Stamp Collecting

I started collecting stamps while in the fourth grade at Reinhardt Elementary.  We had a stamp collecting club which met once a month at somebody's house . The mom would provide milk and cookies and we would trade stamps.

When I went to downtown Dallas, I would always stop by and purchase a few packets of stamps at Rex O. McGee at 1416 Commerce RA-2526.  Some time later on he moved to 1420.

 

The stamps I could afford to buy were sold in "packets," a certain amount of stamps, 10 to 30, advertised as "all different, all genuine," usually with a theme.  For example: 30 Hungary (used 25 cents).

Looking back at my collection (which I still have), I see that regrettably I put my first stamps into an album with Scotch tape.  I soon learned the error of my ways.

 

Very soon I was using stamp hinges and a stamp tong to align them on the page.  Later on I came to use Blue Ribbon Mounts, where the dark backing stuck to the album page and the stamp slipped in between the mount and the clear plastic front.

To be a proper stamp collector, you needed several things:

 

Album - either printed or black, depending upon what you want to collect.

 

Tongs - for handling stamps without dirtying or damaging them.

Perforation Gauge - to measure the number of holes between stamps which provide the means of separation.  Different print runs sometimes created different perforation counts, hence different values.

Watermark Detector - watermarks were colorless design incorporated in paper during its manufacture.  The detector was a 3"x3" card with a black surface.  You placed the stamp face down and moistened it with either benzine or carbons (can it be any better - using chemicals!).  The watermark will instantly appear as dark lines on the back of the stamp.

Hinges - several kinds were available.

 

Magnifying Glass - to detect small details on the stamps.

 

Glassine Envelopes - to hold a group of stamps together without damage. 

Approval Cards - stiff cardboard pages with slots to hold individual stamps, available either in single cards or in book form.

Globe - I had a globe on my desk as an easy way to locate a certain country in the world.  I also had a fold-up philatelic world map which gave the various names which would appear on foreign stamps. 

Philatelic Color Guide - identifies over 100 different colors.

 

I still have my two stamp albums. 

 

One is The All American Stamp Album, Minkus Publications c1960.  My earliest American stamp - a George Washington 3 cent stamp 1879.  Second earliest stamp - a Benjamin Franklin 1 cent stamp, an 1881-1882 edition.  The earliest American stamp was 1847.  I also have a booklet "How to Collect Postage Stamps, the Fall 1960/61 Price List", Rex O. McGee, 1420 Commerce, Dallas.  I visited the United Nations in New York City on one of our vacations, so I have a complete collection of their first regular issues 1951.  A total of 11, plus 3 of the first issue air mail.

The other album is the New Ambassador Album for postage stamps of the world, published by H.E. Harris, Boston MA, 1955.  Each of the larger countries featured a small historic description of the country and a place where I posted in their State Flag and Coat of Arms.

You became quite an historian when you dealt with stamps!

 

As a kid, I liked all the unusual shaped stamps like the large diamond-shaped stamps from Moholo honoring Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.  Oversize rectangle stamps like one from Moholo honoring George Washington.  Moholo was such a small country, the only revenue they had was profits off the casino, and the manufacture of many beautiful stamps.

I could never have enough triangle-shaped stamps: Mozambique - Air Delivery, Liberia - birds, Nicaragua - volcano, Lithuania - historic themes, Hungary - birds, Moholo - historic figures and San Marcus - various topics.

I also collected First Day Covers, the first day a stamp was issued on a special, highly decorated envelope.l  I have a number of United Nations covers also.  Post Cards from 1884-1931, and foreign stamps attached to envelopes.  Dad had several people at work who saved stamps for me.

I had large collections of stamps (more than 20) from:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Columbia, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Italy, Norway, Paraguay, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Uruguay and Vatican City.

Stamps with colorful designs I liked include:

Costa Rica, French West Africa, Gold Coast, Ghana, Guadalupe, Honduras, Yugoslavia, Laos - elephants, Madagascar - soldier with a spear, Moholo, Nicaragua, St. Pierre, San Marino, Spanish Guinea and Togo.

I liked so many of the stamps from the British Colonies including:

Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Kenya, Malta, Nigeria, Pitcairn Islands, ??, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tabago, Uganda and the Virgin Islands.

Stamps taught me history, mystery, adventure, knowledge of countries and what they thought was important in their own cultural development.

 

I could be transported half a globe away and still feel a personal connection.  And to think I could hold all of that on  small pieces of paper called stamps!

When I went downtown I stopped by the stamp store.  Most of the time I bought stamps through the mail.  Stamps were sold mail order through "approvals."  The stamp company would send you stamps in the mail at no charge.  You paid for what you kept and mailed the rest back.  The hope was that when you had all these colorful stamps in your hands, you would send nothing back but money!  It usually worked and I would tape a series of quarters, dimes, nickles and pennies and a couple of dollar bills to complete the transaction.

Companies I bought from included:

Littleton Stamp Company, Littleton, New Hampshire; Sunlite Stamp Co., Camden, New York; Walter Welles, New York City; H.E. Harris and Co., Boston; Kenmore Stamp Co., Milford, New Hampshire; and Niagara Stamp Co., Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada.