Hi Readers.

What follows is my new project, a series of lively (I hope) commentaries on my stamp collection and stamp-collecting in general under the title, “The FMF Stamp Project.”

Hey! Was that a yawn?! If so, feel free to stop reading. Or put it aside for later. I won’t be insulted.  We stamp collectors have few illusions about public interest in our little pieces of paper; indeed, we worry that what interest there is may be waning. However, my bet is that if you start reading my blog posts, you will be beguiled by the stories, anecdotes, vivid  glimpses of history and culture and above all, the sheer beauty of the stamps.

That is my fond conceit, at least. Stamp collectors tend to be besotted with their collections. I have been a philatelist for more than 50 years, learning the hobby from my Pa and older brother Jonathan. Over the decades I have traded, bought stamps at post offices here and abroad. As an adult, I have acquired stamps from dealers, auctions, stamp shows and online. The Internet has provided a big boost to my collection, with reliable online locations to bid, buy, even sell. As I write this, several envelopes sit on my desk from online sellers, containing old stamps from places like Seychelles, Grenada and the Orange Free State/Orange River Colony. Some fun!

… Now there are three more envelopes waiting for me, as you can see in the photo at right. I’m usually in no hurry to open these envelopes. I like to leave them sort of lying around, looking pretty with their bright, unusual stamps
(often from foreign lands), and because they are a little bit pregnant — there is a pleasing heft and lift to the envelopes, a promise of what lies within. Altogether a fairly low-key pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless. In the  the second photo, one envelope is open and the stamps have been removed for a first look (using stamp tongs, of course).  It’s always at least a small thrill. Soon enough, the stamps will be safely mounted in their places on the pages of thick stamp albums, and they will take their places in sets from countries around the world — most of which no longer exist. For now, the stamps are out, on the table, colorful artifacts sometimes well over 100 years old. The stamps have survived all these years. Some are a little faded, others have retained their intense colors, appearing fresh in their third century. This is a time to lift the stamps (in tongs of course), turn them over, examine their backs, look for thins or creases, double-check watermarks. (What are watermarks? Be patient, we’ll get to that.)

The next step is to get the stamps into a stock card (with glassine or parchment strips to hold the stamps), and set them on the desk for several days of examination and appreciation. (Of course, while you are doing all this, you are also living your life. Please don’t think stamp-collecting is an all-consuming habit. After all, FDR was an active stamp collector all his adult life, and he still had time for other things …)

Notice how the folks selling their philatelic wares manage to be creative in the stamps they stick on the envelope for mailing. This is because they probably have a sizable  backlog of American stamps (or from other countries if they live abroad) that they bought at the post office. The more recent issues have not appreciated in value, for the most part. Indeed, you probably can’t even get face value (the amount paid for the stamp) if you try and sell it  It makes practical sense to use these stamps for postage, since they continue to have their stated value for mailing purposes. So the senders combine stamps that add up to the going rate — 49 cents in the USA in 2015 (later reduced to 47 cents, a change made even more confusing by the “forever” non-numerical value)   — and load up the envelope with the old beauties. Seeing such colorful mail makes the whole thing more fun. I wonder if the letter carrier even gets a tiny kick out of delivering these substantive letter-packets decorated with such philatelic richness.

As a matter of fact, I believe many stamp collectors do the same thing — like me. I usually have a backlog of stamps in unusual or outdated denominations. Most of these stamps date to before the advent of no-lick stamps (ah, stamp gum: there’s a topic unto itself),  “forever” stamps (a long and tangled tale) and other tectonic shifts in the philatelic  world. These stamps are basically worth what I paid for them — as postage. So why not use them. Here, for example, is a letter I am preparing to send to my daughter. Don’t you think the letter carrier will look twice? Will the postal agent have to do a little math problem, making sure that numbers on the stamps add up to 49 cents? (Let’s see … two 5s … seven 4s, that’s 10 plus 28 equals 38; then a 1 cent makes 39, plus a 10-cent at the bottom — yep!) Sometimes I affix stamps that I want to have returned, cancelled, so I can add them to my collection. In which case, I scrawl a small note: “pls save” with an arrow pointing to the particular stamp. I imagine this provokes a certain amount of amusement with a measure of annoyance in loved ones, who may or may not feel obligated to cut or tear the stamp off the envelope (taking care not to rip or crease the stamp itself) and store it someplace until Fred comes to pick it up — or to take the extra step of including it in a letter sent back to Fred; or even writing a letter for that purpose alone! (Too much to ask.)

Another way stamp collectors can get under the skin of their loved ones is by asking them to use stamps instead of meter strips on packages, especially the heavy ones around the holidays.  This may sound like an odd request, but when you read on and learn the reason, you’ll see.  While the U.S. Postal Service no longer issues stamps with denominations for first-class mail (i.e., now you just use  “forever” stamps), if you ask at your post office, you will find there are still many different tamps for sale, from 1 cent to $10 and beyond. You just have to ask. The highest-value stamps are for heavier mail, priority mail, express mail and the like. The denominations have progressed upward in recent years — $13.65, $14, $16.50, $18.30 … In 2013, the USPS issued a stamp selling for $19.95 that depicted a bustling Grand Central Station in New York City; in 2014 came a $19.99 stamp picturing the USS Arizona Memorial. What? You’ve never seen these stamps before? Here is a picture of some of them. They all have been available at one time or another for purchase at most post offices — for face value (i.e., the prince on the stamp). Some of the older stamps that have gone out of circulation, that is, no longer are sold by the post office, have increased in value to collectors. If high-value stamps are a good investment, you’d think some residual value would attach to cancelled examples. And you’d be right. The first Express Mail stamp, issued in 1983 with a price tag of $9.35, sells today for about $40 in mint (uncancelled) condition. But cancelled copies are valuable, too, priced at about $35. The $11.75 Express Mail stamp from the space shuttle series in 1998 sells today for about $30 mint, $19.95 cancelled, or “used.”  These are reasons I make a point of collecting used as well as unused copies of these high-value stamps — and ask friends and family to use them so I can collect them right off the packages. To me, the mint and used copies are both worth collecting.  And who knows? Some day, these rarely used stamps may be more valuable cancelled than mint!

Luckily, I had one loyal co-conspirator in this strategy over the years — my mother. Each Christmas, and probably around some birthdays, packages would arrive from Moscow, Idaho, my parents’ home town, adorned with philatelic gems — high-value definitives, priority and express mail stamps. On at least one occasion, I have accompanied my mother on a trip to the  post office in downtown Moscow. It seemed to me the postal clerks saw her coming and either eyed the exit, rolled their eyes, smiled sympathetically, groaned inwardly, or issued a good-natured sigh. Probably some combination of all of these. It wasn’t always convenient for them to go hunting for high-value stamps. There might be a few other customers waiting in line, also sighing, rolling their eyes, etc. Tolerance for philatelic game-playing is not wide or deep. But Mother generally persevered, always with a kind word and good will. More often than not she prevailed, and the resulting packages had enduring value — not just for the contents, but  because of the collectible stamps pasted on them. For example, Mother sent me the $13.65 Express Mail stamp from the monuments series in 2002-3 that you see here. The cancelled copy is catalog-priced at around $9. And to think the stamp already did its duty, carrying Mother’s precious package to me …  Now that my old mother is no longer around to run this little philatelic gambit, I have not yet figured out how to get used copies of those $19.95 and $19.99 stamps into my collection through legitimate use of the postal system. I shall keep trying, mercilessly cajoling other loved ones into playing stamps with me …

Back to my latest online purchases.  After cutting out and saving stamps that came on the  envelopes, I take time to examine and admire the stamps sent to me inside those envelopes, now safely displayed on stock pages. Next, I go to my albums, where I locate and lightly mark the proper spaces for each new stamp. I add a note referring to the date purchased and the amount paid for the stamp (if more than $2).

Finally comes the stamp mounting. For cancelled stamps, it’s a simple matter of applying half of a moistened, gummed paper hinge to the back of the stamp. Then, lick the other half of the hinge and stick the stamp in its space in the album. The hinges are peelable, and will not harm the stamp. For mint (uncancelled) stamps, whose gum needs to be protected, readying the stamp for safe display requires special mounts. Using stamp tongs, insert the stamp in a 10-inch-long protective sleeve — the black strips come in numerous widths to accommodate all sizes of  stamps. A 22-strip pack costs less than $10 and can accommodate up 100 stamps. Use a razor cutter to lop off the inserted stamp from the rest of the strip. (But be careful not to nick the stamp, including the perforations!). For this cutting operation, I use a little kit I picked up as a lad in Germany …oh, just about 55 years ago. Amazing, how it’s lasted. We stamp collectors do venerate aged things, after all. On the other hand, how can a durable plastic razor holder and a see-through glass ruler wear out? In cutting, I position the stamp on a piece of cardboard, so I don’t mar my desk top or make an uneven cut. I keep a container of recycled pieces of cardboard nearby for this express purpose. I don’t use pieces of cardboard more than once. Cutting through the strip on top of another cut mark in the cardboard could result in an uneven cut. Even if I am only making one cut for one stamp, I still discard the whole piece of cardboard afterwards. Call it wasteful. Call it extravagance. I prefer to think of it as an  infinitesimal act of gay abandon. (The cardboard eventually goes out with the recycling anyway.) Now you are ready to moisten a small part of the back of the black mount — careful not to stick your tongue inside, wet the precious gum and ruin the stamp! — and paste the mounted, protected stamp in its designated spot. Aaah! This is what it’s all about — putting stamps in spaces, seeing sets materialize in all their glorious order and color and design …

To be sure, there are still many, many spaces to fill in my stamp albums. But heck, why not admit it: My collection is already spectacular! It deserves to be shared. Who better to start with than my intimates? I hope you enjoy the first installment. Beware, though: The stamps and stories go on and on. My collection is immense, as is my store of notes, comment and anecdotes. I have a thick British Africa album, also a bulging British America album. My British Europe album starts with the 1840 Penny Black from Great Britain, the world’s first stamp. (Current price for a four-margin copy from ZillionsofStamps.com: $200; I got mine for $70 in 1991.) My Mulready Cover of 1841 (bought online for L26 in 2011) has to be seen to be believed …

Then there’s my Congo collection, including Rwanda and Burundi, with sets dating back to 1889, when Belgian King Leopold schemed over his vast Congo Free State; also a valuable USA collection; French colonies, Germany, covers and specialty items galore … Why, this Concordance could go on for hundreds and hundreds of pages. Is the world ready for this?

Actually, the world should have plenty of time to absorb this modest epic. I have other projects calling to me, so my philatelic Concordance will proceed slowly, episodically, occasionally. After a while, I expect my public will be demanding new postings, much as newspaper readers a century-and-a-half ago clamored for installments in the serial novels of Charles Dickens. Given enough time and continued inspiration, I’ll get there. That’s my meandering mantra.

Why do this at all, when there are so many more important things to worry about? Consider it a personal indulgence. If a few others find it worth dipping into, so much the better. As I post my “chapters” online, perhaps I will gain a wider audience. Hey, I may even help invigorate a superannuated pastime before it fades into the mists of Anachreon. Tant mieux!. Meanwhile, I get to start unburdening myself of a lifetime of stories and memories and pictures and — dare I say it? — adventures in stamp collecting. I’ll do my best to keep things interesting …

Yours in philately, FMF                                                                       Syracuse, November 2015

Why collect stamps? Others have answered this question as well as or better than I could, so let’s hear from some of them, speaking from the heart.

“Stamp collecting is a ‘mature’ hobby,” writes Gary Eggleston,”not because its enjoyment is limited to older adults – the shut ins as we like to call them – who derive much pleasure from gazing at the flowers and the trees, the fish in the sea, the airplanes and the towers – not only in their territory but in places as remote as Papua New Guinea and American Samoa.

“Stamp collecting is a mature hobby because of its colorful role in history,” Eggleston continues, “because of how it has evolved into a pastime that has brought joy to millions of people around the world.

“Yet stamp collecting has an innocence all its own. It’s a hobby that stirs something in each collector – a longing to visit foreign lands, a keen investigative sense for print and color …  , a yearning for friendship, and an intellectual curiosity about what other collectors are up to or have discovered.

“Photographs in an album preserve those Kodak moments that cannot be re-lived again. … But stamps in an album? How about history, geography, and culture, for starters? How about friendships that know no barriers or frontiers? How about an all-consuming passion that never ebbs or flickers?

“This is the beauty of stamp collecting. It opens doors, it’s the bottomless well of knowledge, and it’s the pictorial story of a country and its heritage. It’s also about the story of the men and women who work five days a week to deliver our mail. It’s about stamp dealers who wheel and deal and know all about value and price and rarity,” Eggleston concludes unerringly: “It is — or was,  once a upon a time —  about you and me.”

Another eloquent online author wrote this: “The world of stamps is a common denominator that brings together the old and the young, the experienced collector and the novice hobbyist, the boardroom CEO and the long-haul trucker. Stamp collecting cuts across socio-economic, racial and cultural boundaries. The joy of collecting, the sharing of knowledge and technique, the opportunity to learn may make for some strange bedfellows, but it forms the common bond that binds collectors.  …  All that is required of the stamp collector is that he find pleasure in collecting the particular type or category of stamp he chooses. … There are no requirements. Collect what moves you, what you are passionate about. Stamp collecting is an exercise in love.”

I will leave the last word on the subject to our friends from  the Sunnyvale Stamp Society. “Stamp collecting is the most popular hobby in the world,” writes the unabashed and unbowed phil-anthropist  from Sunnyvale. “However, if you are not a collector you may be asking, ‘Why stamps? Aren’t stamps just pictures on little pieces of paper?’  Scientifically speaking, yes that’s correct. However, there is so much more to stamps that people of any age, any income and any interest can find some aspect of stamp collecting appealing and very satisfying.”

Stamp bonus: A small photo gallery to whet your philatelic appetite

 

Speaking of technique, notice these fine examples of the engraver’s art, from a 1986 strip set to promote stamp collecting. The two blow-ups below display a tromp-l’oeuil effect, with the postal tools appearing to be lying on their sides, while in the next enlargement, the boy’s engraved profile and shirt become a study in abstract patterns, intricate textures and bold coloring.

It’s always fun to get a good look at the costliest stamp in the world . It’s the 1856, one-cent, black on magenta from British Guiana, which sold at Sotheby’s in 2014 for the tidy sum of $12 million. Here it is, folks! (My recollection is that one reason this may be the only copy of the stamp is that the rest, or most of the rest, were destroyed in a shipwreck. A little research should confirm or dispel this story, and I may get around to it some day …)

TO BE CONTINUED

According to the Sunnyvale Stamp Society (with which I heartily agree), philately is a sure-fire stress reducer for busy people.  While you can enjoy social times by joining a stamp club, attending stamp shows, haggling with dealers and so on, the fun doesn’t stop there. “You can also do stamp collecting alone,” the Sunnyvale club advises. “You can spend as much time or as little time as you want. You can work with your stamps any time, rain or shine! It’s a weatherproof hobby. It’s a passive hobby that can help reduce stress and easily gives a feeling of accomplishment.”

Do you see why FDR, among other philatelists with familiar names, enjoyed stamp-collecting so much? “There are no time constraints with this hobby,” the Sunnyvale club note continues. “You can dedicate as much time as you want. You can take periods of time off from the hobby and when ready, jump right back in. This hobby offers great flexibility.”  In other words, when you’re not busy saving the world from the Depression, Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo, you can relax by playing with your stamps!

FDR began collecting as a boy — and never really stopped. Not only did he learn about the globe from stamps, one source notes, “He found solace in his collection during his adulthood when he suffered from polio.”  As president, it is said, “he used to feel at peace and relax by looking at his collection for hours.”  FDR once declared, “I owe my life to my hobbies — especially stamp collecting.”

 

A number of countries put out stamps showing FDR working on his collection, using White House propaganda photos. As the world was rocked by economic hard times, then descended into the cauldron of world war, these images affirmed that the Leader of the Free World was coolly in charge, capable of putting global affairs in order, much as he was doing with his stamp albums.

 

Here’s an odd philatelic detail: In 1947, Monaco issued a stamp with an engraving based on one of the familiar photographs of FDR with his stamps (see photo, top right). But there seems to be a design error: The president’s right hand holds a magnifying glass and is just fine; however, he clasps a stamp in a left hand that contains five fingers — and a thumb!  (You’d think this stamp would be valuable, but you can buy it for a quarter.) One further note on this bit of arcana — the photograph the engraver used actually does seem to show “six fingers,” though closer perusal  reveals the extra “pinkie” as distorted image of FDR’s shirt cuff. It must be!

FDR’s postmaster, James A. Farley (seen here in a very flattering formal oil portrait), was an old friend and mentor in
politics — who happened to be a stamp collector as well.  The president and his crony must have had a ball as they conspired together over stamps, proposing and overseeing the production of U.S. postal issues in the 1930s.  Apparently FDR went so far as to sketch some of his ideas. I would not be surprised to learn he had a hand in designing stamps during that era.

Doesn’t it strike you as a bit, well, controversial, though, to allow  these two hard-charging philatelist pols to preside over the post office?  It’s not so much a case of entrusting the wolves with the hen house; more like putting kids behind the candy counter.

It didn’t take long for FDR and Farley to engage in some sweet philatelic phlim-phlam,  which quickly acquired the name, “Farley’s Follies.”  Their self-dealing and exploitation of the U.S. post office unhinged a generation of stamp collectors and dealers, though nobody else paid much attention. Here’s a postage stamp-size retelling of the story:

 

As postmaster, Farley blithely mixed business with pleasure, indulging his philatelic impulses beyond appropriate boundaries. He would buy sheets of stamps right off the presses, before they had been perforated or gummed; sign them; and distribute the unusual and rare philatelic souvenirs to his buddies and his family. Occasionally both Farley and FDR signed the sheets. This occurred 20 times, involving stamps from the national parks series of 1934 (Scott Nos. 740-749), among others.

News of this insider dealing roiled the philatelic community nationwide. Up to 160 of the special sheets were given away. Philatelic critics and political opponents made it a hot political issue. After a dealer
in New York City claimed to have acquired one the sheets, and
was insuring it for $20,000, a chaste
ned Farley stepped in. He ordered all 20 stamps reprinted in unperforated, ungummed sheets (Scott 752-771), offered for sale to anyone at face value.  This turned the scandal into a mere embarrassment — “Farley’s Follies” — though to this day it somehow diminishes the dignity, if not the integrity of these particular stamps; which is a shame, since the engravings of Yosemite, Crater Lake, Mesa Verde, Acadia and the rest are lovely.

How to collect these items? None of the stamps are particularly valuable by themselves. (The original national parks set of 10 sells online for well under $10.)  Should you try and get a full sheet, unperforated and ungummed, as an unusual but somewhat spurious collector’s item? What about all the other souvenir sheets, vertical and horizontal “gutter pairs,”  “arrow” blocks of six and other Farley shenanigans? Cut out from their sheets or other special settings, aren’t the stamps the same? And get a load of this odd note, from the fine print of my Scott catalogue: “In 1940, the P.O. Department offered to and did gum full sheets of Nos. 754 to 771 sent in by owners” — thus creating new philatelic varieties, it would seem.

Eventually Farley would donate his sheets to the Smithsonian. After FDR’s death, the family sold his collection at auction — though some argued many of the stamps rightfully belonged to the nation. You can see a full display of Farley’s Follies at the postal museum in Washington, D.C.  A major takeaway for me from this tawdry tale is that it is unwise to put a stamp collector in charge of the post office. It also is unwise   to elect a stamp-collecting president unless you make sure he or she knows not to mix politics and philately — that is, avoid polit-ely, please. Or is it po-lately?

How many stamp collectors are there today, famous or not-so-famous? I wouldn’t hazard a guess. Neither will I try  to erase the stereotype of the geeky stamp collector, dusty, bespectacled, aging, beetling about his business (like me). I have little confidence left in the tradition of fathers passing along their interest in stamps to  sons — as my father somehow did with me.  As far as I can tell, my older brother Jonathan and I are the only ones in my  extended, intergenerational family circle who give a hoot about stamps. Too bad, because stamps are worth paying attention to.

My purpose in this blog is to beguile you with my stories about stamps and the tales that take off from there.  The point is to make the old new again — even as stamps bring history to life as vivid, revealing, sometimes rare and valuable tokens of our shared past.

Apparently there have been collectors for as long as there have been stamps. In 1842, two years after England’s Penny Black became the world’s first postage stamp, the following doggerel by a Colonel Sibthorpe appeared in Punch:

“When was a folly so pestilent hit upon,

As folks running mad to collect every spit upon

Post-office stamp that’s been soil’d and been writ upon?

Oh for Swift! such a subject his spleen to emit upon.”

Ernest Rutherford, the father of nuclear physics, may have been paying philately a compliment — or was he mocking it as an idle pastime? — when he famously wrote,  “All science is either physics or stamp collecting.”

Ernest R. Ackerman’s hobby led to a successful career in business and politics. He started collecting the stamps on envelopes sent to his father, a lawyer, from the U.S. Patent Office. He went on to become a stamp dealer, then a successful industrialist. During his business travels, he and King George V, another avid collector, bonded profitably over philately.

 

.Ackerman was elected to Congress in 1919, and served until his death in 1931.

Other stamp collectors of note, in no particular order:

Bela Lugosi, Egypt’s King Farouk, George Bernard Shaw, Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler as well as General Erwin Rommel, Charlie Chaplin, tennis great Maria Sharapova, Ansel Adams, Ayn Rand, Simon Wiesenthal, Amelia Earhart, rockers Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones and the late Freddie Mercury … an eclectic bunch, eh?
Lest you think serious collections are all men, here’s a shot of

Louise Boyd Dale, engaged in her passion back in the 1950s.  Warren Buffett’s passion: classic American stamps.  France’s  Sarkozy was another president who mixed philately and politics. Apparently word got around that he was an enthusiastic stamp collector, and on state visits, his hosts would give him special philatelic items. (Hey! No fair.)

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth was a real enabler of Sarkozy, handing him one philatelic trophy after another. To be sure, she had plenty to give — the queen was heir to a stunning collection begun by her grandfather, and expanded by her father.

George V’s original collection filled 328 60-page red albums; his son George VI’s albums are blue; Elizabeth’s are green.  It seems George V got started long before he became king, aided by Prince Alfred, his uncle and Duke of Edinburgh. The king’s philatelic ambitions soared. He once wrote an adviser, “I wish to have the best & not one of the best collections in England.”  He certainly tried to achieve his goal. In addition to accumulating special items by dint of his royal access, the king made astute purchases, acquiring such rarities as the  Post Office Mauritius and the Great Britain Two Pence Tyrian Plum. (Don’t you just love the name of that color?)

George V was an unassuming, straightforward monarch, quite popular during his reign and well-suited to his times — though it’s hard to see how collecting all those stamps bearing  his  profile could not have swelled his royal  head.  He is credited with helping to revive a hobby that had grown a bit moribund. (Where is the next George when we need him?!)  A popular story has one of his retainers  reporting that “Some damned fool had paid as much as L1,400 (about $3,600) for one stamp,” and the king mildly replying, “Yes, I was that damned fool.”  His investment paid off: The rarity in question later sold at auction for $3.9 million.

George V, like FDR, found solace in philately.  Nearing the end of his life, wracked by pleurisy and chronic respiratory problems aggravated by a lifetime of heavy smoking, the tired old king reportedly spent hours in the comforting company of his collection

Karl Rove, the GOP presidential

macher and adviser, also occupies a place of note among  stamp collectors.  Like many others (myself included), Rove enjoyed embellishing his outgoing letters with arrays of vintage stamps he had accumulated — scrupulously ensuring the face value added up to the current first-class mail postal rate, no  more and no less. Not only that: Rove liked to use stamps with a special message for his correspondents.  Donna Brazile, a liberal Democrat and political rival of Rove’s, received a note on the occasion of his retirement from service to President George W. Bush. She told a reporter later: “When you receive a letter from Karl, you don’t automatically go and read the letter … You look at the stamps.”  Indeed, one of the stamps on the envelope was a 15-center from 1979 bearing the slogan,”I have not yet begun to fight,” attributed to John Paul Jones, the Naval commander and revolutionary war hero. Brazile was disarmed. ”I love that man,” she said of Rove, “because he knows how to fight.”

TO BE CONTINUED

 

 

 

Frederick M. Fiske was born in 1948. He spent his early years in Massachusetts and Iowa, then lived abroad with his family as the son of a U.S. diplomat. He began collecting stamps at the family’s first posting in the 1950s, in Dacca, East Pakistan. Fred retired from a 40-year newspaper career in 2013. He has degrees from Harvard and Columbia, and was president of the National Conference of Editorial Writers in 2001. He lives in retirement near Syracuse, NY.