Unlisted perforation variety on Afghan airmail stamp

Last night I was going through an accumulation of Afghan stamp I acquired during the summer, and I came across with a bizarre finding that contradicts catalog information. As usual I’d be very grateful if blog readers could assist me in nailing this one.

The below design was used in 1960/64 on 3 different airmail stamps. [...]

Some color shifts and registration errors on Czechoslovakian stamps

I’m going back on topic of Czechoslovakian stamps for a while, as I’ve got few more (minor) color shifts / registration errors to display. If somebody has access to specialized POFIS-catalog, I’d be very interested to know if some of these are listed.

First I have a 1954 definitive stamp with minor perforation shift. The [...]

Some interesting Soviet stamps

For the past few nights I’ve been working with my collection of Russian and Soviet stamps. Mainly I’ve been moving the collection to a pair of larger sized stock books, but I’ve also added some new stamps. Anyway, this brings me up to few questions some more knowledgeable collectors of this area might know an [...]

Private perforations on Czechoslovakian newspaper stamps

Last night I finished sorting the Czechoslovakian stamp horde I had been working for nearly 2 months. As a result, my humble collection of Czechoslovakian stamps grew from 40 pages to over 80 pages. I managed to fill a huge number of blank spaces for regular stamps, and also found several interesting varieties to [...]

Japanese 1898 parcel post revenue stamp

It’s been couple of rainy summer days, so I’ve had some good time to sort new stuff into my collection. Below is an bizarre item that defied my catalog lookup skills for couple of days. Finally I went online and searched for about hour before landing with definite answer. It’s an Japanese parcel post [...]

Australian Fine Art stamp series high values – color variation and specimen overprint

I assume most stamp collectors struggle with color variations. And I’m no exception. The other night I worked with some Australian stamps, and soon stumbled with minor color/hue changeling with one the Fine Art stamp series high values. How is a non-specialized stamp collector supposed to know what the stamp is supposed to really [...]

Swedish TuristPorto / tourist postage stamps

The Swedish tourist postage stamps, or TuristPorto stamps as called locally, were private courier stamps sold exclusively at holiday destinations abroad. Released by Nordic Mail AB (later Swedish and Danish Post) in mid 1990s, these stamps were available to thousands of Scandinavian travelers in Spanish holiday resorts.

During the trial period, between Dec 13th 1994 – [...]

Finnish parliamentary elections today – a ballot cancellation

As Finland is having 2011 Parliamentary elections today, here’s a bit of related cinderella: a ballot cancellation. Though this is likely the most used “official document” cancellations in Finland, it is also one of the rarest ones too, as the election ballots, covers etc. sealed with this are destroyed afterwards.

The only surviving copies I’ve [...]

Misdated postmarks and a Zeppelin

A couple of recent comments on the blog have touched Finnish stamps, so I decided to share some peculiar Finnish items from my collection.

My first item is a 1994 Moomin stamp. The below stamp was issued Jan 27th 1994 (in booklet), but I have a copy canceled in 1993! As the postmark appears to [...]

USA “A partridge in a pear tree stamp” – EFO or color changeling?

For last couple of weeks I’ve been on a business trip to Southern Finland. Fortunately it has not all been work without a play, as during the weekends I’ve had the possibility to visit all the local stamp shops. Most of the time I’ve simply looked around as most shops are specialized in Finnish stamps, [...]