CougarStadium Philatelic Society Thread (aka postage stamps)

[BYUMizzou]

I don't believe we have a thread on this yet. I'm not a stamp collector, but I've always had a lukewarm interest in unique postage stamps. When I was a kid, a family member was an editor at the Ensign magazine and would save all the stamps on letters that came in from all over the world and forward them to me. I began collecting them, which involved soaking them in water to detach the stamp from the envelope paper, drying them, and then sorting them and mounting them in an album. After some time, I became more interested in girls, sports, cars, school, etc., and forgot about my brief interest in postage stamps.

Fast forward a few decades later, and I have a client who repeatedly sends letters and packages with what appeared to be unusual stamps. Lots of stamps. Here's an example from a few weeks ago:



The two pink and two red monochrome stamps caught my eye for some reason. They just looked old. There was no glossy sheen like you'd see on a modern stamp, so I started looking up info on the stamps online. The newest stamp he used was 34 years old. The red Gadson Purchase 3 cent stamps were sold in 1953. The pink Washington National Capital Sesquicentennial stamps were sold in 1950. The newest stamps are the "disabled doesn't mean unable" and the "Yorktown 1781" stamps (both produced in 1981) and Carl Schurz (1983).

After doing some research, I emailed the client to let him know I enjoyed looking at the stamps he used. His reply:

I buried a cousin of a good friend who was quite eccentric. He had never married and lived with his unmarried sister. He would buy sheets and sheets of stamps and probably had a stack of them 10 inches thick. My friend would mail me cards with the stamps on them which I thought were very interesting. I told them I would help them out by buying a bunch of them. I have 2s, 3s, 4s, 6s, 8s, tens, 13s, 15s, 18s, and 21s.
After the gentlemen's death they took them to a stamp dealer and he said that they really didn't have any value, you might as well used them as postage. I enjoy adding up the values trying to use as many stamps as possible to equal the 47 cents. I'm sure that the postal employees enjoy this also when the automatic reader kicks them out of the line.

I do realize the irony in sending an email to discuss stamps used on his written correspondence.

In today's mail I received another letter with a new stamp:

The Commercial Aviation stamp is from 1976.

This is probably boring to death for most, but maybe a few might find it interesting. Are there any secret stamp collectors on the board? With the rise of electronic communication and digitally applied postage, I imagine that stamp collecting is a hobby that will fade into history.

[Joe Public]

Does the USPS not cancel stamps that are used for postage nowadays?

[creekster]

I had a pretty extensive stamp collection when I was a kid. But it is currently locked in my mother's basement and I havent looked at it in years. Your post has triggered my memories, however, and I will dig it out next time I visit my mother.

[falafel]

I've never collected stamps, but I do find those old stamps interesting. I like your client's style of using the largest number of stamps possible to reach 47 cents.

[falafel]

I had a pretty extensive stamp collection when I was a kid. But it is currently locked in my mother's basement and I havent looked at it in years. Your post has triggered my memories, however, and I will dig it out next time I visit my mother.

I'm going to bet the don't on this one.

[Pelado]

I enjoyed Charade.