Topics--and high speed internet connection

I am always fascinated in the variety of topics collected by all of you. The sheer number of unique collecting ideas that everyone comes up with just proves that philately is a completely individualized pursuit.
Collecting a topic or a theme can be pursued in a very specialized manner, or in a more lighthearted way as a diversion perhaps from one's more specialized country or other collections. Within my own family, my children and I collect or have collected at various times, horses, giraffes, medical/health, dragons, Lunar New Years/Eastern zodiac, turtles, items depicting the settlement of Western North America, World War II, and I'm sure I'm probably missing a few.
Amongst the collectors I trade with, I have met over the years collectors who fancy women on stamps, chess, music and ballet, trains, monkeys, Bible- related art, Jewish history, orchids, dinosaurs, Madonna and Child artwork, and many other varied topics. While pondering this plethora of creative collecting themes, I thought it might be fun to see what sites I could find that are related to specific topics, and list some of them here for you.

Here are a few excellent topical references that I came across:

Prehistoric Animals:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/delacroix/

Birds (this one is very comprehensive):
http://www.bird-stamps.org/

Famous Women:
http://www.geocities.com/ZOMIRP/st-galer-aa-okvir.htm

Chess:
http://www.faulquemont.com/phil.html

Sea Turtles:
http://www.2xtreme.net/~nlinsley/

There are many, many more sites about topicals, and I chose these for their breadth of subject and because they all dealt with topics which I had mentioned above.
I would love to hear about everyone's topics, especially any unique or highly creative ones.


The other thing I wanted to mention is that our little dead end road on the mountaintop finally has DSL high speed internet connection. That is why I haven't posted in over a week. They've been working on the phone lines on our street and my service has been spotty at best. But that should all be over now, and I am finally set up with a DSL connection and a wireless router so that the whole family can use the net. My dear friend Bryan went out of his way to come over today just as the phone technician was finishing installing the filters on our connection box. He gave us the router we needed, set everything up, and made sure it was all working properly. He has a computer company, and built and maintains 4 computers for our family. Thanks, Bryan! :o) That should allow me to post pictures here much more easily, and keep in touch with everyone as well.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Kiloware arrived

Yesterday my Great Britain kiloware arrived and I am quite pleased with it. It is 2 kilos total. I ordered 1 kilo of GB closely trimmed, unpicked mixture, and 1 kilo of GB trimmed close, (in order to see the difference between the 2 mixes). It was ordered from a charity in GB.
It is mainly very recent, and in excellend condition. It appears as if damaged material was removed where it was noticed, as this mix has less than a normal percentage of damaged that I see in kiloware from charities or office mixes.
Here are scans of a representative sample from the 2 mixes:


This is the trimmed mix. It is very nicely close trimmed, and definitely yields more stamps per kilo. But there was less variety in this one than the untrimmed/unpicked mixture.











The untrimmed mixture below showed more variety, more different commemoratives, and a nice smattering of Channel Islands and foreign countries. I found stamps from places as diverse as New Zealand, Gambia, South Africa, and Germany. Overall I am quite pleased with the entire parcel, and am going to see about ordering other items from this charity as well as more of this mixture down the road when the variety changes. They have worldwide stamps mixtures available also.




The most common stamp found in either bag of stamps was the first class gold Machin. There were also plenty of other nice Machins.






Anyone interested in trading for any of this material, let me know! I will be working on soaking over the next few days, but I can send stuff still on paper also. Do you have some interesting stamps on paper that you want to trade? You can trade some of your on paper mix for mine if you have any on paper stamps that either my kids or I collect. Just email me and ask- we're very flexible. I also have an older Machin/GB mixture, and can send some of either or both if you would like.


Suzi

suziboyer@gmail.com

Washington 2006 item requests, Queen's Birthday

I have been receiving many requests to pick up various small items for my stamp friends at the show.
I will be making up a shopping list for the show, so if you can all help me out and send a note to my gmail (suziboyer@gmail.com) reminding me what you are looking for that would be great. I will save all of your emails in a special folder and use them to make up my list. I already have some emails filed, and some items on my list, but I want to make sure no one is forgotten.
Thanks for your help!

On another note, I have been working a lot of hours lately, but I received some lovely stamps from a friend in Malaysia. I will have some scans to post soon.

I have had a few responses to my requests for the GB Ice Age Animals set, so thanks to those who are willing to help.

Finally, I just had the time to take a good look at the stamps issued by the Royal Post for the 80th birthday of the Queen, and I think they are quite lovely. I even found a nice article about them in Hello magazine. I'm always interestedin sarticle about stamps that are in the non-philatelic press, so to speak. Here is the link:http://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/2006/04/11/queenstamps/


~~Suzi~~
suziboyer@gmail.com

Great Britain Prehistoric Animals stamps wanted

I am very interested in acquiring these stamps postally used, and am looking for a set both for myself and also for a friend who has asked for them. I would like to be able to fulfill his request, but have had trouble finding recent used Great Britain. If someone wants to send some on a cover to me, or has them used, just let me know what you would like in exchange. I will be attending Washington 2006 (barring any major catastrophes) so I should be able to pick up items being released there by the Philatelic Bureaus attending. You can find out the stamps that are being released at the show by going to http://www.washington-2006.org/wstamps.htm .

Please let me know if you can trade used copies of these stamps. Thanks for everyone's help!

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

South Africa printing debris flaw

As I was taking apart the South Africa bundleware that I mentioned earlier, and sorting through the stamps to remove the damaged ones, I found this interesting printing flaw on the 4c Emily Hobhouse stamp of 1976.
There is a place where the ink did not adhere due to some sort of debris. I have circled the flaw and put some normal stamps for comparison.

According to Gibbons this stamp was printed by lithography. Since the debris was moving around, and interfered with all ink colors, I believe it would have to have been on the blanket, which means this flaw could possibly have been on several plates of this stamp. Anyone else out there have multiples of this stamp? If so, have you noticed any similar flaws--remember, it would be moving around, so could be anywhere on the stamp. Please let me know if you have seen anything like this on the same stamp. Thanks.

Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

I have been sorting more Machins

In the process of sorting Machins in order to trade with some stamp friends, I remembered that there was some very good Machin information in an old club handbook that I had around. Just a reminder that sometimes the information you get in club newsletters and the like is often never published anywhere else, and can be quite useful, so don't throw out all those old newsletters until you're sure you don't need them.
I had, a few years ago, the fortune to be the winning bidder on a large, heavy auction lot of supplies and literature. The literature was what I was mainly interested in. It contained a great deal of useful information, some of it quite old. The stuff I wasn't going to utilize myself I have traded with others for literature that I know I will use. In this lot, in addition to several specialized catalogues and similar materials, was 2 binders of clippings saved from old philatelic journals. They are very interesting. As I read through some of them, I will see if any of the stories seem as if they would be interesting to write about here. I am not sure what to do with this information. Some of it is in not poor shape , with fading and discolorations, so I photocopied the whole lot and darkened the faded material. There is a lot of information to be found, much of it about Australia, and other Commonwealth countries. For now I am saving everything.
Any advice would be appreciated.


Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

The rest of the pictures I promised I'd post

Dreya is holding her Japanese collection which she is very proud of. She has a great start on a collection, with the potential for a lot of expansion and specialization. If anyone is interested in trading Japanese stamps with us, Dreya is always looking. She is also always on the lookout for pertinent information to assist in the study of these stamps.





I haven't mentioned my wonderful husband, Wynne, because he doesn't share our stamp obsession. He has a different obsession. He is a very talented restorer and customizer of classic cars. Wynne does exacting work for demanding clients, with outstanding results. He enjoys his job and has had a lifelong interest in all things automotive.

The cars below are for customers, but the truck is Wynne's personal customized hot rod.
If anyone is interested in any more info on classic cars, you can email me privately. Now I will return to discussing stamps.
Suzi
suziboyer@gmail.com

Pictures and too many stamps

My daughter has been trying to get me to put pictures of her and of some of our stamps on here for some time, so today I have decided to post some of those pictures.
Here are Dreya & I surrounded by 2 of my 5 boxes of Machins and a box of South Africa stamps.


I have been trying to work on sorting and soaking as much as possible before my new kiloware arrives. I had a huge mess of stamps in my library this weekend, and we took some pictures.

Here are some assorted Worldwide stamps that are coming out of my drying books and getting sorted by country.











Once they are sorted by country, they get put in glassines and filed alphabetically by country name. When I have a large quantity for a certain country, those are sorted by denomination and identified. Once I have identified stamps by catalog number or at least year of issue, I file them in the green file boxes if they are countries that I collect.






I tried to add a picture of Dreya and also of my desk area, but Blogger doesn't seem to like them. I think I may have too many on this one post. I will put them in another post and see if that works.

Suzi

suziboyer@gmail.com