Mostly stamps. Usually US Coast Guard Postal History. Occasional pontificating.
Probably my favorite aspect of the broader stamp collecting world is postal history. Yes, I know some will argue it isn’t stamp collecting, but who cares. The history part of postal history can be fascinating. When I have a newspaper wrapper from the Civil War, I absolutely have to find out who the addressee is. […]
Read More
When I taught high school, it seemed unlikely that stamps and Somalia would come up in the same sentence, but they did.
Read MoreWhen addressing teachers the principal at my previous school would often say something like, “We became teachers because we loved high school.” Not me. I hated school. I thought it was a waste of time filled with power tripping teachers who were more interested in proving what they knew instead of developing what I knew. […]
Read More
The idea of kids and stamp collecting has been quite a topic on the stamp collecting boards and in the magazine for quite some time. Most collectors want kids involved. Just about everybody has an idea of how to pull it off. But here’s the deal. They’re wrong. Here’s how you merge kids and stamp […]
Read More
Simply called newspaper wrappers, these philatelic items have always held my interest. The unknown periodical’s delivery took place during the Civil War, in Virginia. The address is simply Commandant, 53rd Regiment, Campbell. Inside is the inscription “for Capt. Zachariah Moorman.” Newspaper wrappers In stamp collecting, a newspaper wrapper is just a sheet of paper that […]
Read More
My writing doesn’t usually take a governmental/political slant, but I wanted to discuss the idea of child support, particularly from the federal viewpoint. I’ve been bothered by something and am working on it, having had conversations with some U.S. Congressmen and Women about the issue. Child Support Like most states, Tennessee’s laws concerning how much […]
Read More
Conversations on forums often center around stamp values. They are often couched in terms focusing on catalogs, but I suspect most every collector hopes their stamps are or become worth something. A lesson in stamp values Former brother-in-law. One of the kindest men you’ll ever meet, he passed away a while back. After my ex […]
Read More
A few years ago, I’m doing some research and I ran across a website devoted to stamps from Dead Countries. My interest level shot through the roof and since, dead countries have been a real interest in my general worldwide collecting. What are dead countries? For stamp collecting, in the most basic sense, a dead […]
Read More
Today, August 4, 2020, the U.S. Coast Guard turned 230 years old. In May, 1988, six days after my 19th birthday, I boarded a plane that took me to Philadelphia and then caught a bus to Cape May, New Jersey. There I spent several glorious weeks at Coast Guard Boot Camp. I think everyone who […]
Read More
The USPS recently announced a new set of stamps featuring Bugs Bunny. There will be ten stamps featuring the famous cartoon character. Adding to it a previous stamp featuring Bugs Bunny, and that brings the total of U.S. Bugs Bunny stamps to 11. A person I follow on Twitter, The Punk Philatelist, brought up an […]
Read More