ScottV Stamps

We went down to the San Diego Stamp Show today.  It was a 3-day show running at the Hilton Mission Valley.  In theory, a collector could go down there on multiple days and spent hours and hours at a show like that.  The exhibits were amazing, as always, including one for 1608-1750 Italian letter sheets, one showing foreign postal services in Palestine pre-WWII, and one that was a collection of fine profiles of cachet artists.  As always, there are exhibits of things I have never heard of, even after 50 years of colleting. In this case, a series of panels of California Gold Rush era local revenue stamps, and one with some amazing examples of Nevada state revenues from the 1800s.  One sad note showed a large Romanian stamp meant for use at an internment camp in WWI, where the design was pulled after 3-4 weeks after the Russians suspected the large size of the stamp encouraged people to write secret messages on the back of the stamp before putting it on the envelop...

As we work our table at the stamp show,  I try to do a walk around to see what deals might be available.   I saw two good lots and made mental notes to check them out at the end of the show. One was an old notebook packed with Egypt mostly before 1950, for $195.  Clearly the first page with the old pyramid sets was worth $195 all by itself.  There were rows that were thick with mint 1930s-1940s sets,  2 to 5 each at $4-6 per set.   And in the back there were some early special delivery and postage dues at $5-20 each and a few salt tax and cut squares. The second lot was full of 5x8 stock cards with about 1000 typical sets, mini sheets and booklets that were marked at about $5 on average,  all for $240.  I don't usually get these kids but we have people asking for topicals all day long and many of these were from less common countries like Marshall Islands, Bangladesh and Comoros.  And they are in clear mounts so they c...

The Money Pit in San Marcos, CA is a great burger & hot dog & breakfast places with reasonable prices.  The interior design is amazing, with wlls full of movie and other memorabilia about money, and every table has a custom design utilizing some aspect of currency or economics.  There are tables done up with foreign paper money, stock certificates, cards and casino chips, stamps, coins, and more.  Even the floors have old silver coins embedded in the grout, and there is a full-sized bank safe embedded in the floor.  It looks great and has a unique feel to it.  And good food. This table by the window has a nice selection of worldwide stamps.  Stamps as a part of life, back when stamps really were a part of day-to-day living.  After a minute, I noticed that this was also a perfect laboratory example of how sun damage affects different stamps.  It's right up against a west-facing window, beneath a thick plastic layer, so it has been baking in...