Let's see your latest acquisition.

My last purchase was the German stuff from therealwesty.

My latest acquisition is not a stamp but it is stamp-related.  I'm in the States visiting my girlfriend - she's a crafty sort with some proper gear as well.  One of her abilities is to design art for coasters and tiles, with the images printed on by ink sublimation.  A recent purchase of marble tiles had a piece that was a bit too irregular to sell, so we've turned it into a drink coaster for me to take home.  It's getting a work out right now with a frosty mug of Dr. Pepper on top of it, a good accompaniment to some salty pumpkin seeds.



Ryan

Rod, thanks, I just spent 3 hours checking to see what I just got compared to what I need. I found, so far, 11 stamps that I did not have or were upgrades. I even (Oh the shame!) found a stamp I had originally mis-identified! I really admire the work the former philatelist put in on this collection. It almost seems a shame I got it for so little. I suppose that is what awaits us all though.

Theron.

Frog, the Wayzata is one of my favorite could-have-been stamps!

Theron.

Nice looking batch Jen.Wish I had nice treasures hid away.

The High Street office used an oval PARCELS cancel. I'd be quite certain that is what you have.

"Parcels is postal" so no worry there.

Jamaica 10-shilling KGV (Sc#87, SG#89), typical De La Rue goodness, issued May 6, 1920:

Altogether there are three large format Saar stamps with drawings of the Burbach steelworks; this one is the second that I've acquired. It lacks some of the drama of the multi-colored nighttime (early 1921) version that I've adopted as my avatar (see left and below) but, being reduced to coarser lines, some of the factory's features stand out more clearly. One might say it's a difference of night and day. Saar currency changed from German to French in the interval between the issue dates of these two stamps, so this one (1922) is denominated 5 Franken as opposed to 25 Marks. This was a fortunate change, I suppose, since it occurred just before the German hyperinflation. The third stamp in this format, the original multi-colored edition overprinted with "5 Franken," was issued in May 1921. I'm still looking for an inexpensive example. History of the Burbach works can be found at: www.saarstahl.com/geschichte_burbach.html?&L=1.

Do you think I should change my avatar?



For comparison:

I added a larger pic of my avatar to the original post for comparison.

Here's a few that P.O. was holding for me.Of note imperf small queen and two savings stamps which are very small.

I finally got a Newfoundland C3b mint airmail.  I got this information from the book, Newfoundland Air Mails, 1919-1939 by Dalwick & Harmer.

This stamp was issued for the first airmail flight from Botwood NL, to Halifax NS.  The flight, carrying 5000 pieces of mail was supposed to start on 11/26/1921, but, as with many early winter flights, things did not go well.  First, the the floats of the de Havilland plane were found to be damaged, then a large storm piled up ice between the hangar and the bay.  Finally on 12/10/1921 the flight took off, but after 2 hours the plane was forced down at Deer Lake.  The next day, the pilot was injured in starting the engine, so another pilot was sent to continue the flight.  Unfortunately, the plane then crashed near Grand Falls.  On 1/28/1922 the attempted flight to Halifax was finally abandoned.  The mail then went by rail and then steamer to Halifax and arrived there 2/4/1922. 

The stamp selected for the overprint was the .35¢ 1897 Cabot stamp (Scott #73).  The original issue was 5000 stamps but collector interest convinced the postal folks to overprint another 9000.  The copy I have is with a period after 1921.  Theron.

It is surreal -- and very compelling.  It seems both awesome and fearsome.  A most unusual stamp, and it is my favorite, although it's a little scary at the same time.

But like Jim says, there's no reason not to mix it up every now and then, since it's easy to change avatars on here.

-- Dave

I'm just getting around to looking at this thread, and going through it backwards, but, Bud, what an extraordinary collection you picked up!   That is much higher quality than most collections of that type that I've run into for sale.  (And, for my checkbook's sake, that's probably a good thing!  I would not have been able to resist it.)

Lots of drool-worthy material there!

-- Dave