Stamp Collector

69 MAY 2020 www.allaboutstamps.co.uk Collecting links For those who want to learn more about the ubiquitous Machins, Roy Simpson’s delightful Machinmania Bl stripped, or already combed by fine- toothed philatelic fingers to leave behind only dross. If, on the other hand, you poke around jumble sales, charity shops and street markets in less salubrious parts of town, you may stumble upon an album still holding a youngster’s collection from those now distant years. Arm yourself with sufficient knowledge to spot scarce postmarks, military mail, wartime slogans, stamps known to have occasional watermark abnormalities, colour and perforation oddities, even blocks of three or more low value definitives. Such are the mini-gems determined junk hunters can bring to light. Here’s another suggestion. Why not splash out on an already stripped album from the immediate pre- or post-war years and set about refilling it with stamps from those historic times? Imagine the admiration on people’s faces if you show them one of the dozen or so albums listed below brimming with stamps that match the album’s age. Why, it might make as much of a splash as John Lennon’s schoolboy accumulation! Here are the albums we recently discovered while browsing eBay and other sources… 1 US dealer RubyLane.com recently offered this 1930s Gigantic Stamp Album for US $35, describing it as: a lovely stamp album from the 1930s, with each major country having its own page. 2 Gotcha By The Books of Brisbane, Queenland, Australia recently had this E.T.A Postage Stamps Of The World Album in stock and offered at GB £67 plus shipping, describing it as good, in rubbed wrappers. The 130- page album was printed in Sydney by John Sands Ltd c.1932-1939 for H.E. Harris & Co of Boston, Sydney. 3 In 1932 the Nestle’s & Anglo- Swiss Condensed Milk Company promoted their 1d milk chocolate bars by giving a free poster stamp with every purchase. Regular buyers could obtain the Picture Stamp Album for their collections either in-store, or by writing to the company. The cover of Album No.1 depicted a bi-plane flying over countryside. Album No.2’s cover displayed Ancient Egyptian King Tutankhamen’s golden mask; while Album No.3 showed a polar bear in an Arctic landscape. Most children who collected those poster stamps soon progressed smoothly to philately. 4 Regular eBay seller budorob of Lexington, Virginia, USA offered The Wanderer Stamp Album, with a cover depicting a 1920s-30s biplane flying above the North Pole. Asking price was US $60 plus shipping. The seller added that: Thomas Cliffe of The Stamp Factory, Colwyn Bay, Wales published the album in the 1930s, advertising it with the slogan: Be a Wanderer and know the world through your stamp album. It had space for 5,000 stamps, information on all stamp issuing countries, and hundreds of stamp illustrations. (see page 71 for further information on The Stamp Factory.] 5 Long-term eBay dealer brucemw from Boynton Beach, Florida, USA recently offered this Around The World Stamp Book for just US $18 plus shipping. It was published in 1935 by Whitman Publishing Company, Racine, Wisconsin, USA. Described by the sellers as cover damaged at bottom right, the album had 400 undamaged pages within, with a collection of 800 stamps still hinged to them. Most readers will recognize the Sudan Postman stamp that inspired the illustration. The album has soft covers and only sparse country information; but its striking exterior highlights the exotic nature 4 5 6