list. Most of the time when I soak self-adhesives using paint thinner, I use an old expired credit card as a squeegee / scraper to remove most of the gum. I then use my fingernail (palm of the hand towards me / back of the hand away, from the centre of the stamp outwards) as a scraper to remove stubborn gum, if there is any. Some stubborn stamps, however, make it too difficult to use the credit card. For Machins with the security cuts, I can't use the credit card because the cuts too often cause problems and result in a folded stamp or a ripped-out hole. Using my fingernail as a scraper is pretty much the same thing but it covers far less area and I'm able to control things much better. I'm not perfect but I probably get more than 95% of the new Machins off paper without any damage. Fortunately, the Machins are relatively easy to come by so you get lots of practice. When possible, I always work with some damaged stamps first (ripped or tore, pen cancelled, uncancelled). Paint thinner is undoubtedly not the most aggressive solvent out there - but mild is probably good for stamps, it helps reduce damage (and I don't foresee myself instantly mutating into some odd species due to scary chemicals, either). Heptane-based stuff like Bestine or Un-Du looks like it acts much more quickly, it also evaporates much more quickly (and might cause my house to explode the next time the furnace starts, I don't know ....). Paint thinner isn't perfect for stamps but I'm happy with it and am cautious about going too crazy with other stuff. From a chemical standpoint, I suppose the ideal solvent for removing the adhesive would be the same solvent that was used in production of the adhesive. Some adhesives are temperature-based, they use lots of heat to turn the adhesive into a liquid during production, but I don't think stamps are made that way. They probably use a liquid solvent that evaporates out of the adhesive, leaving sticky stuff behind, and that solvent would be the one that would again turn the adhesive into a liquid, making it easy to remove from the stamp. We just need some research done to figure out what that ideal chemical would be! (Of course, you'll end up with many different chemicals for many different adhesives.) Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Sept 26, 2016 6:19:13 GMT
Yay constant plate varieties! And yay Large Queens on laid paper ...
Welcome to the forum.
Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Sept 18, 2016 19:34:23 GMT
Remember that 1904 Stanley Gibbons catalogue I mentioned back in February (page 5 of this thread) that I saw in a used book store that my daughter took me to? Drat & blast, wish I knew about this used book store. You have Part II - guess who has had the 1904 Part I in his library for 8 or 10 years .... Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Aug 6, 2016 5:04:39 GMT
Lost out on a number of items at Maresch's a couple of weeks ago to Vance. He's one tough/skilled bidder! And a principled man, as well. When I was at a Maresch auction, more than once Vance upped his own bid if there wasn't any interest in the item. That way the seller got a better price for his item (good for the collector community) while Vance still got a "good enough" price for the piece (good for Vance). Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Jul 30, 2016 19:53:25 GMT
Here's an old post predating your time here on our forum - there's a specialized catalogue extant for these old overrun countries stamps, a welcome part of my library. You like flags, I like plate varieties! Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Jul 23, 2016 3:22:37 GMT
For me I wonder am I collecting right? Is there a right and a wrong to it all? .... in the end it's my collection and as long as I'm pleased that's all that matters. The answer to the first question is yes. The answer to the second question is no. And the last sentence quoted is the reason why the first answer is yes and the second answer is no! ha ha If you're trying to collect for the purposes of impressing others, then of course you need to target your collection around what impresses others. There is an art to that and competitions in exhibitions target the perfection of that art. Of course, "perfection" in that sense is entirely subjective and each judge has an individual idea of what is perfect. (See this week's Linn's Stamp News for an op ed written by a Dutch collector ranting about the poor competition results obtained by Dutch exhibitions at the recent World Stamp Show in New York.) There's a lot of value for any "digital age" collector in exhibiting, as so much can be found online (for example, see Exponet). But I, personally, get far more enjoyment out of my collection by digging through piles of stuff than I ever would by making attempts at collecting & displaying according to the standards set by others. After all, in the end it's my collection and as long as I'm pleased, that's all that matters. Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Jul 21, 2016 22:01:48 GMT
Did many charity stamps have 'expiry' dates? Many? I would say yes. And, in fact, many countries had limited dates of validity for regular postage stamps as well. Michel's European catalogues includes the dates of validity for the issues that had limited ranges. As an example, I grabbed my Michel Europe Volume 1 and had a look - many major stamp-issuing countries once had stamps that "expired" ... Liechtenstein - yes Austria - yes Switzerland - yes Slovakia - yes (just a few WWII-era issues, though) Czech Republic - no Czechoslovakia - yes Hungary - yes UN offices in Geneva - no UN offices in Vienna - no So, postage expiration was fairly common once upon a time in Europe. In Switzerland, expiration dates continued all the way until 1964, whereas Austria stopped the practice in 1947 (although their schilling-denominated stamps expired in 2002 after the introduction of the Euro). Here in Canada, all stamps issued since 1859 (adoption of decimal currency) remain valid. Darn, I have a pile of 12d blacks I could use for mailing .... Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Jul 20, 2016 11:23:59 GMT
Oooh, I like that shifted print error multiple! Things like that aren't very common, it takes a lot of kiloware to find a goodie like that one. I'm a tagging hunter and I find a fair number of tagging errors in my kiloware, they don't stand out too obviously so they're more likely to remain in the batch without getting picked out by the seller.
I wish I was down to only a few pounds of kiloware left to sort. I spent many years buying endless piles of stuff (and now have multiple 100s of Kg yet to deal with) because I have found I have more fun digging through cheap stamps than anything else - tagging errors, plate varieties, printing and perforation varieties, I have a great time looking for such things. I have a "proper" collection of Canadian stamps that will be worth while to sell at some point, but I spend far more time and have much more fun with the "piles of stuff" collection. I've been busy with other stuff lately so the stamps have kind of suffered in comparison. I'll have to fill up the sink and get soaking again soon, maybe that will light a spark again. (I do have a few hundred stamps set aside that I plan to scan to add to various topical threads here, maybe I should do that first ....)
Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Jul 19, 2016 16:27:46 GMT
I was only 3 years old at the time of the Canadian Centennial and even I have heard this song 20,000 times since then ... I can't imagine what it would have been like at the time it was current. Bobby Gimby, he of that really strange unbent trumpet, was a fixture on telethons and talk shows and things of such nature here for years afterward.
Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Jul 11, 2016 8:25:44 GMT
The Connoisseur Catalogue of Machin Stamps and Decimal Definitives is a very detailed catalogue, similar in scope to the Deegam Handbook that I posted about earlier. A considerable portion of the catalogue is currently available for free online. The chapters vary by publication date - some chapters have listings for stamps up to 2008, some go up to 2011, etc. Not as useful as a Deegam Handbook for those who are completionists, but there's a lot of info available there. Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Jun 17, 2016 2:50:59 GMT
When they were issued, the internet was ablaze with rage over the supposed lack of merits of those Waves of Color stamps, but I really like them. I wish I came across them more often! I have a few of the $1 stamps, maybe 2 copies of the $2 stamp and none of the $5 or $10 issues.
Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Jun 3, 2016 15:59:55 GMT
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on May 24, 2016 10:59:40 GMT
Four shillings! Now there's a different face value, I don't know if I've seen any others (old classic shillings, not the Tanzanian kind). A long-term (very long-term) project would allow me to know for sure, as I use face values for rough sorting of my piles of stamps. But the very long-term project is a very long way off in the future ....
Ryan
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Ryan
Member
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,722
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Apr 28, 2016 14:01:17 GMT
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