At times I am amazed how one can still learn new tidbits of stamps even after 30 years of collecting.  While I was browsing through a philatelic dictionary on hot summer day, my eyes spotted something I had noticed on stamps every now and then, but never knew the official term or meaning behind the practice.  I’m talking about the printmaker’s abbreviations, and after a quick read I was more than intrigued to dig out some examples from my collection.

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Summer has arrived also here up north, and as usual I’m taking a small break from blogging and the online world to enjoy the summer sun and hopefully warm weathers.

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They say stamps of Fiume are riddled with forgeries, and indeed if looking at the excessive and lengthy articles and studies on subject, it looks as area to beware. As my collection of Fiume stamps grew threefold (into whooping 17% completion, lol) last week, I now have some first hand experience on subject. Of the fifty stamps I checked, only two turned out be fakes and one is so-and-so. So that would average around four-to-six fakes per each 100 stamp. It’s way more than with many countries, but lot less than I dreaded (or maybe I was just lucky). So what did I found?

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One of the most important tools of every stamp blogger (and author) are stamp images. For example SCB features closer to 5,000 stamp images (and increasing) from my collection. Though modern technology has made digital imagining easy, unfortunately a lot of collectors still struggle to scan images that look both realistic and attractive. Like most things involving technology, it all comes down to understanding how things work, and knowing some tips and tricks to spice up things.

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Possibly one of the best (and worst) sides of being a stamp blogger is that you get to meet a lot of people.  Thus it should not come as surprise that I’ve learned to know a lot of folks in philatelic publishing: journalists, authors, editors and even few small publishers.  All in all I would consider these folks as one of the brightest minds when it comes to stamps and collecting. Unlike most of us collectors, these folks follow and study stamps and the industry around it for living, and can devote days and nights to their passion.

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As some might have noted from my comment few months ago, I received new Michel Southeast Asia catalogue into my hands while back. As I’ve now perused the entire volume while working with Stamp Gems project, it is good time to share some of my impressions.

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Moving forth with the topic of Indonesian stamps, here’s one of my personal favorite stamp series: the Suharto definitives of 1980/87. The reason for my liking is very much personal one. One of my uncles worked in Indonesia at the time, and postcards sent to my family usually had few of these stamps on top. So in a way these stamps were among the first worldwide stamps that I ever faced and collected. According to Michel and other (western) catalogues these stamps have very little varieties. All values were printed in photogravure, there are no perforation varieties, no paper varieties etc.  The only difference mentioned in catalogues is that some values exist with two different years printed on the left side of the stamp.  But the reality is much more complex.

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Not sure why, but Indonesian postage stamps don’t seem to get much attention from us western collectors. In my opinion one of the most interesting aspects of Indonesian stamps are so called PELITA (acronym for Pembangunan Lima Tahun) stamps, which were issued in promotion of government 5-year plans. Besides South Korea and India, Suharto’s Indonesia was one of the few non-communist governments to adopt and use the 5-year economical planning method.

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An interesting marginal node in the history of Philippino stamps are so called Mosden stamps of 1968. Those recalling my various writings on stamp agency stamps might remember the name of Mosden. He was an US based stamp dealer running various philatelic agency activities internationally, and in late 1960s managed to get a deal with Philippines government on stamp production. These stamps are given roman numerals (never officially issued) in Michel, whereas Scott leaves them totally without recognition.

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Without further talks it is time to kick the monthly stamp gems extravaganza ahead. As always hope you enjoy 😉

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