Once Upon a Time in the Good Old Days - Part 1

The Way Philately USED To Be

I'm a sad traditionalist and far too sentimental. I embrace change (see me blogging?), but I yearn for the past and what I perceive to be the better and less hectic life it offered. Of course, anyone who lived through the "better" times knows that they actually weren't better, but it's how sentimental people like me like to think.

So much has changed in our hobby, especially in the internet era, that it might be fun to time travel back to a more genteel time for our hobby. 

It was a time when there used to be strange places called Stamp Shops, where collectors could see the wares in albums, windows and wall displays, and were served by men in suits. 

Shops like this one. The premises of W.S. Lincoln of Oxford Street, London. The picture was found in an old Lincoln album. Note the caption - "The Largest Stamp Shop in the World". That's the kind of advertising that wouldn't be allowed today without proof!

The inside of the shop was a veritable Aladdin's cave. 

A Fantastic Idea For All Collectors

I was put onto this fantastic album the other day, and had to buy one.

It's a Single Stamp Gazetteer Album. It's really easy, all you need to do is to collect one stamp from every stamp issuing country/entity. 

Easy? Not really, as it includes all the "dead" ones as well. Whilst it may be easy to collect the current countries (under 200) there are spaces for 612 stamps in this album! When was the last time a stamp from Romagna (Italian state, with one issue in 1859), Tete (Portuguese African colony with issues from 1913-14) or Ile Rouad (French Mandate in Syria issued in 1916) turned up in your spares?

This is, perhaps, a lifelong quest that may get expensive. Do you choose a "pretty" stamp from each one (or the prettiest they ever issued!), or the oldest, or something representative that makes you think of the source?

Here's a sample page. A short bio, a map and space for a single stamp. "Live" countries are headed in black, "dead" in grey

This is the type of thing that will invigorate flagging philatelists and act as a learning tool for any child or group. If I had my way, it would be a compulsory part of the Social Science curriculum!

I have NO affiliation with the publishers of this fantastic album, Terranova Publishing, other than being their customer.

Visit their website and check it out. US$65 + postage, or bid for one one Ebay

Highly recommended