r/philately

Surprised to receive this on a piece of mail recently

I have a 6’x8’ closet filled with stamps— down from About 120 boxes (pandemic binge of purchasing several estate collections) where I got rid of envelopes, gold foil stamps, packaging, flyers, catalogues, first day covers, etc.

I’ve been thinking about continuing to organize the boxes by country. But with the albums, should I also take pages out of the albums by country and start over with albums? The albums are so hit or miss— trying to sift through these in a meaningful way somehow but concerned I’d be making a bigger problem down the road.

How would you organize this collection? I’ve got 3-4 hours a week for attention.

The spectacular sheet margin example from the legendary Caspary collection; a magnificent mint single displaying the unmistakable colour and impression on handmade laid paper showing prominent laid lines; post office fresh and surrounded by large margins including full sheet margin at foot, possessing FULL ORIGINAL GUM lightly hinged just once. In immaculate fresh condition and completely devoid of the flaws that affect such a large percentage of known examples. The superior physical traits and wonderful appeal of this example were almost certainly deciding factors in it being acquired by famed collector Alfred Caspary, who set the bar high very early on, a true connoisseur who only bought exemplary examples of classic stamps in the finest quality attainable. It was similarly acknowledged by the owner of the "Ambassador" collection and later by Camellia, who both owned and admired this superb mint stamp for many years; we are confident the lucky buyer of the stamp will cherish it for just as long. The twelve pence black is arguably the most coveted and desirable stamp in all of British North American philately, especially so in such superlative quality. A truly exceptional stamp in all respects, XF LH 

Expertization: 1922 RPSL and 1957 Alberto Diena certificates 

Provenance: Alfred H. Caspary Collection, Sale 5 - British North America, H.R. Harmer, Inc., New York, October 1956; Lot 26 - "Extremely fine. A beautiful copy of this classic rarity." The second highest realization of this important 482-lot sale, fetching US$10,000 hammer. Only being surpassed by the famous Newfoundland "Galway" cover, which is once again, concurrently being offered in the Camellia Newfoundland Part I catalogue as Lot 550.

My grandfather worked for Lufthansa and was an avid collector. I’ve just came started going through his collection and I realized I’m way over my head. Any advice would be appreciated. Also please ask me anything as I am certain this collection has a stamp from nearly every country and more than I can imagine.

Sorry the images aren’t too good, I’m not sure what to even highlight. The last image is me trying to organize everything like a map. There is much more than this as well.

This is a beauty

A beautiful mint single of this highly coveted airmail rarity, very well centered for this notoriously difficult stamp and possessing full original gum showing only the barest trace of hinging, customary countersigned "J.A.R." ink initials on reverse (of Dr. J. Alex. Robinson, Postmaster General). A wonderful example of this rarity and ideal for the connoisseur, VF+ VLH 

Expertization: 1999 RPSL certificate 

Provenance: Dr. James Matejka, Newfoundland Aero-Philately, Part One, Harmers of New York, October 1979; Lot 2 - described as "extremely fine" 

A total of 87 mint examples were accounted for, shortly after issue. Eleven were given as gifts and 76 were sold at $25 each for the benefit of Marine Disasters Fund. Fewer survive today, more than 100 years after its issue.

Hello everyone!

I am 14, from India and ive decided to go into the rabbit hole of Philately. Why? Just because it was something of paper (I'm a coder, All India Rank 2 coder), so at first I tried it, but now, I'm genuinely fascinated by these. I'm still a beginner, so I don't have much of a collection. These are my only stamps from outside of India. Even from India, I only have a few. I've been asking around businesses and locals, but, it's difficult.

I'm asking for information about these stamps as I can't find the details about them. And, for me, how to actually start in this hobby? Like is there specialised tools to buy (I've heard that I need some tong or album?) and how to actually get the stamps and postal items. I'm interested in Aviation and motorsports, but, here, in this locality, there is no stamp shop. So... If you have any recommendations for it, it'll be helpful. Should I join like a association or something for it? But in India, they charge a membership fee.

Thank you.

I finally have my first catalogue!

Yes it's an old edition, but that doesn't matter, because none of my stamps are newer than that.

And it's MEIN!

I'm about to spend the next few months with this thing.

I'm so excited.

I’ve been enjoying this set of natural history stamps from Monaco. There’s something charming about how much detail they fit into such a small space, almost like a miniature museum page

The 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine from Fascist Invaders.

Envelope was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on 8/30/83 and returned to earth on 9/5/83

Postmarked on three separate dates.

I dont know if its the right sub reddit but if someone could write what it says on the note it would be really helpful!

Hi stamp collectors. Back in the '70s, I collected stamps. Fell away from it in college and never resumed. Have a large 3-ring binder of stamps as well as 4 more books. Nobody in my family is interested in this. I'd like to give/donate this to someone/organization who would want it. Thoughts? Do teens today collect stamps? Could post to neighborhood lists if anyone has kids/grandkids interested. Would Senior Centers have any use? Any charities that would be interested? Thanks!

u/hemng

Some of my personal favs from my collection

C54 go brrrrrrr!

Hello everyone.

I got some pages from a collection of official and non official Channel islands post office (mostly Herm, Alderney and some Guernsay during german occupation — about 50 pages).

They came as shown here, on old album pages. While I found them very nice, they don’t fit in my albums (I make my own pages on A4 sheets, using AlbumEasy software).

Would you keep those loose pages as they are, as some kind of testimony for the work of a fellow collector, or discard them to include the stamps in your collection ?