A segregated saddlebag for mail delivery

As reported by the Smithsonian National Postal Museum:

This saddlebag was used by a rural letter carrier at the turn of the last century in Virginia. While the outside of the saddlebag is innocuous enough, flipping open the mailbags on each side reveal a disturbing reality. One of the bags is marked by hand, “White,” the other “Colored.”

The saddlebag was used by a rural carrier operating out of the Palmyra post office in Fluvanna County, Virginia, most probably by Frank W. Shepherd (1868-1931)... Shepherd and Howard began working their routes on October 22, 1896 at an annual salary of $200 each. Each man’s route covered about 15 miles, with a total of 350 patrons on both routes.

Shepherd worked as a rural carrier on the route until his retirement in 1921. According to the “Annual Report of the Postmaster General,” the Palmyra rural routes were difficult to traverse. “The roads are scarce and bad. In covering their routes the carriers have to take their horses through fields and over farms.” Then, as now, rural carriers were responsible for supplying their own transportation and equipment. Shepherd either already owned this saddlebag or purchased it for carrying mail on his route. Why Shepherd segregated the mailbags is unknown. He may have done it because of personal prejudices, or by the demands of white patrons who did not want their mail to be “mixed” with letters addressed to their African American neighbors.

Floor tiles at... (guess where)

The Smithsonian's National Postal Museum (via)

A question for a philatelist

The stamp is Norway's Scott, Facit, and NK #1.  The margins leave something to be desired (i.e. width), but on the positive side the stamp is graced with a well-centered three-ring numeral cancel.

But... is the cancel "66" from Fikke, or "99" from Hamar?

My 2004 Norgeskatalogen accords a "66" cancel on a #1 a rarity factor of "RR"(+1,500 NOK), while the "99" receives a rarity factor of "b" (+100 NOK).

Is there anything about the typography of the numbers that allows a 66 to be distinguished from a 99 when the stamp is off-cover?

I'd appreciate any insight on this matter.

A "regumming factory"

(This post will be of interest only to stamp collectors)

I'd like to share some fascinating excerpts from an article published in the May 1988 issue of The Posthorn (the official journal of the Scandinavian Collectors Club).  The author, Gene Lesney, was visiting Hamburg and arranged to make a visit to a clandestine regumming workroom.

"Lined up on shelves like any kitchen spice rack were dozens of bottles of stamp gum - all labeled by country and year...

To show me the process, a technician wearing a lab coat picked up a rather clean copy of an old U.S. stamp with tongs.  It was a mint 1869 pictorial, 10c yellow Scott 116...

It had been treated first with hydrogen peroxide to refresh the slightly oxidized color before using a mild pure soap and soft bristle brush to cleanse it.

By the stamp's appearance of F-VF centering and full perfs, I would rate it worth approximately $150 to $250 on the auction market without gum.  But easily worth more than twice that amount if with full O.G. NH ! ...

Now the stamp was placed face down on a tiny rectangular plastic pallet... From an organized tray holding an assortment of thin, ruler-like strips of plastic with short perf pegs on both edges, the technician selected four pieces of perf 12 which he gently fitted on each side of the stamp.  The pegs filled in the perf grooves to prevent gum intrusion...

While the stamp was being mounted on a spindle, an apprentice mixed a solution of gum from a bottle marked "USA 1869/gewöhnlich gummi/#0023." This solution went into an air brush... five applications covered the stamp to the precise thickness desired...

It was explained that normally a  dozen or so stamps would be heat cured as a batch for better cost efficiency, however today's demonstration was special.  What was the price for this procedure?  The cost for a job just witnessed would be $6 to $10 depending on the numbers of items in the order...

The promotional mailer outlined various services; including cleaning, patching or replacing damaged papers, repairs to stamps and covers, removal of unwanted markings such as cancellations, replacing gum, and other improvements as requested... Most work cannot be detected using conventional inspection procedures."

Judging from what was seen in Hamburg, this has to be a fulltime production operation.  The supplies, equipment and personnel signify an ongoing profitable business.

This report was published in 1988.  Nowadays this stamp would catalog $750 without gum, $2000 with disturbed (previously hinged) original gum, and some multiple of that for mint never hinged status.

Image (of a comparable stamp) from The Swedish Tiger.

The United States' "Persian rug" stamps

In the nineteenth century, "revenue stamps" were purchased and used to pay taxes on a variety of items and transactions - mortgages, deeds, cigarettes, wine, oleomargarine, life insurance, playing cards, etc.

Concerned about fraudulent cleaning and reuse of such stamps, the Bureau of Internal Revenue in 1871 issued a new set of stamps (the "Second Issue') with elaborately detailed designs and colors and a special paper which incorporated silk fibers.   A most interesting article (pdf) in the American Philatelist offers more details:

The original tax schedule included several open-ended rates, and stamps were created that were, in principle at least, adequate to pay them. For example, a deed for real estate whose value exceeded $20,000 was taxed in multiples of $20 (at $20 for the first $20,000, plus an additional $20 for every additional $10,000 or fractional part thereof ), to be paid by $20 Conveyance stamps. In practice, though, this proved unwieldy. For a property with a $200,000 value, a total of 19 $20 stamps would be required; and for $500,000, 49 stamps.

When the First Issues were replaced by the Second Issues in September and October 1871, the $200 denomination (Scott R132) was retained and a $500 (Scott R133) added, to further facilitate payment of large taxes, on deeds or mortgages for amounts exceeding $500,000, or estates exceeding $1 million. To foil counterfeiters they were printed by a complicated tricolored process, the world’s only engraved tricolored stamps, considered by many as the most beautiful stamps ever printed. The abrupt repeal of the documentary stamp taxes effective October 1, 1872, ensured that these stamps would be as rare as they are beautiful: just 446 $200 stamps were sold, and 210 of the $500.

The article at the link has several awesome photos of multiples of these stamps being used on documents (deed for a silver mine, for example).

Photos for this post are of nonperforated die proof singles for these issues; I found them in The Stamp Collecting Forum.

What constitutes proper subject matter for postage stamps?

A couple weeks ago the Washington Post made note of some turmoil in the stamp collecting community regarding the selection of images to be used on forthcoming commemorative stamps in the United States:

As the U.S. Postal Service prepares to issue a stamp featuring Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer next week, a postal expert whose 12-year term on the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee ended earlier this year pleads with his former colleagues to resist the temptation to choose new stamp images “with the same profit motives as Big Macs, Slurpees, jeans or neighborhood tattoo parlors.”..

This airing of dirty laundry in the small but passionate stamp community... draws another fault line in an ongoing debate over whether the cash-poor Postal Service should pursue commercial stamp subjects to lure new collectors and revenue at the expense of more enduring cultural images...

The friction came to a head last fall, when the stamp panel grew concerned about how the Postal Service’s marketing staff was pushing pop culture that culminated with the release of stamps honoring Harry Potter...

“That said, while continuing to commemorate historic events and individuals, it is critically important that we offer subjects to interest younger generations and topical collectors into stamp collecting, such as Harry Potter, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and, most recently, Batman,” Saunder said.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer debuts at the National Postal Museum on Nov. 6.

I remember the Harry Potter stamp points of argument, which included not only the commercialization of philately, but also the "promotion" and "glorification" of witchcraft.  Then there was the controversy six years ago when a politically-correct stamp design took the cigarette away from Bette Davis.

I find it interesting that the current controversy over U.S. stamp designs follows by several months the apparently not-very-controversial issuance in Finland of postage stamps commemorating the artwork of "Tom of Finland," whose subject matter [see top image] is of a genre that would set off a firestorm of complaint in this country.  The Finnish stamps are available for purchase in the U.S., but of course not valid for postage here.

Last year the postal service in Finland issued a set of four stamps picturing the "prettiest outhouses in Finland."

The world's rarest postage stamp is up for sale

It's the British Guiana 1c magenta:

It is imperforate, printed in black on magenta paper, and it features a sailing ship along with the colony's Latin motto "Damus Petimus Que Vicissim" (We give and expect in return) in the middle. Four thin lines frame the ship. The stamp's country of issue and value in small black upper case lettering in turn surround the frame.

The 1c magenta was part of a series of three definitive stamps issued in 1856 and was intended for use on local newspapers. The other two stamps, a 4c magenta and 4c blue, were intended for letter postage.

The issue came about through mischance. An anticipated delivery of stamps by ship did not arrive so the local postmaster, E.T.E. Dalton, authorised printers Joseph Baum and William Dallas, who were the publishers of the Official Gazette newspaper in Georgetown, to print an emergency issue of three stamps. Dalton gave some specifications about the design, but the printer chose to add a ship image of their own design to stamps. Dalton was not pleased with the end result, and as a safeguard against forgery ordered that all correspondence bearing the stamps be autographed by a post office clerk. This particular stamp was initialled E.D.W. by the clerk E.D. Wight.

It was discovered in 1873 by a 12-year-old Scottish schoolboy, L. Vernon Vaughan, in the Guyanese town of Demerara (whose postmark the stamp bears), amongst his uncle's letters. There was no record of it in his stamp catalogue, so he sold it some weeks later for six shillings to a local collector, N.R. McKinnon. In 1878 McKinnon's collection was sold to a Liverpool stamp dealer, Thomas Ridpath, for £120. Shortly afterwards, the same year, Thomas Ridpath sold the 1c to Philipp von Ferrary for about £150. His massive stamp collection was willed to a Berlin museum. Following Ferrary's death in 1917, the entire collection was taken by France as war reparations following the end of World War I. Arthur Hind bought it during a series of fourteen auctions in 1922 for over US$36,000 (reportedly outbidding three kings, including King George V)...

More at Wikipedia, for those interested.  The Telegraph reports that the sale price at Sotheby's is "expected to reach between $10 million (£5.9 million) and $20 million."

Update:  It sold for $9.5 million.

One of the world's most valuable stamps

The world's first adhesive postage stamp was the "Penny Black," issued in Great Britain in 1840.  After it had been in use for a while, officials noted that cancellations with black ink were difficult to discern on the stamps (thus risking their being reused by the public).  Some cancellations were done with red ink, but the simpler expedient was to change the design of the postage stamp to red, and cancel them with black markings.

The "Penny Red" served as postage for a first-class letter in Great Britain for about 40 years (which says something about inflation and economics of the era).  These stamps were therefore printed literally by the billions.  Most therefore are today of only minimal monetary value.  Except for the one shown above.

When you print something by the billions and billiions, the metal plates used to print them wear out, develop cracks and broken highlights, or generally become dull.  New plates are then created.  In nineteenth-century Britain, the printing plates were sequentially numbered, and many stamps of the period carry "plate numbers" placed modestly somewhere in the design.  I have highlighted with yellow ovals in the embedded image the position of plate numbers within the lacework on the lateral borders of the Penny Red.

Plate #77 was found to be defective and not formally used.  The unused copy shown above is one of only nine copies known to exist; it resides in the archives of the British Library and carries a catalogue value of approximately $175,000 USD.

If you have some Penny Reds sitting in an old album in a closet, you can look up the value of the plate number in a variety of philatelic catalogues.   Sound used copies are valued in the range of about $3-20 USD, with mint copies approximately a log power higher.

Ayn Rand on stamp collecting

From her essay "Why I Like Stamp Collecting" (Minkus Stamp Journal, 1971):

The pleasure lies in a certain special way of using one’s mind. Stamp collecting is a hobby for busy, purposeful, ambitious people – because, in patterns, it has the essential elements of a career, but transposed to a clearly delimited, intensely private world…. A career requires the ability to sustain a purpose over a long period of time, through many separate steps, choices, decisions, adding up to a steady progression to a goal…. Purposeful people cannot rest by doing nothing…. They seldom find pleasure in single occasions, such as a party or a show or even a vacation, a pleasure that ends right then and there, with no further consequences.

The minds of such people require continuity, integration, a sense of moving forward. They are accustomed to working long-range…. Yet they need relaxation and rest from their constant, single-tracked drive. What they need is another track, but for the same train – that is, a change of subject, but using part of the same method of mental functioning. Stamp collecting fulfills that need….

In stamp collecting, one experiences the rare pleasure of independent action without irrelevant burdens or impositions. Nobody can interfere with one's collection, nobody need to be considered or questioned or worried about. The choices, the work, the responsibility - and the enjoyment - are one's own. So is the great sense of freedom and privacy.

 People cannot interfere, but they can be very helpful and generous. There is a sense of "brotherhood" among stamp collectors, of a kind that is very unusual today: the brotherhood of holding the same values...

The pursuit of the unique, the unusual, the different, the rare is the motive power of stamp collecting. It endows the hobby with the suspense and excitement of a treasure hunt - even on the more modest level of collecting, where the treasure may be simply an unexpected gift from a friend, which fills the one blank spot, completing a set...

In all those years (when not active in stamp collecting) I had never found a remedy for mental fatigue. Now, if I feel tired after a whole day of writing, I spend an hour with my stamps albums and it makes me able to resume my writing for the rest of the evening. A stamp album is a miraculous brain-restorer.

From Trish Kaufmann's CSA Dealer.

How to mail letters and packages cheaply using discount postage

It's been 20 or 30 years since I've paid full price to mail a letter (or a package).  The current rate for a one-ounce first-class letter is $0.46, but I've been mailing mine for years for about $0.35.   The photo above shows the corner of a heavy manila envelope I mailed last week.  Affixed to it is $2.32 in stamps - which cost me about $1.75.  This post will explain how you can do the same.

I'm writing this now because on January 26, the postal rate for one-ounce letters in the U.S. will rise from 46c to 49c, and cyberspace seems to be full of friendly financial advice on why everyone should purchase "forever stamps" now to save 3c per letter.   Fiddle-faddle.  That's child's play, written by people who are unaware that postage stamps can be purchased at a substantial discount.

Before I get to "discount postage," we need to review two ways NOT to try to save money on postage, so that you don't end up in a Federal court or prison.

Intentionally short-paid postage is illegal.
In the first hundred years of the postal services, the appropriateness of postage applied to a letter or package was checked by a postal employee, either at a service desk, or in a sorting facility, or by a carrier.  This changed in the 1960s when technology was developed for applying to stamps a "tag" which automated equipment could read.  Those interested in the details can learn more about the process in a Linn's refresher course.

This was done to facilitate automated sorting of mail, but it also opened the door for a postal scam.  Early sorting equipment could not distinguish between a 6c stamp and a higher denomination stamp if both of them were tagged, so when postal rates rose, some unscrupulous people began sending out mass mailings franked with the 6c tagged stamps, advising recipients that they didn't have to pay 10c or 13c or whatever to mail a letter, and they could send $$ to find out the "secret."  As the U.S. Postal Inspection Service notes, this is a federal crime.

You should never intentionally underfrank a mailing.  Nobody will arrest you if you inadvertently use a 46c at the end of this January, but to do so on a consistent basis is a form of postal fraud.

Reusing previously-used stamps is illegal.
Ever since the first Penny Black stamp was issued in Great Britain, postal authorities have wrestled with the problem of how to prevent the public from reusing stamps.  The conventional approach has been to apply a cancellation, but sometimes the ink on a cancel can be removed from the stamp.

Large-scale scams involving reused stamps were developed some decades ago, reportedly by persons incarcerated in prisons.  They would advertise in newspapers and magazines asking the public to send them used postage stamps for their collections, then wash the cancels off the stamps, regum them, and resell them again.   An article at the Christian Science Monitor offers some background.

Certain types of stamps issued by the Postal Service can be washed clean of their cancellation marks with common chemical products. The stamps are then able to be reused.

``There have been entire business enterprises built around this [laundering] operation,'' says Joe Brockert, program manager for the stamps division of the USPS. ``In one prosecution, three tractor-trailer loads of stamped envelopes, yet to be chemically altered and stamps removed, were confiscated by postal inspectors.''

Most people would not consider soaking a stamp off a letter for reuse, but if that stamp is a $19.95 Grand Central Terminal stamp for use on Express Mail, the temptation becomes greater.  Let's be clear about this: removing a cancel from a stamp and reusing that stamp on another letter or package is a federal crime.

But - there are grey areas.  The first involves water-damaged stamps, typically those resulting from floods in urban areas.  In such circumstances entire sheets of stamps may become stuck together; they can be soaked apart, but then will have inadequate gum.  Since those stamps have never been used for postage, to my understanding it is permissible to reapply gum and use them.

Which brings us to "skips."  Everyone who receives mail knows that sometimes envelopes come through the postal service equipment uncancelled (or the cancel misses the stamp).  Many people harvest such "skips" by cutting the corner off the envelope, soaking the stamp free, and applying gum with a gum stick.  This is illegal - although frankly it is unlikely that one would be caught. You can even find such stamps offered in bulk lots on eBay as "no gum postage."  While it is possible that some "no gum" stamps being offered resulted from a broken water pipe in the seller's basement, I wouldn't count on it.  You shouldn't buy such material. 

Why discount postage exists
The compelling reason why you shouldn't soak stamps off for reuse or buy dodgy items from a shady person is that the alternative - discount postage - is readily available and relatively inexpensive.

Discount postage exists primarily because of stamp collectors.  When I was growing up in the 1960s, the popularity of the hobby was rising; advertisements for collectible stamps were in every issue of Boy's Life and in comic books.  Increased participation in the hobby generated drove prices higher, so many collectors began to put away sheets and blocks of mint stamps as "investments."

However, as the decades went by, the interests of young people shifted toward pastimes that required electrical outlets.  The demographic profile of the average collector got older, so that now many of the stamps saved as investments are coming back on to the market, and are for sale at prices below their "face" value.

There are other reasons for the availability of discount postage, such as scrap left over by current-day collectors of plate blocks and plate number coils, or mistakenly large purchases for business use (and see the addendum at the bottom of this post), but to make a long story short, postage stamps can easily be purchased today at discounted prices.  This is perfectly legal.   The stamps were originally purchased from the postal authorities as advanced payment for future service; a stamp issued in 1953 is just as valid for postage now as it was then.  (In some countries, out-of-date stamps have been "demonitized," and rendered worthless for postage; this has not happened in the U.S. except briefly during the Civil War.)

Where to purchase discount postage stamps
I'll offer three suggestions for sources of discount postage: members of local stamp clubs, eBay, and stamp stores/online retailers.

Local stamp clubs: Most medium- and large-sized cities in the U.S. have clubs of stamp collectors who have meetings where they buy/sell/trade material and hear lectures or presentations.  These meetings are open to the public (most would eagerly welcome visitors), and I would bet that every club has one or more members who are selling postage stamps at a discount.

To locate a stamp club in your area, you can check your local newspaper, inquire at city hall, or ask for help from a community reference librarian.  But the best way is to go to the relevant webpage of the American Philatelic Society and enter your location in the search field.  At this link you can also search for clubs of stamp collectors in countries other than the U.S.

eBay: You can use the general search function (use "face" or "discount" as a search term), or go directly to the category Stamps> United States> Postage, where most of it is listed.  Prices will vary according to the type of material.  Low-denomination stamps (3c, 5c etc) are ridiculously cheap, but it's hard to fit enough of them on envelopes, and they have to be combined with higher denomination stamps (8c or greater) so that a fluorescent "tag" will be recognized by sorting equipment.  As you get closer to the current first-class rate, the percentage of face will rise.  Larger purchases will mean lower % of face.

Here are some examples from the "sold" listings:

 $42 face for $29 + $2 ship = 74%. 

This one was offered at an opening bid of 65%, and sold at 69%; it's larger in size than the one above and has lower-denomination stamps.

Be careful when you encounter the term "unused," which may refer to the ungummed stamps I mentioned earlier (same re "uncancelled" stamps, or anything "on paper.")  I would not recommend you purchase material advertised as "no gum."

And if you don't relish the thought of licking 6 stamps on each envelope, consider purchasing already-stamped envelopes at a discount.  Many people don't realize that U.S. post offices sell stamped envelopes ("postal stationery") in different sizes, with and without windows.  At the post office they sell at face, but like stamps, old ones with out-of-date denominations can be purchsed at a discount.  These sold on eBay for 66% of face value -

- and these for only 60% -

- but note the second lot is much larger, and it includes a lot of "window" envelopes, which may not be easily used for noncommercial mailings.

I recently got some at about half of face value:

The addition of a 20c stamp (also acquired at a discount) rendered them ready to mail:

Merchants: The third option for purchasing discount postage, considered by many to be more reliable than eBay, is to deal with a merchant - a stamp dealer - either at a local store, or online.   As the hobby demographics have changed, the number of brick-and-mortar stamp stores have declined precipitously.  When I was growing up, stamp stores were in local neighborhoods, and department stores like Dayton's and Donaldson's had departments selling stamps; nowadays, even medium-sized cities may show no stamp stores in the Yellow Pages. 


Most successful stamp dealers have an online presence; a simple Google search for "discount postage" will offer a wealth of choices.  The screencap at right comes from such a vendor (but his minimum purchase is $1,000 of face value stamps, and thus a $800 - $880 purchase).

You can find better deals than that with a little searching, but you'll want to be sure to exercise the cautions I mentioned above - to avoid previously used stamps, stamps "on paper," "unused" stamps (skips), and regummed stamps.

I'll take the liberty of recommending one dealer.  Jay Smith and Associates is a specialist in Scandinavian stamps whom I have dealt with intermittently for perhaps ten years.  They recently began offering discount postage in prepackaged groupings:

Postage Rate Units are groupings of stamps needed to meet a particular postage rate (for example, starting 26 January 2014, the U.S. postage rate is 49 cents for the first ounce for a normal letter). A "postage rate unit" to meet the 49 cent amount will consist of up to (NOT more than) 3 stamps that total 49 cents: For example 25 + 20 + 4 = 49. Such units may be made up of various denominations, but will not require more than three stamps. The stamps will be neatly sorted and packaged (typically in groups of 25, usually mostly the same stamps) for easy use and will be clearly labeled so you know how they are intended to be combined and used.

The percentage of face (70-80%) will vary inversely with the size of your order.

Some final thoughts.
If you decide to use discount postage, be kind to your postman or postal clerk.  They don't enjoy adding up a half-dozen numbers to check postage.  As shown in the top photo for this post, I leave a notation next to the stamps of the total value (and in this case the weight). 

Be sure to use one or more stamps with a denomination of 8c or higher to trigger the automated equipment.  Finally, the non-denominated "temporary" stamps labeled "A," "B," etc, issued at the time of postal rate changes, are not to be used for foreign mailings because they are undenominated).

TLDR:
In the United States (and presumably in many other countries), mint postage stamps can be purchased at prices substantially below their "face" value and can save you about 25% of your mailing cost.

Addendum:  I've been reminded by a well-informed reader that there are a couple of additional factors that can come into play, especially when large quantities of recently-issued high-denomination stamps are involved:

There are a very limited number of reasons that such very recent stamps would be available in large quantities -- and for most of those reasons, you might not want to be involved:

• 1) Stamps stolen from post offices. 
• 2) Stamps stolen from companies, by employees from employers. 
• 3) Stamps purchased properly from a post office, usually by the owner of a small company, using the company's funds and writing it off on income taxes as a "business expense" and then the owner (or employee) takes the stamps home and sells them privately -- this is either theft from a company and/or its stockholders and/or a theft from the IRS and the taxpaying public. 

So, if you see large quantities of very recent stamps being sold on a venue like eBay and/or if the seller is not a regular seller of other types of stamps for collectors, I would be very wary. Sure, you probably won't be "caught" if you buy stamps "taken from the back of a truck", but you could become part of something you don't want to be involved in.

A neolithic skier - updated

Many years ago I visited the famous Holmenkollen ski jump in Norway.  Recently, while reading about the Nordic ski championships held there in 1966, I saw the embedded photo of a set of stamps issued in Norway to commemorate the event.

My eye was caught by the stamp at the upper left.  The 55 and the 60 show modern jumpers and X-country skiers, and the 90 shows a stylized Holmenkollen.  The 40 looked to me like a cave drawing (or other geoglyph).

So I started to research the antiquity of skiing.  Medium aevum (via Uncertain Times) had this to say -

The primitive ski dated back to 1010, and is thought to be Greenland’s oldest ski brought by Norsemen circa 980 A.D...

The oldest account involves the famous story from 1206 A.D. of the Birkebeiners during a civil war in medieval Norway. Considered the underdog, the Birkebeiners were at war against a rival faction known as the baglers. Following the death of the Birkebeiner chief, the baglers feared a rival in his young son Håkon Håkonsson. To protect him, two of the most skillful Birkebeiner skiers, with toddler in tow, skied through treacherous conditions over the mountains from around Lillehammer to safety in Østerdalen valley.

- accompanied by this way cool painting:

- entitled Birkebeinerne takes Haakon Haakonson as a child to Trondheim by Knud Bergslien, apparently from the Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum (northern Norway art museum).

But more relevant to the image on the Norwegian stamp I found the following:

The oldest and most accurately documented evidence of skiing origins is found in modern day Norway and Sweden. The earliest primitive carvings circa 5000 B.C. depict a skier with one pole, located in Rødøy in the Nordland region of Norway.

That's what's on the stamp, according to a Facit catalogue.  Now to try to wrap my mind around the idea of someone skiing in 5000 BC (predynastic Egypt, maize introduced to Mexico, wheel invented in Mesopotamia, beer brewing invented...), and then noting the accomplishment by carving it on a stone.

You learn something every day.

Addendum:
I posted the above back in January of 2012.  This week I encountered an interesting article and video at National Geographic on the origins of skiing:

The hunting party slowly glides into the Altay Mountains in search of elk. It is dead calm, minus 38°F. Just as their ancestors have for millennia, the five men traverse deep, feathery snow buoyed on handmade skis hewed from spruce, with strips of horsehide attached to the bottoms. In lieu of poles each man carries a single wooden staff. Since boyhood, they have learned to master their deceptively crude equipment with exquisite efficiency and grace—the grain of the horsehair providing traction to move uphill and a slick surface for rapid descents, the staff aiding balance...

The hunters come from seminomadic Tuvan-speaking clans who inhabited pockets of the Altay. Technically, they are Chinese citizens, but their log cabins stand within 20 miles of the converging borders of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia, and the roots of their language lie to the north in Siberia, where the majority of Tuvans now live. Anthropologists say their lineage includes Turkic and Samoyed tribes who at various periods over the past several thousand years moved through these mountains...

Serik describes a hunt when Tursen skied down on a bounding deer, leaped on its back, grabbed its antlers, and wrestled it down into the snow, the animal kicking and biting. It is a scene that has been repeated for thousands of years in these mountains. Within the Altay, a handful of petroglyphs have been discovered depicting archaic skiing scenes, including one of a human figure on skis chasing an ibex. Since petroglyphs are notoriously hard to date, it remains a controversial clue in the debate over where skiing was born. Chinese archaeologists contend it was carved 5,000 years ago. Others say it is probably only 3,000 years old. The oldest written record that alludes to skiing, a Chinese text, also points to the Altay but dates to the Western Han dynasty, which began in 206 B.C.

Norwegian archaeologists also have found ski petroglyphs, and in Russia, what appears to be a ski tip, carbon-dated to 8,000 years ago, was excavated from a peat bog. Each nation stakes its own claim to the first skiers. What is widely accepted, however, is that whoever first strapped on a pair of skis likely did so to hunt animals.

I'm fascinated by the fact that the grain of horsehair allows traction for skiing uphill, and by the observation above that "the earliest primitive carvings circa 5000 B.C. depict a skier with one pole" - as does this video (via The Dish):

YouTube link.

Special outhouses

The Posthorn, a publication of the Scandinavian [stamp] Collector's Club, reports in the most recent (February) issue that Finland is releasing a booklet of four stamps whose designs were chosen from 500 entries in a photo contest for "the prettiest outhouses" in Finland.  More details (and purchase information for the booklets) at Posti - the website for the Finnish postal administration.

The contest was conducted to promote ingenuity and innovation in outhouse design; the 10,000 Euro prize was awarded to an entry that adapted the many knotholes in spruce as light sources and ventilation sources while preserving necessary privacy.

While briefly researching this topic last night, I discovered that the historic Hopper-Bowler-Hillstrom house in Belle Plaine, Minnesota which features a five-hole, two-story outhouse connected to the main house via a skyway; the outhouse was added in 1886 as an upgrade to the original 1871 home.  The house is now open to the public; visitors may see the outhouse (but may not use it).  The image embedded at right is cropped from the original.

I was going to end with that - until I found the photo of the twelve-family, three-story outhouse (the Missouri History Museum does not allow the image to be embedded.)

Radio reception stamps

In the 1920s, when radio was as new and exciting as computers are now, amateur radio enthusiasts recorded their successes by obtaining "verified reception" stamps.

Other companies produced verified reception stamps, but it was the Ekko Company of Chicago, Ill., that started and promoted collecting these stamps as a real part of radio history. Ekko came up with the gimmick of selling broadcast radio stations on the idea of giving verified reception stamps to their listeners. This promotion would enable the station to determine the size and location of its listening audience.

The process was very simple. For only $1.75, the Ekko Company offered an album to the collector of new stamps. The album contains pages preprinted with an outline of each of the stamps currently available, a listing of broadcast station call letters and wavelengths, and a nice map on the inside cover showing the locations of these stations...

"Proof of Reception" cards were furnished with the album. Listeners needed only to send a few facts on these cards about when and where on the dial they had heard a broadcast, plus ten cents to cover mailing costs, to the station. There the card was checked against the station log for accuracy, and the listener was mailed a stamp with the station's call letters and design upon it...

Over 700 stations, ranging from KDKA, broadcast radio's pioneer station, to little KFXF in Colorado Springs, Colorado, participated in this promotion. Radio stamp collecting was a popular hobby from its conception in 1924 until the listening public lost interest in the 1930s. There were stamps for stations from nearly every state, as well as Canada, Cuba, and Mexico. Stamps came in varying basic colors including purple, orange, blue, green, and yellow with the call letters overprinted in red or one of the basic colors that contrasted well.

Printed by the American Bank Note Company, the United States Ekkos were a very high quality stamp. They normally pictured a bald eagle, flanked on either side by a radio tower and the letters "E K K O" on the corners. Canadian stamps used a beaver instead of the eagle. Cuba and Mexico used the United States design, but they were easily distinguishable because their call letters started with a "C"or "X."

There's more information at Antique Radio Classified and in this eBay guide.  As shown in the embed above, the quality of the stamps was excellent.  The American Bank Note Company was a premier quality engraver of stamps and currency for countries around the world.

These stamps fall outside the traditional realm of philately since they were used for commercial rather than postal purposes; they are included in what are called "cinderellas" along with Christmas and Easter seals, but are still highly collectible.  Quite a few of them are currently for sale on eBay, sometimes for impressive prices.

Freedom. Liberty. Equality. Justice. (Forever?)

Law (or convention?) in the United States mandates that when images of postage stamps are printed, a line is drawn through the denomination (I believe it's also required that the images be produced at a size larger or smaller than the actual stamp).  These alterations were originally created to prevent people from cutting out stamp images and using them for postage.  They would seem to be hopelessly outdated now that stamps are phosphor coated, and the modifications to the images are virtually useless in the face of modern image-editing software.  Still, it continues to be done, as in this image from the Virtual Stamp Club. 

For this new (September) issue of the "Four Flags" stamps, the result is a bit bizarre.  "Forever stamps" are a form on non-denominated postage first introduced in 2006.

These stamps are always sold at the current first-class postage rate. They are always valid for the full first-class postage regardless of any rate increases since the stamps' purchase (unused "forever" stamps purchased in April 2007 therefore are valid for the full 45 cent first-class postage rate, despite having been purchased for 41 cents).

In the image of these stamps (though not on the stamps themselves), the obliteration of the "denomination" becomes an obliteration of the word "forever" which in juxtaposition with the words "freedom, liberty, equality, justice" delivers a rather odd (if unintentional) message on this election day.

Secret messages conveyed by postage stamps

 

Most philatelists are familiar with the antiquated technique of positioning postage stamps in certain ways to silently express sentiments.  Recently Poemas del rio Wang posted a comprehensive and extensively-illustrated explanation of the phenomenon - the best I've encountered anywhere on the internet.

On philatelic and auction sites you sometimes find postcards which illustrate with small pictures, similar to naval flag signals, what it means if the stamp was stuck in this or that position on the card. The custom is probably as old as the greeting card itself, which started its world conquering tour from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1869. I’ve found the oldest mention of it in the 13 July 1890 edition of the Hungarian provincial weekly Szarvas és vidéke, which indicates that it had to flourish long before that date...

In the simplest version, the various positions of the stamp indicated, as the pointer of an erotometer, the temperature of love... Other cards, on the contrary, informed the unwanted suitors about the reasons for rejection through the position of the stamp... The majority, however, conveyed more subtle messages, from hesitation through desire to rejection, and even specific instructions such as “tomorrow at the usual place!”..

Sometimes the language became more articulated, and expressed the shades of emotions not by turning one stamp, but through the relations of two stamps, such as in the following...

Much more at the excellent source.

Federal duck stamp entries

Two selections from a gallery of about 200 entries, posted at Outdoors Weekly:

The $15 Federal Duck Stamp is a vital tool for wetland conservation, with 98 cents of every dollar generated going to purchase or lease wetland habitat for the National Wildlife Refuge System. Since the stamp’s inception, sales have helped to acquire nearly six million acres of wildlife habitat at hundreds of refuges in nearly every state. 

The Federal Duck Stamp art contest is the only art competition of its kind sponsored by the federal government. Since the first open contest was held in 1949, thousands of wildlife artists from throughout the nation have submitted art to the annual contest. While the winner receives no money from the federal government, the winning artist may benefit from the increased visibility and sale of prints and artwork.

Duck stamp contests always remind me of the scene in the movie Fargo* with Marge and Norm.  In real life, old duck stamps are quite valuable.  A 1934-2006 set of mint stamps is presently listed on eBay with a buy-it-now price of $5,495.

*(in the movie, Norm's primary competitor for the duck stamp contest are identified as "the Hautman's," who were real-life wildlife artists and friends of the Coens.  One confusing thing, though, is that in the movie Marge consoles Norm because his entry was selected for a "low-denomination" stamp, which could not be a federal waterfowl stamp.)

Finally, a postage stamp commemorating something important

Issued by The Åland Islands on June 7, "the design features a small stack of four ridged chips, highlighted and set against a dramatic gradated blue background. "

Text from The Posthorn ("Official publication of the Scandinavian Collectors Club").  Photo via World Online Philatelic Agency.

Cultural revolution postage stamps

If you have any of these in your stamp collection, move them to your safe deposit box.  The Wall Street Journal explains why.

At a standing-room-only auction last weekend, Interasia Auctions sold more than 3,000 lots for a value of 98 million Hong Kong dollars (US$12.6 million). And at another sale earlier in the week held by Zurich Asia, a leading stamp auction house, two Cultural Revolution-era stamps sold for more then HK$600,000...

The Interasia auction was led by a block of four stamps [above] known as “Mao’s Inscription to Japanese Worker Friends” from 1968, the largest existing multiple of this rare Cultural Revolution stamp. It fetched HK$8.9 million, a record for a Chinese stamp at auction.

The “Great Victory of Cultural Revolution,” an unissued stamp depicting Mao Zedong and Lin Biao, a Chinese military leader, sold for HK$632,500. It was reported to have been printed at a time when Mao was trying to elicit Lin’s support during the Cultural Revolution.

“The Whole Country is Red,” which sold for HK$690,000, shows a map of China that includes Taiwan. According to Mr. Mangin, the Zurich Asia director, the stamp was issued at post offices for just a few days before unleashing an uproar when Communist officials caught the error. The stamps were quickly withdrawn from the market but a few were lost to the public.

More at the link.

New Monarch butterfly stamp for "nonmachinable" letters

This is a 64-cent stamp, intended for use on irregularly-shaped envelopes.  The 20-cent surcharge is the penalty you pay for not using a standard size/shape envelope.  The USPS explains the factors that define a "nonmachinable" letter:

* It is a square letter (the minimum size for a square envelope is 5 x 5 inches.)
* It is too rigid - does not bend easily
* It has clasps, string, buttons, or similar closure devices
* It has an address parallel to the shorter dimension of the letter
* It contains items such as pens that cause the surface to be uneven
* The length divided by height is less than 1.3 or more than 2.5

This is being done in conjunction with manufacturers of such irregularly-shaped envelopes:

The U.S. Postal Service today announced the first in a new series of postage stamps that will make it easier for card customers to know how much postage to put on their envelopes.  Participating manufacturers will print a silhouette image of a butterfly on their envelopes, which will start to appear in retail stores in mid-summer, making it easy for customers to understand the new butterfly stamp or equivalent postage is all that is needed to mail the card.

Please note that this is for your benefit.

Politically correct postage stamp

Commentary from Rogert Ebert, film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times:

This stamp honoring Bette Davis was issued by the U. S. Postal Service on Sept. 18. The portrait by Michael Deas was inspired by a still photo from "All About Eve." Notice anything missing? Before you even read this far, you were thinking, Where's her cigarette? ... isn't this is carrying the anti-smoking campaign one step over the line?

Depriving Bette Davis of her cigarette reminds me of Soviet revisionism, when disgraced party officials disappeared from official photographs. Might as well strip away the toupees of Fred Astaire and Jimmy Stewart...
... Look, I hate smoking. It took my parents from me, my father with lung cancer, my mother with emphysema... When my mother was breathing oxygen through a tube, she'd take out the tube, turn off the oxygen, and light up. I avoid smokers. It isn't allowed in our house. When I see someone smoking, it feels like I'm watching them bleed themselves, one drip at a time.
So we've got that established. On the other hand, I have never objected to smoking in the movies, especially when it is necessary to establish a period or a personality. I simply ask the movies to observe that, these days, you rarely see someone smoking except standing outside a building, on a battleground, in a cops' hangout, in a crack house, in rehab, places like that. In an ordinary context, giving a character a cigarette is saying either (1) this is a moron, or (2) this person will die...

Two of the most wonderful props in film noir were cigarettes and hats. They added interest to a close up or a two-shot... These days men don't smoke and don't wear hats. When they lower their heads, their eyes aren't shaded. Cinematographers have lost invaluable compositional tools. The coil of smoke rising around the face of a beautiful women added allure and mystery. Remember Marlene Dietrich. She was smoking when she said, "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily."

...Movies can't rewrite reality. The MPAA cautiously mentions smoking in their descriptions of movie ratings (even if it's the Cheshire Cat and his hookah). If, by the time you're old enough to sit through a movie, you haven't heard that smoking is bad for you, you don't need a movie rating, you need a foster home.