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 Jan 16, 2024 14:12:22 GMT
Thank you very much!
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clivel
Member
Posts: 387
What I collect: Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Rhodesias, South Africa, Swaziland, Israel to 1980, Ireland predecimal, Palestine Mandate
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Post by clivel on Jan 16, 2024 21:05:31 GMT
I'd read that! How did mailing floppies fit into trolling? I've never heard of that. 😅
At the risk of veering too far off topic.
A few years back, in the pre-internet days (does that count as a few years), I worked for a small computer company in Cape Town, South Africa.
The company had recently amalgamated with a larger company in Johannesburg some 1500Km away.
It was not an easy relationship at the time, due to a power struggle ensuing between various levels of management.
Late one afternoon I was having tea and biscuits with our manager while listening to him complain about a large contract that we had lost due to the Johannesburg office neglecting to send us some new hardware that we had promised this particular customer, when his phone rang.
It was the Johannesburg office, they urgently needed the latest version of the software that we had developed. Needless to say in those days this meant mailing it out on floppy disk.
However, as they needed it urgently, and the caller had a friend flying from Cape Town to Johannesburg that evening who had offered to pick it up at our office and deliver it to Johannesburg we should get the disk ready.
The manager took a padded envelope out of his desk drawer and wrote in large letters alongside the recipients name "Magnetic Media - Do Not X-Ray" (in those days we thought that the airport x-ray machines would demagnetise the disk).
He was about to put the disc into the envelope, looked at me and said "#$*$ them", and instead put in a few biscuits, stapled the envelope shut and left it with reception to be collected.
The friend, oblivious to what the envelope actually contained insisted that airport security should not x-ray the envelope so they decided to hand inspect it instead.
Upon examining the contents they immediately smelled a rat and jumped to the conclusion that some sort of narcotics smuggling was in progress.
They submitted him to a full body search (think gloves and cavities), hauled his luggage off the flight, it was the last flight of the night, and submitted him to a few hours of interrogation before letting him go.
Unsurprisingly, our hapless amateur courier did not take kindly to the whole situation and a fair amount of compensation was involved.
Clive
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hdm1950
Member
Posts: 1,889
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 Jan 16, 2024 22:06:12 GMT
Another day and another lot of recent eBay purchases arrived in the mail. It is a a real mixture of harder to find items from British America. A few of these I may share on threads for the country they are from.  |
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,700
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jan 19, 2024 11:25:03 GMT
In between identifying stamps from Germany, I have been going through my aunt's estate. I found this cover. My aunt had saved a lot of letters from her husband while he served in the Army in WWII. A cover from the 50's.  |
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Post by iswscwebmaster on Jan 19, 2024 13:58:10 GMT
I have slowly gotten back at it by designing album pages and mounting stamps.
I committed to designing a few philatelic sites which limited the available time to work on my stuff. Then after avoiding COVID-19 for 4 years, I caught it just before Christmas. Although I have had far worse head colds, it sapped my energy and ability to focus and concentrate.
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madbaker
Member
Posts: 803
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 Jan 19, 2024 18:13:16 GMT
Yuck. Sorry you were unwell iswscwebmaster. That Covid is tricky business, even with milder symptoms. This year's covid / influenza bugs seem to hold on for a good long time. My daughter got Covid in 2020 before vaccines were available and she's still struggling with major side effects three years later. She caught it at age 23 and it looks she'll be coping with this for her lifetime. I admire your willingness to build multiple websites. I love to build them but hate to maintain them.  ---- In personal stamping news, I'm still hanging out in south east Asia. Unwound the colonial histories of Indonesia and Malaysia, read about how Singapore was part of Malaysia but was expelled from the Federation after two years, and was fascinated by the role of the Thai King in all the military coups in the 20th century. And how the current Thai king actually lives in Germany! All this research had me enter one of Terri's contests for the first time. But last night I bit the bullet and got back into 1930's and 40's China. All the overprints and surcharges, multiple printings. So-called 'Secret Marks'. I am getting quicker at identifying them but am struggling to decide how I want to organize and mount them. Normally I'd want to keep the surcharges with the original set of stamps, to show all the ways the stamp was used, re-used, confused and abused. But there are so many Chinese provincial issues, occupation issues, puppet regime issues, anti-bandit overprints, that I wonder if the story might be better told region by region. PS - Scott calling the die differences 'Secret Marks' sounds a lot like cultural bias to me. They'd just call them type 1 and type 2 if it were Sweden or Norway. Does anyone know if the marks carried an actual secret, or is this a more romantic notion? |
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Londonbus1
Moderator 
Cinderella Stamp Club Member 3059
Posts: 5,064
What I collect: Wonderland; 1912 Jubilee International Stamp Exhibition, London ('Ideal' Stamp, ephemera); French Cinderellas with an emphasis on Poster Stamps; Israel and Palestine Cinderellas ; Jewish National Fund Stamps, Labels and Tags; London 2010, A Festival of Stamps (anything); South Africa 1937 Coronation issue of KGVI, singles or bi-lingual pairs.
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Post by Londonbus1 on Jan 20, 2024 8:16:27 GMT
My daughter got Covid in 2020 before vaccines were available and she's still struggling with major side effects three years later. She caught it at age 23 and it looks she'll be coping with this for her lifetime. I feel her pain and discomfort. She is not alone. I have suffered with the so-called 'long Covid' since I got it back in 2022 during the 'London 2022' Stamp exhibition. It has been never-ending and by far the worse health period of my life. And I feel it is for life with so little known about it. I hope your daughter, being much younger than I, can fight off the ailments and regain full health. I am worried about the cough that another member has, for that has been one of the many side effects. I have always said that stamps can be good at times like this, to take ones mind of things. But it has not always worked these past 2 years. But back to stamps.....Having sold most of my (postage) stamps over the last years I have started on my Cinderellas to concentrate on just a few countries//topics. I have not added to my British Stamp Exhibition Souvenirs collection in a long while, and have even stopped looking. Now I am considering breaking up the collection for selling. It is my latest dilemma. It was always in my mind from the first days of collecting, that if I no longer added to a collection, for whatever reason, I would sell or pass on. I have always managed to keep to that self promise. I dont want or need collections sitting on shelves for others to sort out when I am gone. The British Stamp Exhibition albums hold some scarce (and in one or two cases, rare) pieces which have been a pleasure to seek out and acquire. But maybe the time has come......... Londonbus1 Londonbus1 |
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vikingeck
Member
Posts: 3,551
What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Jan 20, 2024 8:37:05 GMT
I have not added to my British Stamp Exhibition Souvenirs collection in a long while, and have even stopped looking. Now I am considering breaking up the collection for selling. It is my latest dilemma. It was always in my mind from the first days of collecting, that if I no longer added to a collection, for whatever reason, I would sell or pass on. I have always managed to keep to that self promise. I dont want or need collections sitting on shelves for others to sort out when I am gone. The British Stamp Exhibition albums hold some scarce (and in one or two cases, rare) pieces which have been a pleasure to seek out and acquire. But maybe the time has come......... Londonbus1 Collecting is as much or more about the hunt as the possession. When the availability and the supply of new items dries up the collection becomes inactive and some stagnates. I have been there a few times in my many years of collecting……collections have come and gone , GB Victoria (too expensive on my 1970’sbudget) Denmark classic Square stamps(exhibited to Large Vermeil grade …never going to get a gold) A-z of stamp collecting terms, USA, and a few more. I have had loads of fun collecting and as much subsequent interest and activity breaking up and dispersing. Even contemplating selling off a large section of my Samoa post 1920……… |
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Beryllium Guy
Moderator
Posts: 5,913
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
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Post by Beryllium Guy on Jan 20, 2024 15:44:50 GMT
Getting Back to StampsGreetings, stampers far and wide! I hope you are all doing as well as you can. As I have not felt well enough to leave the house much, the silver lining is that when I am not working, I have been able to spend some time on stamps. Here's what I have been doing: - Went through WW classic stamps offered in trade and have selected stamps to offer in return
- Need to go to the PO today to mail that trade packet and a few oddball France items for Stan (stainlessb )
- Been digging through the huge gift lot, sorting, soaking, and organizing items I find there (see image below)
- Need to go through some recent eBay purchases and put those in their proper places (got another nice Hong Kong CHINA overprint!)
- Also trying to learn about color quantification techniques from Stan and capejack , but they are way ahead of me!
 Above: Stamps laying in the open green folder are ones from the gift lot. This bunch all came from one envelope marked "Duplicates." There were a few from Eritrea in that envelope, so the rest of the material pictured is my Eritrea accumulation, to which I added the new items. This weekend, I will also be soaking more stamps from the big lot. Most of those have been culled from mounted collections, and almost all still have hinges affixed to the backs. I have been making progress not only with material from the big lot, but also going through my accumulations at the same time, identifying stamps for which I should find new homes. Stay stampy, all! 
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Post by carabop on Jan 20, 2024 16:00:13 GMT
The 2023 stamps are in the albums. I hate waiting a full year to add them to the albums. Now back to the 1800’s material, these have all been identified, cataloged and the duplicates stored away. The rest of these will be added to my albums.
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tobben63
Member
Stamp eat sleep repeat
Posts: 1,874
What I collect: I collect to much, world wide!
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Post by tobben63 on Jan 20, 2024 17:09:23 GMT
I bid on an auction today, and won. Start bid was nok 1500,- but I offer 1350,- and got it! ( That is ca $128,327 ++++) The lot was poorly described so I gambled on that I had some value. The description: Lot of various smaller country collections and inventory books from several countries. Images:     It will be fun to look trough this. (Maybe a video) |
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rod222
Member
Posts: 11,051
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps, Ephemera and Catalogues
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Post by rod222 on Jan 20, 2024 18:47:55 GMT
I bid on an auction today, and won. Start bid was nok 1500,- but I offer 1350,- and got it! ( That is ca $128,327 ++++) The lot was poorly described so I gambled on that I had some value. The description: Lot of various smaller country collections and inventory books from several countries. Nice catch tobben, I make that circa $143 USD, + buyers premium? + freight. The slip cases alone, are worth $30 in my opinion. That will keep you busy for a few months. |
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stainlessb
Member
qaStaHvIS yIn 'ej chep
Posts: 4,909
What I collect: currently focused on most of western Europe, much of which is spent on France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain Queen Victoria
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Post by stainlessb on Jan 20, 2024 22:12:40 GMT
Spent the day working to get programs on two computers with different 'in synch' with each other. A small myriad of minute details that were creating some havoc. I think we now have most worked out and can begin work on some color quantification.
A good project for a rainy day!
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renden
Member
Posts: 9,163
What I collect: Canada-USA-France-Lithuania-Austria--Germany-Mauritius-French Colonies in Africa
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Post by renden on Jan 20, 2024 23:30:07 GMT
Spent the day working to get programs on two computers with different 'in synch' with each other. A small myriad of minute details that were creating some havoc. I think we now have most worked out and can begin work on some color quantification. A good project for a rainy day! Stan Snow (1 cm) + (wind) here in Canada East !! -10C Your 2 programs.....I do not understand.....sure to get more info  Spent the last few days on Mauritius - made and mounted 15 pages - not ready to scan yet as I need more stamps (classic only) Anybody out there with Mauritius  ? René |
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hrdoktorx
Member
Posts: 7,216
What I collect: France (and French territories), Africa, Canada, USA, Germany, Guatemala, stamps about science, flags, maps, stamps on stamps...
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Post by hrdoktorx on Jan 21, 2024 7:26:11 GMT
Spent the day working to get programs on two computers with different 'in synch' with each other. A small myriad of minute details that were creating some havoc. I think we now have most worked out and can begin work on some color quantification. A good project for a rainy day! I know how that feels. Doing the same for one my programs as a linked utility came up with new features I want to exploit... |
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tobben63
Member
Stamp eat sleep repeat
Posts: 1,874
What I collect: I collect to much, world wide!
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Post by tobben63 on Jan 21, 2024 8:06:56 GMT
Im hoping to do the last leg on sorting Netherlands duplicates. Have gone trough two stock books and saved the best ones in my duplicate books. Next is mounting the Netherlands on my home made detailed album pages.  |
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Londonbus1
Moderator
Cinderella Stamp Club Member 3059
Posts: 5,064
What I collect: Wonderland; 1912 Jubilee International Stamp Exhibition, London ('Ideal' Stamp, ephemera); French Cinderellas with an emphasis on Poster Stamps; Israel and Palestine Cinderellas ; Jewish National Fund Stamps, Labels and Tags; London 2010, A Festival of Stamps (anything); South Africa 1937 Coronation issue of KGVI, singles or bi-lingual pairs.
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Post by Londonbus1 on Jan 21, 2024 9:37:33 GMT
Yes, indeed it has. Decision made and am now starting to get ready for the 'cull'. The hardest part was knowing I would no longer own items that will be appearing in the next edition of 'British Stamp Exhibitions' (G.Wilson). But it has been a labour of love for many years and for me, the fun of searching for the impossible will never be repeated. But all good things come to an end. Don't they ? Coincidentally, I have a small window of selling online as a friend has found a flight to the UK in early February and will take my sales packets to mail in London. It will be a start at least. Still getting more items to take to the IPF Bourse next month. I won't have much left at this rate !!!  Londonbus1 |
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Beryllium Guy
Moderator
Posts: 5,913
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
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Post by Beryllium Guy on Jan 21, 2024 16:55:09 GMT
René ( renden ) wrote: Yes, René, I collect Mauritius! From the looks of your recent acquisitions, I would venture to say that you are well ahead of me, though. But I haven't looked at my accumulation in a long while, so I will pull them out later today to see what's in there. At the moment, I am working on your great holiday giveaway lot (thanks again!) I will be in touch soon about Mauritius. |
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renden
Member
Posts: 9,163
What I collect: Canada-USA-France-Lithuania-Austria--Germany-Mauritius-French Colonies in Africa
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Post by renden on Jan 21, 2024 18:01:14 GMT
René ( renden ) wrote: Yes, René, I collect Mauritius! From the looks of your recent acquisitions, I would venture to say that you are well ahead of me, though. But I haven't looked at my accumulation in a long while, so I will pull them out later today to see what's in there. At the moment, I am working on your great holiday giveaway lot (thanks again!) I will be in touch soon about Mauritius. Thanks Chris Just added 5 Mauritius Sc 70-82-90-108-83 from same seller + 234-233-231-209-210-112 Beryllium GuyRené |
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madbaker
Member
Posts: 803
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 Jan 22, 2024 5:28:05 GMT
It's been quite a stamping weekend for me.
On Friday night I went to my second local club meeting. It was the AGM so I got a sense of how the club operates, won a raffle prize and bought a presentation pack from the Faroes for $2. A couple folks recognized me from the first meeting I attended too. I'm not fully settled in yet but it's becoming more comfortable.
And today was one of Victoria's quarterly stamp shows. This was a bourse only (no exhibits) and I was determined to stay longer than it took me to bus there. I had a wonderful time. After being shut out last show, two dealers recognized me and said, oh I brought some Sweden for you. Nothing I needed from the first dealer but I filled a few spaces from a second and bought some pretty Australia and Austria to make the purchase worthwhile.
And then I saw a third dealer who said he didn't have anything old enough for me, but at the back of a box he actually had quite a few booklet singles from 1930-1960. I filled my entire want list from that era. So I was very happy indeed.
And then I even sat down and went through some cover boxes! Yes I did! Someone who has never bought a cover in his life. I still haven't, but I came close. I was getting very hungry so I had to pack up and head for the bus. Next time I'll pack snacks and really tackle those cover boxes.
Slowly, slowly, I'm starting to settle the stamp routine in my new city. There's a lot to do here. I'm already looking forward to Wednesday's muffin meetup.
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vikingeck
Member
Posts: 3,551
What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Jan 22, 2024 16:26:26 GMT
Home from the York show and mounted up my 3 COGH purchases which blew a hole in the budget in the first hour !
So I passed the rest of Friday and Saturday socialising with fellow collectors I had known from various parts of the country and whom I only see these days at shows like York or Stampex. Great fun , great Craic!
In between hours I rummaged 4 or 5 huge mixed cover boxes filtering anything that caught my eye as unusual or possibly of interest to club members back home.
In all I pulled 50 assorted cards , covers and a couple of cover fronts. Priced in total at £60 and further discounted to £55 . Just been ,round to Ian , a neighbour, and traded 5 of them for £5 and a cup of Coffee.
Just found on my return that I had sold 10 lots on eBay, so I have had an hour packing them for the post . The eBay sales will help offset my York purchases but only a small fraction.
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vikingeck
Member
Posts: 3,551
What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Jan 22, 2024 21:10:37 GMT
My tutor has had to cancel our evening class Art lesson tomorrow……….ah well I will have some time to re-design and rewrite a dozen pages of my Samoa as an exhibit for the Congress Show in April. It’s an ill wind that doesn’t have some good in it .
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anilkhemlani
Member
collect worldwide stamps
Posts: 622
What I collect: Stamps from all over the world + FDC
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Post by anilkhemlani on Jan 25, 2024 15:45:36 GMT
exchanged minisheets from india. was amazed at what variety there is now compared to 40 years ago when I used to live there.
will post once I get them. got some nice Sweden group. need to put them in stock sheets. just organised them pre 1950 and post 1950
will share once I organise them.
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cjoprey
Member
Scanning stamps for my website...
Posts: 1,504
What I collect: Belgium (predominantly), British Commonwealth (older ones), WW (whatever comes my way...)
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Post by cjoprey on Jan 25, 2024 18:02:48 GMT
At the weekend scanned in a bunch more stamps and have slowly been adding them to my website... Slow labour but a lot of fun to see what I have laid out online. |
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anglobob
Member
Posts: 2,602
What I collect: France and French Colonies,French cinderellas British Commonwealth QE2
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Post by anglobob on Jan 26, 2024 13:31:39 GMT
Not much has changed here since my last post.Still under a state of emergency with a curfew from midnight to 5am.I rarely venture out at night and limit my outdoor activities to visiting the local supermarket.The President has declared war on the drug gangs here and to fund this,sales tax will be increased from 12% to 15%.Armed police and military are much more evident on the streets.
No stamp purchases as I am still trying to find a way of receiving purchases.A couple of members here have kindly offered to receive purchases in the USA but there is still the problem of getting them to me here in Ecuador.The mail forwarder I was using will not acceot letters any more,just parcels and small packets.A member of the stamp club here has a contact in North Carolina who is a pilot and flies regularly to Ecuador,so that might be one option.However,a lot of my purchases are made on Delcampe and cannot be sent to NC due to problems with collecting sales tax.
Buying stamps can be so frustrating..........
I have slowly been organizing my boxes and stockbooks so hopefully will be posting some new pages in the next few days.
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anilkhemlani
Member
collect worldwide stamps
Posts: 622
What I collect: Stamps from all over the world + FDC
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Post by anilkhemlani on Jan 28, 2024 9:52:36 GMT
27th jan, got a big bunch of covers with old stamps as a deal from a vendor in Hong Kong. will post in respective country pages. beginning to appreciate covers as they have so much of a story in them. also found these in my last years mixed lot on eBay. need to go thru each stamp. wonder if anything of value here  |
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angore
Member
Posts: 5,700
What I collect: WW, focus on British Empire
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Post by angore on Jan 28, 2024 11:15:57 GMT
Adding catalog numbers to Steiner PDFs before printing. I will add page numbers later for efficiency since I use a larger font. A recent Adode Acrobat Reader update seems to have removed the ability to edit PDFs to add text. They now want you to pay extra for it. Adobe always seems to be trying to make software more expensive. I switched to Fox It PDF reader and it actually works better and has more options.  |
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cjoprey
Member
Scanning stamps for my website...
Posts: 1,504
What I collect: Belgium (predominantly), British Commonwealth (older ones), WW (whatever comes my way...)
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Post by cjoprey on Jan 28, 2024 20:19:22 GMT
Checked the watermarks on a bunch of early commonwealth stamps from multiple places today. Mostly QV, KEVII and KGV...
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rod222
Member
Posts: 11,051
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps, Ephemera and Catalogues
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Post by rod222 on Jan 28, 2024 21:31:08 GMT
27th jan, got a big bunch of covers with old stamps as a deal from a vendor in Hong Kong. will post in respective country pages. beginning to appreciate covers as they have so much of a story in them. also found these in my last years mixed lot on eBay. need to go thru each stamp. wonder if anything of value here Nothing stands out value wise, Some nice postmarks, 2 from CAHIR (County Tipperary) Ireland A "hooded" strike from LIVERPOOL and a very strange "42 over D" Postmark ? never seen before, (on the halfpenny vermilion) possibly a "printed matter" postmark, (rubber or felt impression) I'll have to look in Stitt Dibden |
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rod222
Member
Posts: 11,051
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps, Ephemera and Catalogues
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Post by rod222 on Jan 28, 2024 21:59:24 GMT
anilkhemlaniQuote : and a very strange "42 over D" Postmark ? never seen before, (on the halfpenny vermilion) possibly a "printed matter" postmark, (rubber or felt impression) I'll have to look in Stitt Dibden Yay! Found it in Stitt Dibden #9 (Numeral over NPB) = NewsPaper Branch Yours is 42 over NPB  
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