Why Philately Should Do Well in The Years Ahead

Gum has had a long relationship with printing on postage stamps. In the pre 1930s days, flat press printing meant that sheets of paper were fed into the press one by one and then the printed sheets were hung up to dry, gummed and weighted at the corners so that as the gum contracted the…

Most collectors put their stamps in stamp albums, and preprinted albums have existed since the very earliest days of our hobby. Scott began producing stamp albums in the United States in the 1860s, copying the first stamp album producers in Europe. The most unusual thing about stamp album producers is how concentrated the business is…

The APS show that was held in Richmond this past weekend was quite a success. The venue was attractive and the attendance was excellent. Dealers reported brisk sales and lots of interest. I always enjoy APS conventions and have only missed a few in the last forty years. When I was young, Apfelbaum was in…

James had been a fireman in New York and had retired to a small community in North Carolina with his wife when he left work with a disability  in his fifties. For the last ten years he had bought and sold stamps, usually buying low-end, defective remainder lots at auction, culling out the better stamps, selling some things at…

The stamp dealers of the older generation had a fair number of odd characters, but none were more odd than Morton Paul Goldfarb. Mort, as everyone called him, went to every auction, every stamp show and no matter where you went, you were sure to see him too. Mort specialized in the stamps of the…

Queen Elizabeth II has been the monarch of Great Britain for over sixty years. Longevity does run in her family, but she is in her early 90s, and at a certain point she will either abdicate in favor of her son (or grandson) or simply pass on. Her reign has been a long and eventful one,…