January meeting of the International Stamp Club

The first meeting of the New Year for the International Stamp Club in NYC is Saturday, 3 January. Here is the info from Dan Rieber:

 

 

Greetings to all and I hope all had a happy Chanukah and a merry Christmas. 

The next Stamp Club Meeting will be Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015 9:00 AM -1PM Midtown Plaza Community Room H 320 E 25th St Ground Floor, as always.

Bring your, stamps, covers, to sell/ trade and of course your good cheer.  If anyone has a presentation on a stamp related subject that they would like to present, please let me know  so we can plan to incorporate it into a future meeting. Please call your fellow members, who do not have email, to remind them. 

Once again, I will have more items from the Marty Whitman collection for sale and auction. There will be a dedicated club sale box with these items in it for the for as long as they last. All proceeds go to support and sustain the club.

Last month was a record month for the club. Total value of items sold was $290 dollars. Included  was a US album (from the Marty Whitman collection) filled with good items, with catalog value well over $300, sold for $105 dollars. For as long as I have been a member, which is about 14 years now, this takes the cake for a single lot.  Then one person had 9 items which sold for $150. This again is a record for a single person with items in the auction. There were 41 lots of which 24 sold. About 59% which is lower than usual.

Sadly this was Rita Immerman's last meeting. She will be moving down south to be with her son and has liquidated her collection. It will be in the next Harmers Auction. We bid Rita a fond farewell. We will miss her smile and always friendly presence. Best of Luck Rita. 

Also I would like to welcome Shakeel, a new member from Staten Island. Thanks to Abad, who recruited him.

We will be having an auction as usual, so pick out those choice items for your fellow members to bid on.

I will be collecting $25 dues for the new year so be ready to renew your membership, if you have not already.
We will be ringing in the New Year with a party.  There will be food and dink.So come one come all.

Cheers.

DR

December stamp events in New York City

New York has lots of philatelic activity, but sometimes one would not know it. For instance, when I checked the internet to see about the next Holiday Inn show, I barely found a site that mentioned it - 12-14 December, 2014, there seems to have been little advertising from Metropolitan. It will run at the usual venue, the Holiday Inn on West 57th Street between 10th & 11th Avenues.

This coming Sunday there will be the stamp booth on W39th Street at the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market, between 9th & 10th Avenues, and this will be out every Saturday/Sunday weather permitting.

Out in Brooklyn there is a shop called Brooklyn Gallery/Stamp & Coin, 8725 4th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11209. They sell a selection of stamps including topical packets, but mostly they sell supplies, everything from 102s to tongs to appraisal sheets; Scott catalogues for 2015 are in. They are open M-F and most Saturdays, best to call ahead to check on the Saturday openings - 718 745 5701 or email: info@brooklyngallery.com They come highly recommended both for service and price.

The Topical Club will have their holiday season party at the Collectors Club on 11th December, 6pm; and this Saturday, there is the International Stamp Club meet and auction - see below:

Greetings to all and I hope all had a Happy and joyous Thanksgiving. 

The next Stamp Club Meeting will be Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014 9:00 AM -1PM Midtown Plaza Community Room H 320 E 25th St Ground Floor, as always.

Bring your, stamps, covers, to sell/ trade and of course your good cheer.  If anyone has a presentation on a stamp related subject that they would like to present, please let me know  so we can plan to incorporate it into a future meeting. Please call your fellow members, who do not have email, to remind them. 

Once again, I will have more items from the Marty Whitman collection for sale and auction. There will be a dedicated club sale box with these items in it for the for as long as they last. All proceeds go to support and sustain the club. 

I came across a large collection of covers, a couple of years ago, with these interesting postage meter stamps. As many of you know I collect RR philately. So naturally these looked interesting. I am generally not a fan of Meter Stamps, but these are the exception and what is even more interesting is that they came form this machine at GC Terminal.  

Perhaps the first self service postage machine of it's day. Hope you found this of interest. 

We will be having an auction so pick out those choice items for your fellow members to bid on.

I will be collecting $25 dues for the new year so be ready to renew your membership, if you have not already.

Cheers.

DR

Dan Rieber,
interim President/Treasurer

4 October 2014 Meeting of the International Stamp Club

The ISC will meet as regularly scheduled on the first Saturyday of the month this October: below is an email from the president with details:

 

__________________________________________________________________

 

Greetings to all and Happy Autumn.  The next Stamp Club Meeting  will be Saturday, Oct 4, 2014 9:30 AM -1PM Midtown Plaza Community Room H 320 E 25th St Ground Floor, as always.

I know many of you will be unable to attend due to the Jewish Holiday of Yom Kippur. However, changing the schedule is not possible this month. I will be there and anyone not observing the holiday is welcome to join me.
Bring your, stamps, covers, to sell/ trade and of course your good cheer.  If anyone has a presentation on a stamp related subject that they would like to present, please let me know  so we can plan to incorporate it into a future meeting. Please call your fellow members, who do not have email, to remind them. 

Once again, I will have more items from the Marty Whitman collection for sale and auction. There will be a dedicated club sale box with these items in it for the for as long as they last. All proceeds go to support and sustain the club. 

We will be having an auction so pick out those choice items for your fellow members to bid on. 

Last month we had a good turnout of 15 plus members.  Thanks to all who helped set the tables and help with break down as well.

Many thanks to Herbie Stillman as always for providing cakes when he is able.

I will be collecting $25 dues for the new year so be ready to renew your membership. If not in October then when I see you in November.

Cheers.

DR

ASDA Stamp Show in New York October 23-26 2014

Here is the next major stamp show in New York City:

Public transportation to this includes the N/R trains, F/D, 1/2/3 (stopping on 7th Avenue), A/C/E (stopping on 8th Avenue & 59th Street).
The Hilton is a few blocks south of Central Park (which starts at 59th St.) and the Avenue of the Americas is also known as 6th Avenue, so trains to 7th and 8th will bring you a short walk away.
Most weekend in the city, weather permitting, there are also stamp stands in the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market - which is open Sat/Sun - located on 39th St. between 9th & 10th avenues - nearest trains are 1/2/3, A/C/E, N/R S 7 - all stop at the Port Authority, which has an exit on 9th Avenue and 40th so very convenient.

100th Anniversary Show ASDA National Postage Stamp Show 2014

October 23-26, 2014
The Hilton
1335 Avenue of the AmericasNew York NY
Show HoursThursday 10am - 6pm, Friday 10am - 6pm,
Saturday10am - 6pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm

Chinese stamps in New York City

This weekend there were lots of stamps dealers out in the sun. Funny, in a big city like this with so much wealth there are few dealers - the only street level dealer is Champion on West 54th Street, they are only open M-F 10-4. So it is hard to find dealers many times in the city that never sleeps. Part of it was the Pier 51 show, where a few dealers hawked stamps among the antiques.
There are of course top specialists, Harmer, Anglo-American, Cherrystone, etc., and lots of eBay dealers. But gut level stamps dealers are few and far between. For 20 years Terry held court at the Chelsea Antiques Market inside the garage; the owners of that facility were given a large stack of cash to let it be torn down and so the dealers moved across the street to the outdoor market, which now charges patrons $1 to enter. Lots of angry regulars decided not to go anymore, and the stamp dealers there moved to W39th Street, in what is known as Hell's Kitchen Market, between 9th and 10th Avenues.
I happened to notice a number of butterfly stamps there, spectacularly displayed  under glass, including the 1960 China set, of which there are 20. Along with that were lots of other Chinese offerings, many in that same 1960s Cultural Revolution era; including the Mei Lan Fang stamps, which are with some more popular even than Chairman Mao. Fang was a female impersonator.
The prices were great too, with better deals than eBay for many issues in the best of condition/MNH. Hopefully they will continue to set up midtown, this part of Manhattan is by the way getting to be a very hot locale what with the Highline and all the surrounding development.
The reason for so few approachable dealers is the rent; decades ago stamps dealers were abundant on the Bowery, but the prices of a storefront drove them off and the prices up. Flea markets can be good places to buy stamps - but also particularly bad as many dealers get absolute common stamps and either from lack of knowledge of the price of just sheer greed, charge many times the price. At the same market on hapless dealer tried to tell me an item was well over $50 as it was marked so years ago; the item hardly commands $5 and it was marked 50c years ago. But that does not stop some of the delusional merchants from trying to get a high high price. My advice is to deal with those who give you the catalogue price and number and allow you to examine the stamps with a pair of tongs.
With that in mind, you can have a great time both adding to your collection in the city while strolling about the town.
Do, by the way, check out the aforementioned Highline, it starts at Ganesvoort Street and stretches to 34th mostly along 10th Avenue.

Upcoming stamp show in NYC 12-14 September 2014

Visit These Fine Dealers at Our Shows! The Metropolitan Stamp Show September 12–14, 2014 Holiday Inn Midtown 440 West 57th Street 1840–1950 MOSTLY STAMPS One of the nation’s largest stamp dealers with something for the novice to the most advanced collector ADMIRER OF STAMPS quality world & eastern Europe ALBERT’S STAMPS quality US classics to the present BARRY & GERRY COVERS covers, special designs, FDC FRANK BUONO quality Western Europe, Italy, Vatican CANTERBURY STAMPS stamps, postcards & related supplies JOHN CHAITE quality Western Europe RICHARD A. CHAMPAGNE LTD. quality US, expertising STEVE ELLIOT LLC US, UN mint & used, FDC, sheets, collections EXCELSIOR COLLECTION extensive quality worldwide stamps & covers GEEZER’S TWEEZERS tables loaded with covers & collections WAYNE GEHRET US & worldwide stamps, revenues, FDCs, covers, lots K2 COLLECTIBLE STAMPS Mint & used classic & modern US WALTER KASSELL top quality US, better plate blocks & collections LEON LAZAR Eastern Europe, Russia, covers & postcards LONG ISLAND PHILATELICS Extensive better US, classic US, BNA MARKEST STAMP COMPANY US sheets & quality US MCXI PHILATELICS British Commonwealth, Western Europe, Germany & France & Related Stamps RICHARD E. MURPHY wholesale to dealers SATCHEL STAMPS hand selected better European & world stamps STAMPMEN more than 100 red boxes & books covering the world. TREASURE HUNT Unpicked collections & lots with everything from rarities & cancels to inexpensive but hard to find stamps. All for ten cents each ROSS WIESSMANN extensive better US & world stamps, collections

One cent magenta sets new auction record at Sothebys

Today was hot in Gotham, the heat reflecting from the glass towers, sizzling the pavement and tanning our hides with fury. Towards the evening it abated, with only a gentle glow reflected in the massive buildings that make up the city of New York. One in particular reflected a mild sun towards 6pm; 1334 York Avenue, its glass façade giving some hope of relief from the heat as the ball in the sky lowered itself to give its light to the other side of the planet.

But the cool blue of the glass from this building did not reflect the intense heat inside, where a magenta sliver of thin paper shone like a star; one encased in glass, guarded by security guards who were trying to be discreet and polite to the patrons of an august auction house: Sothebys.

The magenta star reflected such tones of red as any artist would be glad to paint. And any stamp collector would be glad to see in their collection; or at the bottom of a pile of cheap stamps, or perhaps affixed to some old papers in the attic.
It was none other that the world's rarest stamp, the one cent British Guiana magenta, of which already much information has been provided on this blog. It was art; it was history; it was expensive, way, way too expensive for this humble blogger and philatelist to presume to bid on; or even sit in the seat of the bidders. Enough it was to stand at the back of the room and watch. After, of course, having taken a look at the item - especially the verso, on which previous owners had made their marks. Many a time have I viewed a picture of its famous front, but to actually see the back of it was an even rarer privilege than seeing the stamp and its famous signature and cancel. Yes, canceled; to think of it, that the most expensive stamp in the world was thus; and cut corners to boot! With sundry marks that would make any other stamp virtually unsellable.

Would these 'faults' deter the bidders? Not by a long shot; the opening gambit was $4,500,000, soon followed by $5,000,000; then it went in increments of $500,000, only slowing at $7,500,000, whereupon an anonymous phone bidder offered $7,700,000; then another phone bid, and the ante was upped  by $100,000; and a third bid from the phones was to have the last word at $7,900,000, setting yet again a world record for a single stamp; with the premium of 20%, the buyer is out of pocket $9,480,000. The magenta did not fail to shine. It only comes up for auction every few decades, and it, with silent dignity, stands alone.

I went out into the night in the company of members of the Collectors Club and staff at Sothebys with a sense of history having been made. For a few moments, before that hammer fell, we were all the owners of this stamp. And perhaps we will have more chances to bask in its glow, as it has been requested by the Smithsonian for a possible exhibit and also by a New York based philatelic society for an upcoming exhibit. I encourage the reader to go if they can.

Stamps as investment

 

Investing is a tricky business; we have seen South Sea investment bubbles back in the day, tulip crazes, and more recently NASDAQ speculation; all have fallen dramatically after meteoric rises. Even gold enters this paradigm.

 

It would seem sensible that luxuries would suffer; in part, yes. But not entirely. Sometimes hard economic times drive down prices on mediocre items, while pushing up the high end. Money moves into safe havens.

 

One company that monitors collectibles recently published a report on how the prices were doing in this market; surprisingly, over a ten-year period, stamps had risen 255%, beaten only by cars as  a luxury commodity. Knight Frank's Luxury Investment Index (KFLII) reports:

 

Continued price growth in the classic car sector and an upturn in the performance  of investment-grade wines helped to boost the value of KFLII by 7% in the 12 months to the end of June 2013.

 

This matches the increase in the value of residential property in prime central London over the same period and is in stark contrast to the 23% fall in the price of gold since June 2012. The FTSE 100 index of UK listed equities performed slightly better, rising by 12%.

 

Over a 10-year period, however, KFLII (+174%), has significantly outperformed the FTSE 100 (+155%), although gold still remains the top mainstream asset performer (+273%).

 

Looking at the individual asset classes represented within the KFLII, there has been a wide variation in performance over the long and short term. Across every time period classic cars, according to the HAGI Top index, have shown the strongest growth, rising 21% over the past six months and a remarkable 430% over 10 years - even better than gold.

 

After a significant correction in 2011 and 2012 following an overheating in the market for certain wines favoured by Asian buyers, the Liv-ex100 index, which tracks the performance of investment-grade wines, has returned to growth.

 

The art market, by contrast, remains volatile, Although certain artists retain their cache and are achieving record results at auction, buyers are generally bidding more cautiously and selectively.

 

Stamps and coins have maintained their long-term growth trend and are now marketed as genuine investment asset classes. But furniture continues to lose ground as antique styles decline in popularity with homeowners.

 

My own thoughts to add to this are that the fall of NASDAQ after 2000, and the general volatility after 9/11 sent investors scrambling; home furnishing, gold, real estate, etc. Safe havens were hard to find. Not to say that stamps are there to replace equities and real estate, but managers are going with more than the previous figure of 5% as a guide for stamps and coins as part of the portfolio. With the Chinese driving the market, as a nation of philatelists, and the record high estimate of the upcoming one cent magenta ($10-20 million at Sothebys), there is money in stamps. Along with, of course, the pleasure of owning a part of history and art in miniature as so many of them are.

 

[Thanks to Mike Japp of Ango-American, a New York based company that handles stamps and other collectables, for the above information].

 

 

Metropolitan Stamp Expo in New York City 10-12 July 2014

The Metropolitan Stamp Expo will be in town next month. For anyone not familiar with the location, it is on the west side a long block or so from the Hudson River. Be advised that 20 short blocks (#d streets) equal one mile, and 6 long blocks, avenue to avenues - also make a mile, thus if you are on 37th Street and 5th Avenue, it is a 2 mile walk.

Nearest subway stop is Columbus Circle, 1, A/C/E, B/D trains, about a 3/4 mile walk as this lets you out on 8th Avenue at or around 59th St. Buses will get you closer.

I advise checking out the waterside, which has been developed in stages over the years so there is always something new that way before or after the show.

For those of you going on Saturday, let me mention the Chelsea Antiques Market on 25/26th Streets which you can get to on all of the above mentioned trains, 2 1/2 miles away or less if you take Broadway down.  Both the indoor and the outdoor markets have longstanding stamp dealers and great prices.

 

    METROPOLITAN STAMP EXPO

 

 

 

Thursday-Saturday July 10-12

Midtown Holiday Inn,

440 West 57th St.

Within walking distance or a quick cab ride to scores of NY attractions!

Thurs. 10-6, Friday 10-5, Sat. 10-5

Free Literature • Free Appraisals

Free Admission • Convenient Parking

Collectors: go to www.metroexpos.com for details and updates or contact Dick Murphy (see below)

Dealers: SIGN UP NOW!

For dealer space in ALL

Metro Expo Shows:

Dick Murphy, 774-258-0135, DickMurphy@aol.com

British Guiana stamps: Magenta one cent, cotton reels etc.

The postal history of British Guiana (now Guyana)  is most interesting, starting with the 'cottonreels' - depicted below -

   

 

 

that were commissioned in 1850; a basic design was created using by the offices of Joseph Baum and William Dallas, printers and publishers of the Royal Gazette of British Guiana, which was  issued  Wednesdays and Saturdays in Georgetown. The Postmaster used local printers since service was to begin before stamps could  be supplied from Great Britain.

In a memoir by the American humorist Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber, it is related how he came to be indentured as a compositor to the Royal Gazette in 1835. In the first part of "Experience during Many Years", serialized in The New England Magazine in 1893, Shillaber relates that “Mr. Baum … was a Pennsylvanian, and Mr. Dallas a light mulatto; and a more perfect gentleman and a better printer I had never met with. He was educated in Scotland and acquired the art of printing there, in all branches of which he was a perfect master. He was affable in the highest degree and always treated me with a kindness which rendered our relations very pleasant.”

The stamps produced in Baum and Dallas’s shop in 1850 were printed by an employee named Henry Mackay, according to Edward Chauncy Luard, the first prominent philatelist in British Guiana. They were circular, and in size and design so reminiscent of the labels found on the ends of spools of thread that they subsequently became known among collectors as “cottonreels.” According to The Postage Stamps and Postal History of British Guiana by W. A. Townsend and F. G. Howe, the cottonreels were printed on a Columbian handpress from individual settings of type. The simple frames were formed by pieces of printer’s brass rule, beveled at one edge and blunt at the other edge, bent into a circular shape and so soldered. Type from the regular case of the Gazette was then set within the circular frame: BRITISH around the top, GUIANA around the bottom, and 4 (8 or 12) Cents in the middle. The type pieces were secured in place with quads and other furniture (or perhaps with chewed paper), imposed and locked in a chase, inked, and printed. 

It is not known how many stamps were printed on a single sheet, but as Townsend has identified four distinct frames (based on thickness, shape, and flaws in the circular rules and by distinctive positions of the letter sorts), it is thought the stamps were printed in a horizontal row of four. The same basic setting of type was used to print stamps of different denominations: to change from one duty to another, the chase would be unlocked, the numeral sort carefully extracted, the new value sort inserted, the chase relocked, and the forme re-inked and printed. To easily differentiate between the values, the stamps were printed in black ink on different colored papers: the four-cent on orange (with a later printing on lemon-yellow); the eight-cent on green; and the twelve-cent on blue shades ranging from pale to indigo.

All examples of the 1850 cottonreels are initialed by Dalton or by one of his subordinates: James Belton Smith, a clerk in the Imperial Branch; H. A. Killikelly, a letter carrier; W. H. Lorimer, likely a railway clerk; and Edmond Dalzell Wight, a clerk in the Colonial Post Office, whose E.D.W. appears on the 1856 One-Cent. The initialing is thought to have been done to thwart counterfeiters, since anyone with a job press and a handful of type could have produced a reasonable facsimile of the Royal Gazette stamps.

While there is no record of how many cottonreels were eventually printed, it is known, based on a Royal Gazette invoice attached to a report that Postmaster Dalton submitted to the colonial legislature on 11 March 1851, how many were printed during the final six months of 1850: 656 12-cent blues, 1,200 8-cent greens, and 1,752 4-cent yellows. The charge for printing the stamps was 50 cents per one hundred regardless of denomination. Curiously, the three stamps survive in almost equal numbers, despite the disparity in the numbers printed, at least through the first half year of production.

[Below is a photo of the 2 cent cottonreel, SG#1/Scott#1]

 

Early in 1851, a fourth value was added to the issue of cottonreel stamps. A 2-cent denomination was printed to cover postal delivery within Georgetown. Postmaster Dalton again used a notice in the Royal Gazette, 22 February 1851, to introduce the new service:
By Order of His Excellency the Governor and upon the request of several of the merchants of Georgetown, it is proposed to establish a Delivery of Letters twice a day through the principal streets of this city, viz., Water-Street, Main-Street, their intermediate streets, and the Brick Dam, as far as the Roman Catholic Chapel. … Each letter must bear a stamp, for which Two Cents will be charged or it will not be delivered, and when called for will be subject to the usual postage of Eight Cents.
Deliveries began on 1 March and were set for 10:00 in the morning and 2:00 in the afternoon. The new stamps were available at the Georgetown Post Office as well as at five stores that were designated as receiving stations.
The 2-cent stamps were printed by Baum and Dallas on rose-colored paper using the same typographic frames as the three earlier values. All ten surviving examples are initialed—two by Dalton, two by Wight, and six by Smith.
Despite the encouragement of “several of the merchants of Georgetown,” this service was discontinued after a short period due to lack of support and the remaining stamps were retained, with some being used as multiples to pay the regular postage of four cents or higher. The 2-cent cottonreel was alluded to in articles over the years but it wasn’t until 1877 that a single specimen appeared in England from a collector in British Guiana. Two more copies appeared in quick succession from the same source and within a year an entire collection of British Guiana stamps arrived in Britain for sale. This collection, which contained the fourth and last single copy of this rarity found to date, was sent to E. L. Pemberton, who was very familiar with the colony’s stamps. Pemberton examined the 2-cent stamp and satisfied himself that it was a genuine copy. But that same collection also included a stamp that Pemberton had never before seen: a small octagonal 1-cent magenta stamp (Scott 13).

 

The whereabouts of the One-Cent Magenta for the last 141 years can be known positively. But the first seventeen years of its existence are shrouded in impenetrable obscurity. The stamp was purchased on or before 4 April 1856, the date it was postmarked, and affixed to an envelope or newspaper wrapper, most likely addressed to a Mr. Andrew Hunter. And sometime in 1873, the stamp was discovered—or recovered—by a nephew of Hunter, a budding stamp collector. For the years between those events, the stamp resided unrecognized and unappreciated on its cover in the tropical heat and humidity of British Guiana.

So there...the world's rarest stamp and its congeners from a small British colony, a nation of around one million inhabitants with but 83,000 sq mi. And to keep up with the history or producing rare stamps, the independent nation of Guyana today manages to produce many collectible issues, especially in the realm of orchids, of which it has no less than 500 stamps, including hundreds of stamps with images from Reichenbachia, collected for their beauty. A singular trait with the Guyana Post Office is the making of overprints, and collectors of this country are challenged with an excessive amount of surcharges and overprints that would drive most philatelists to the brink of madness. Recently I purchased the 1990 set of 8 orchids, after spending two years trying to acquire it; each effort I made was met with offers from dealers who had an endless array of overprints (and none recognised in the catalogues) honouring a plethora of famous people; one suspects that an unscrupulous dealer merely overprinted them himself to charge a premium on the set. It would not surprise me if there were to appear a rare overprint with Osama bin Laden, along with Kennedy, Roosevelt, and sundry other luminaries.

Glad I was to acquire the set without an overprint, which may prove to be the rare (and only genuine) state. [Scott 2359-66]. And I will cherish them until the day that Sothebys sees fit to auction them too! At least if I do not have the 1c magenta, I have 8 beautiful and long sought after stamps that I genuinely enjoy, one of them being vanilla, which appears on around 100 issues worldwide; of which I will be blogging more, I hope to publish a booklet on all such issues when I complete my collection (which is still missing Guyana 2370).

New York stamp deals

Just getting started...after 45 years of collecting. My first endeavours were as a child on E 7th Street. The two other boys in the building also collected. I often wonder where they are, Darryl and Willy. Many fond memories of them and our Minkus pages.

Back in the day, there were many places to shop for stamps, even department stores had their philatelic booths. Macy's, Gimbels, I used to love to go. And going further back in time, the Bowery was the hot spots for stamps. High rents forced out many a dealer, but the passion remains in the city. In fact, we are looking at the rarest stamp in the world, the British Guiana one cent magenta, the only stamp absent from the collection of the British Royal Family, after they missed it at the bidding in the 1920s. A New York businessman took it in the 1920s, and it went to John Eleuthere du Pont some time later. This month, on the 17th, the Queen of England will have a chance to complete her collection, and others with similarly deep pockets will be competing to complete theirs. And they may win. I know at least that I will not, and I content myself with the Guyana 5c stamps of 1966 that has the image of this rarity. Interesting to note that this sought after stamps is both canceled and the low denomination of the set; in collecting, canceled 1p stamps are the scourge of dealers who sometimes throw them out. Or use whole boxes as kindling. And one wonders what happened to the other magentas that were issued. Did they help light a fire somewhere in South America two centuries ago, or are they still knocking around, maybe at the bottom of the cigar box I just acquired? Hope springs eternal. These days I am a topicalist, and if I were into ships - this stamp depicts one - I would be saving my pennies and heading for the auction house. Instead, I will be happy just to view (and blog about it here). My themes are orchids, falconry, bats, bromeliads and cactus - some of which come up on British Guiana (as it was until 26 May, 1966) and Guyana stamps.

The postal history of this country is most interesting, starting with the 'cottonreels' - and then going into more stamps that were produced locally before the printers in London could deliver. 

The world's rarest stamp has a unique history, about which more to come; the nation in which it was produced is still producing collectable issues, as it is small, with a population of one million and an area of  83,000 sq mi. Currently its output is mainly topical (fitting as the early stamps were thus), especially in the realm of orchids, of which it has no less than 500 stamps, including hundreds  with images from Reichenbachia, collected for their beauty. A singular trait with the Guyana Post Office is the making of overprints, and collectors of this country are challenged with an excessive amount of surcharges and overprints that would drive most philatelists to the brink of madness. Recently I purchased the 1990 set of 8 orchids, after spending two years trying to acquire it; each effort I made was met with offers from dealers who had an endless array of overprints (and none recognised in the catalogues) honouring a plethora of famous people; one suspects that an unscrupulous dealer merely overprinted them himself to charge a premium on the set. Glad I was to acquire the set without an overprint, which may prove to be the rare (and only genuine) state. [Scott 2359-66]. And I will cherish them until the day that Sothebys sees fit to auction them too! At least if I do not have the 1c magenta, I have 8 beautiful and long sought after stamps that I genuinely enjoy, one of them being vanilla, which appears on around 100 issues worldwide.

So enough about me and a stamp that none of us will ever own. This blog is about stamps in New York - where to go to get them - posts from NY collectors and dealers - and I hope to bring back some of the feeling that existed in my 1960s childhood. Darryl, Willy, you reading this? If you are, perhaps we crossed paths a dozen times without even knowing it - maybe at the Holiday Inn on 57th Street at the Metropolitan shows, or upstairs at the New Yorker Hotel? Or every weekend at the Chelsea Antiques Market on 25th Street where Terry sells stamps indoors or the outdoor one where a group of Russians and Armenians by the Serbian church between B'way and 6th? Who knows. So a big hi to everone, I'd love to hear from you if you care to leave comments do so - and stay tuned.