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Post by scb on Dec 2, 2017 22:02:22 GMT
Huh? The last time I checked history books, Republic of Cuba was born in 1902 (and lasted till 1959). 'Puppet/satellite' state it might have been (especially with US occupation of 1906–1908), but definitely not US territory.
-k-
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scb
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Post by scb on Dec 2, 2017 6:52:09 GMT
What a lovely piece - definitely keep it as one... Unfortunately I've got no knowledge on reasons why. As a wild guess, some American was in staying in hotel (or other accommodation service), and used an US stamp to pay postage. Possibly it was allowed (hotel staff might have added extra stamps/paid the due etc), possibly not. The postal tax stamp however was to be attached on every piece transmitted (likely done by Cuban person).
What does the card picture ? It is a tourist image, or something else?
-k-
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scb
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Post by scb on Dec 2, 2017 6:36:31 GMT
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Post by scb on Dec 1, 2017 13:54:41 GMT
It's no different than collecting something such as Ohio revenues or US stamps. Add up 30 stamps each day of the year, and you've added 11k stamps a year. And then repeat (as long as it's fun & you've got the space & there's something you can add). And if something bores, then you can pick something totally different (or even put stamps totally aside). It really isn't more difficult (or different) than rest of collecting, but it does provide a 'wider perspective' to world around us.
-k-
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scb
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Post by scb on Dec 1, 2017 6:39:54 GMT
Haven't updated this topic for a while (despite doing weekly articles & updates with the blog), but now I've got something a bit more special to share than 'just knowledge/articles'. SCB is celebrating the Finnish independence centenary with sweepstake where you can win a copy of Finnish stamp catalog (concise edition) & some stamp mixtures. Sweepstake is open for all reader levels of SCB, so no buying is required to enter. More details & participation details can be found at SCB website www.stampcollectingblog.com. Here's a pic of the main prize (about 400 pages). -k-
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scb
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Post by scb on Oct 8, 2017 11:37:35 GMT
Personally I've opted to by-continent, and then by geopolitical/historical connections. For example my Hawaii section sits tightly with US, whereas my Cuba sits as separate section (including both the colonial and post-colonial eras as separate sections)... But this is not a strict rule, and I can and have done exceptions where something else feels better. This was one of those decisions that SWH(Gerben) and I used to talk about when he was building up his spreadsheet.
Possibly the best thing I can say is that don't be afraid to change things if something does not feel correct. Everything is always subjective to ones (often times limited) knowledge and understanding of the history.
-k-
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scb
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Post by scb on Oct 2, 2017 6:41:23 GMT
One immediate improvement/fix.... 'Suomi' instead of 'Soumi'. LOL.
-k-
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scb
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Post by scb on Sept 13, 2017 18:03:02 GMT
All you need is a proper (1200-2400dpi) scan to work with. Then head on to SCB's (free) digital perforation gauge or use any other digital 'stamp tool'. The results you get are VERY accurate (1/100 of a perforation; 1/100 of a millimeter) if you follow two procedures: 1) place the stamp straight on scanner bed; any kind of plastic in between the glass and stamp can create some minor distortion (say 1/10 of a millimeter) 2) place some light weight on top of it to prevent any warping (scanner beds generate some heat, and as such it can make the paper curl to some degree) Feel free to toy around it, or watch the tutorial videos: -k-
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Post by scb on Sept 6, 2017 17:57:08 GMT
@ian.... I agree with madbaker - consider all the feedback, even negative one, as encouragement and possibility to create something more awesome. Having built websites for ~30 years (both for profession and fun), I can say the only thing you should fear is not having feedback at all. I have followed your progress over the past year, and the reason I have not linked/promoted StampCollectingSpot.com are affiliate connections of it all; not just Amazon links, but the whole WealthyAffiliate-connection with site/server and yourself... In general website owners (like me) are extremely cautions when recommending or participating any such site, as most affiliate websites are not truly 'saving the world' (though many promoting such noble goals), but seeking out the quick-and-easy way to make some money from their less-Internet aware users. Right now it is very hard to say which are your true motives behind it all- true passion to push stamp collecting onwards to this century, or some grand idea to conquer a niche market where 'competition' is low but there are still enough audience to make major revenue. I'm not trying to shoot you down with this; I'm just saying what I see/feel. Things that could swing my mind include things such as ... Adding more 'personal information about yourself and collection' on the About page. And making more interesting (and unique) articles/content ... -k-
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Post by scb on Sept 5, 2017 5:32:58 GMT
ianh ... Not sure what's your source, but it is way off by order of magnitude. Based on Google Adwords (which is de facto platform used by online advertisers), Stampworld is in totally different ballpark: 100-150,000 unique visitors A WEEK. Add to this users who run adblockers, pay etc, and the reality will more than likely settle in between 200-300K unique visitors (and 3-4 million page impressions) a week. Possibly the most essential question here is separating 'random noise' from 'active users'. With most websites 50-80% of traffic is 'drive by' traffic (brought by Google and other search engines and social media), whereas rest can be considered as engaging and active users. Agree. And it is possible to reach... I just hope you are truly aware of the cost that comes with all of it. The bigger a site grows, the more resources it will hog (and I'm not talking about hosting and technical challenges alone). Many thriving/upcoming philatelic websites have vanished over the years simply because they failed to understand and control the cost implications of 'being popular' (and yes, it nearly killed my Stamp Collecting Blog as well). -k-
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Post by scb on Aug 30, 2017 9:05:02 GMT
You're not alone pondering this... Right now it seems/feels like US-version of MyPhilately (a very popular social media platform for stamp collectors; it died 5+ years ago as they run out of funds).
-k-
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scb
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Post by scb on May 11, 2017 5:37:03 GMT
Nothing in Michel neither. But nice little observation / discovery -k- And like falschungs scan shows the basic stamps are listed in Michel. My comment was referring to listing of variety...
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Post by scb on May 10, 2017 5:14:56 GMT
Nothing in Michel neither. But nice little observation / discovery -k-
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Post by scb on May 3, 2017 19:32:33 GMT
Howdy and welcome -k (from the other side of the big pond )-
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Post by scb on Apr 2, 2017 18:20:28 GMT
Sad to say, as some of you know, Gerben (SWH) of Stamp World History passed away after a long fight with cancer on December 31, 2016, just seven days after penning the note on this thread. I just wish that when my time comes, it would be as 'unexpected'... Much better to die with your boots on, doing what you truly enjoy. -k-
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Post by scb on Apr 1, 2017 5:33:01 GMT
I'm no chemist, but AFAIK hydrogen peroxide is pretty much the safest bleaching agent and mold-fungi killer out there (both in terms of environment and pulp degradation). It turns to just water and oxygen when exposed to UV (sunlight). Maybe other non-chlorine bleaches fit the shoe as well.
Then there are non-chemical options based on use of high power UV (common with fish tanks, air filters etc. being every day usages). UV kills fungi/mold, and can be used for bleaching as well (kind of like leaving paper to sunlight for extended periods - but more powerful).And a disclaimer: if you try this at home, then read and follow the safety instructions that come with these sterilizing UV lamps - misuse can make you blind, cause severe burns, cause cancer etc. not-so-fun stuff.
But like I wrote before, even on best scenario these all are useful for masking the damage already occurred. They will not truly turn back the time...
-k-
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Post by scb on Mar 31, 2017 19:01:38 GMT
It's all about dosage. For fish tanks and ponds the recommended dosage is about 2mg/liter - about size of needless tip.
Yikes... For each teaspoon, and you should have about 2500 liters of water to keep it on 'safe for enviroment' level.
(for the record, I'm not a professional on this stuff. I just have an extensive collection of vintage 'paper stuff' besides stamps as well, which has lead me to read and try a lot of stuff).
-k-
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Post by scb on Mar 31, 2017 16:18:10 GMT
Chloramine-T is seriously poisonous stuff. Be sure to read safety instructions first if you try it, and give also some advance consideration of how you get rid of the waste (if you pour it down the drain, it will simply go back to stuff we eat/drink). The less chemicals people use the better (and yes, I admit being 'green tree-hugger, LOL). I may be blunt here, but IMHO that HongKong stamp would have looked the same even after a normal soak and scrub in warm tap water. At least most of the 'gunk' on the back seems like toned gum and hinge remainders, which dissolves with plain water. Re, those Canadian stamps... Neither is foxing IMHO. The Queen Victoria seems like it has been in touch with some mouldy paper long time ago, the King Edward looks more like 'burn damage'. But hard to say anything definitive from a photo. You might actually try to smell the stamps (active mould has the earthy odor everybody associates to mold, fungi/foxing usually does not have any distinct odor). Finally, here's one document which you might enjoy: ritaudina.com/en/2014/12/02/mould-or-foxing-documents-conservation/ (the comments on the page have got some links to UV reactions as well ... many fungis emit bioluminescencen stuff, which depending on the species and UV wavelength used will shine out like beacon in the dark... with non-organic toning/foxing you'll never see the unusual glow) (and before I forget... For non-organic stains there's a product/technology based on using Tek-Wipes. Just google 'tek-wipe conservation' and you'll get a number of readworthy pages) -k-
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Post by scb on Mar 22, 2017 8:47:36 GMT
Yes, controlling humidity levels is essential, but also temperatures do count a lot. For example with a room temperature of 20° C and a relative humidity of 60 % one cubic meter of room air holds about 10 g of water. If the room temperature is reduced to 8° C the air in the room can only absorb half the amount of moisture, the rest precipitates as condensation water mostly on the cooler surfaces (which if thinking for example very hot and heavy summer days are usually my stamp cabinets). The dew point at a room temperature of 20 °C, with a relative humidity of 50 %, is about 9°C . This calculator here might to get hold of the interaction between these two: www.dpcalc.org/ (notice that as you change the temperature and humidity sliders, it not only tells you dew point but on the side there is also "days to mold" etc. 'fun facts'). That said, too dry and too hot is not good for the stamps (nor humans) neither. For paper conversation the ideal would be 30-40% RH, but humans are best with 40-60% RH. The problem herein lies with existing fungi. Once it is there, it is very hard to get rid off or limits its growth (some research papers say that existing fungi can remain active in anything north of 10% RH). The best we collectors can do is minify the risks and observe (in low RH enviroment it can take years for situation to evolve into something you can see with bare eyes). -k-
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Post by scb on Mar 21, 2017 6:39:58 GMT
Sounds like foxing. And it WILL spread when/if certain conditions are met.... Have written about foxing (and related happenings) a number of times at my blog (see link on my signature).
Like any organic thing fungi requires moisture and warmth. If those are not available the spores will get dormant (and can stay in hibernation for long periods of time till more favorable conditions exist). The best you can do is: 1) detect early and detect well - pair of eyes gets you started, but once you see visual changes the damage has already occurred. Thus UV-lamp is required for early detection
2) isolate (and get rid of) anything contaminated - Some collectors try to treat the stamps (chlorineT, oxidization etc) or isolate them (seal in mount, plastic container etc). Whether or not it works is subjective. Most importantly, once the paper/pulp is damaged there's no way to reverse it, you can only mask it temporarily. Personally I just bin and burn them.
3) control temperature and air humidity AND keep them steady - in here the first step would be to get some kind of temp/humidity meter and keep track of the environment your stamps reside. You should aim for situation where relative humidity is 40-50% and temperature is slightly less 20 celsius - and keep it constant day and night (as the real problems surface when/if humidity + temperature vary).
(and yes, thinking of it all can drive one nuts because theoretically speaking spores are all around us, and most of the stamps are potential victims/carriers way before you notice anything)
Strictly speaking toning is a chemical reaction, usually caused by ligning on the pulp/paper.
Rust, foxing... Are usually the one and same. There are several types of mold and fungi behind it, some clearly different than others (different colors, different types of spots etc)
-k-
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Post by scb on Mar 20, 2017 6:27:34 GMT
Nope. Not foxing... Like you wrote, seems like tape (greasy glue) damage...
If you want to be truly on the safe side, use UV-lamp to check it. If it lights up, then it is organic and alive.
-k-
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Post by scb on Mar 10, 2017 14:11:12 GMT
Hear hear.
-k-
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Post by scb on Mar 10, 2017 10:45:25 GMT
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Post by scb on Feb 27, 2017 8:04:36 GMT
Geek and another RSS addict talking here.. The reason for RSS stepping away is because so called push notifications are supposed to take over them. They are a native browser technology - no extra readers or plugins required. For example the Tapatalk version of of proboards sends notifications of likes, @-comments etc using push notifications. Basically every time you see 'this website wants to send you notifications' dialog, you are dealing with request to allow push notifications from that specific website.
The downside of push system is with maximum size of data - only 2 to 4 kilobytes of data can be send in single push. So to certain extend it will never replace RSS, but it is very good at notifying users that 'there's something new in the there, go check the website" .
As for why the switch is happening... Basically it all comes down to money. Smaller data size with push makes it lot cheaper to maintain than RSS systems providing full articles. And the fact that readers who read website content using RSS don't bring any advertising revenue just adds up for the difference. Add up the detail that owner of worlds biggest RSS-provider, and words biggest advertising system happens, and worlds most popular browser happens to be Google you can easily figure out why things are going the way they are.
-k-
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Post by scb on Feb 26, 2017 5:54:28 GMT
It would be fun, but AFAIK Proboards doesn't offer anything as such.
-k-
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Post by scb on Feb 5, 2017 12:52:35 GMT
Mark, nice to see you've joined the 'number crunchers club'. I enjoyed your analysis much more than the one provided by Scott.
-k-
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Post by scb on Jan 26, 2017 14:54:20 GMT
All I remember is that there was some 'big drama' on some stamp forums, and some folks decided to leave for better or worse. Eventually Jack set up TSF, sent out some invitations, and rest is history.
Not sure what's my 'TSF membership number' but it's pretty small as I joined pretty shortly. I did donate some of my skills/time in making 'geeky stuff' work on the beginning, but otherwise I'm here for the company/stamps. I was never part of the drama (and for some reason have never been involved in any of it), thus for me TSF is 'yet another stamp forum' that I like to read every now and then.
-k-
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Post by scb on Jan 9, 2017 6:50:27 GMT
This is certainly in the 'enabler' category (apropos of Keijo's comment on another forum regarding collecting in the digital age.) Mark You read that comment (in SCF)? Since it got zero responses I thought it went unnoticed/over-the-top for most. Anyway, just wait till you get to see my adoption of a related/similar tool (have been working it under the hood for few months, and hoping to launch on end of January). It seems 2017 will be one milestone for worldwide collectors as all sorts of 'cool' services are coming out. Likely no collector generation in century has had better 'understanding' about the world of stamps than ours. -k-
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Post by scb on Dec 27, 2016 15:58:28 GMT
Working my way through a bunch of Congo (Kinshasa, Brazzaville, Katanga, Zaire etc) stamps. Have already added about 100 stamps, and hopefully will manage to add few dozen more.
-k-
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scb
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Post by scb on Dec 19, 2016 7:08:41 GMT
I'll vouch for Wordpress (wordpress.org) as well. Very easy to setup and use, though it will require some (and sometimes a bit more than some) than tinkering to make it work the way you want it.
That said, I would be cautious on recommending Wordpress.com, Blogger or any other pre-hosted services as they come with somewhat strict terms of service. They are good for posting food recipes etc. But... For example would an image of 'la maja desnuda' stamp be considered pornographic content or piece of historic art? Or would image of Hitler-stamp or WW2 cover with swastikas qualify as promotion of nazism, or historical artifacts of humanitys darkest moments? Or would a page about counterfeits be seen as 'promotion' for counterfeits or as educational resource? As collectors we've got a certain way of looking things, but the non-collecting audience might look things the other way. I know at least three stamp/philately related bloggers/blogs that had their Blogger account suspended because of 'inappropiate content'. Wordpress.com is somewhat strict about monetizing your blog (say selling your extra stamps or reference books) - break the rule, and you'll get booted.
-k-
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