madbaker
Member 
Posts: 801 
What I collect: (Mark) General worldwide collector (to 1975 or so) with a soft spot for Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
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Post by madbaker on Jun 14, 2024 15:59:19 GMT
Hi!
This is more of a hunch than a proper study, but the combination of the 80th Anniversary of D-Day and Ian Kimmerly's BESG presentation yesterday on Solomon Islands censored covers has me thinking about the position of WWII in our hobby.
My assertion: Collecting stamps and postal history of the WWII era is the high water mark of postal history collecting. The hobby was strong before the war and continued afterwards via the service men and women who returned home. The WWII time period was popular because of the breadth of the conflict (the world) and personal connections to the conflict (folks who served in Italy collected Italy when they returned home, Pacific combatants collect the Pacific, etc.)
Correspondence was almost entirely via the mail in WWII so it was important to keep the mail flowing as the troops were moving, creating lots of interesting, collectible material.
But this declined rapidly after WWII. There aren't many (any?) well known exhibits / articles / collection of Vietnam War postal history, for example. Ditto for the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Iraq invasion, Afghanistan, etc. Why? Fewer collectors, but also less mail. You could telephone and later email instead. Physical mail wasn't as critical so there's less to collect.
I realize these are all North American, primarily US examples. Are there collections based on conflicts in South America after, say, 1950? China collectors can likely document political changes up to the 1950s at least. But into the 1970's and 80's? I'm not sure. What of India, or the breakup of the USSR?
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All that nonsense above is based on my own completely biased observations. I don't know what I don't know. And I know there is LOTS that I don't know. So I hope that the fine folks here can expand on this and even prove me wrong. I'm here to learn. 
Are there postal history collections being formed to tell modern, post WWII stories? What stories are they telling? Where might I see them?
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hdm1950
Member
Posts: 1,886
What I collect: I collect world wide up to 1965 with several specialty albums added due to volume of material I have acquired. At this point I am focused on Canada and British America. I am always on the lookout for stamps and covers with postmarks from communities in Queens County, Nova Scotia. I do list various goods including stamps occasionally on eBay as hdm50
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Post by hdm1950 on Jun 14, 2024 17:11:56 GMT
Interesting question and topic madbaker. For my own collecting interest of postmarks of Queens County, Nova Scotia I am always looking for the oldest I can find. I have a few dating into the 1960's I have kept due to a personal connection. It was post WWII that many small rural post offices began to close as car ownership became the norm so you did not need a post office in your backyard. Many of these post offices were in private residences or village general stores(today's convenience store). You mentioned China and I have had some pretty good success selling covers from the 50's and 60's. I suspect that is due to so much of the domestic mail of that period having been destroyed as part of the cultural revolution. That is just an opinion. |
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renden
Member
Posts: 9,162
What I collect: Canada-USA-France-Lithuania-Austria--Germany-Mauritius-French Colonies in Africa
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Post by renden on Jun 14, 2024 17:26:43 GMT
madbakerVery interesting subject in your Post My late dad, who passed on his collection to me, had bought on August 1, 1974, "The stamps of WWII", sold at the time by H.E. Harris of Boston, Mass. 1,360 stamps telling the story of WWII were sold (whole collection).....from Countries that took part in the war. This Epic story, in stamps, includes 1)Leaders of War 2) Allied Nations 3) The axis Enemy 4) Captive lands 5) Axis puppets 6) Victory I kept everything, even his original order to H.E. Harris. René
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madbaker
Member
Posts: 801
What I collect: (Mark) General worldwide collector (to 1975 or so) with a soft spot for Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
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Post by madbaker on Jun 15, 2024 5:42:51 GMT
I thought of a more recent example: the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997. I wonder if anybody's put together a collection showing the changes in mail service during the transition. It wouldn't be as popular as the WWII era, but could be quite interesting.
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cursus
Member
Posts: 2,011
What I collect: Catalan Cinderellas. Used Switzerland, UK, Scandinavia, Germany & Austria. Postal History of Barcelona & Estonia. Catalonia pictorial postmarks.
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Post by cursus on Jun 15, 2024 9:27:54 GMT
From 1992, I put together a collection showing the postal changes of Estonian independence from the USSR (1990-1992). It's a 5 frames exhibit (80 pages, 200 circulated items). I went to a number of stamp competitive shows getting gilded silver medals at the shows of Barcelona (1998), Zaragoza (1999) and Palma de Mallorca (2007). It even, ranked first at the last Spanish Modern Philately Exhibition, held at Tarragona on 2001. I still have the collection, but I haven't exhibited since many years ago, for a number of reasons.
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