Bulgaria

Formerly a Turkish province; a principality under Turkish suzerainty from 1878 to 1908, when an independent kingdom was proclaimed. A People's Republic since 1946.

 1961 70th Anniv of First Bulgarian Social Democratic Party Congress, Buzludzha.
Dimitur Blagoev as Orator

1962 Bulgarian Merchant Navy. Complete Set
Freighter “Varna”
Tanker “Komsomols”
Liner “Georgi Dimitrov”

1985 Flowers. Complete Set
Gladiolus;
Garden iris; 
Dwarf morning glory; 
Morning glory; 
“Anemone coronaria”; 
Golden-rayed lily.

Miniature Sheets

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Covers from South America Pt 2, Country #35

And this one from Aruba. Carlo Eduardo from Brazil was kind enough to send me some stamps and this cover when he was on vacation in Aruba. Can't thank him enough.
Aruba is an island in the Caribbean, formerly part of Netherlands Antilles. In 1986 became an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. For me this is a great addition to my collection.

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Covers from South America Pt 1, Country #34

Yesterday I received two covers from South America. My first cover from Argentina and Aruba and yes I was delighted. Heres the one from Argentina. Thanks Pier Simonelli for the stamps and the cover.

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Cover - Japan, Country #33

My first cover from Japan. The miniature sheet on it is a 2009 issue of the 20th Anniv of Enthronement of Emperor Akihito.

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Cover - Bulgaria, Country #32

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Cover - Malaysia, Country #31

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Cover - Turkey, Country #30

Ok, latey Ive been receiving some nice covers but some of them have come ripped and torn right in the middle. All the tears appeared to have made purposely. I ignored it the first two times but when it kept happening, yeah five covers so far were torn, I decided to do something. I went up to the local PO and made a complain suggesting them that I seriously doubt the postman delivering the letters. So far after that covers have been coming all OK.

This one though was one of the five torn ones.

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Cover from Malta, Country #29

Received a cover and a lot of Maltese stamps lately. I like this cover a lot. Nice choice of stamps. Thanks Martin for the cover as well as the stamps.

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Cover - Singapore, Country #28

My first cover from Singapore and a really nice one. Nice stamps, beautiful cover. Cancellations are pretty clear too. Perfect.

Thanks Santosh Maharana.

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China FDC

Hubin has been kind enough to send me another FDC. This one carries a set of two special stamps entitled "Ocean Shipping of China" with a total face value of 2.40 yuan. The pictures on the stamps are entitled "Container Transport" and "Bulk Shipping".
Thanks Hubin

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One more from the Netherlands

Henk sends me another cover and more stamps. Thanks Henk

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Cover from France, Country #27

My first cover from France. Thanks Jemmy.

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Cover - Czech Republic

One more from Jan. Really nice stamps on the cover. Thank you so much Jan Soska.

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Covers - Italy, Country #26

Lately, I received two lovely covers from Italy. Beautiful stamps and a MS on the covers. Thanks Omar and Giorgio for the nice covers.

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How I Store My Stamps!!!

There are many methods of storing stamps. And collectors have their own preferred methods. Of all these methods of storage there is no one single correct or wrong way of storage. Having said that, there are pluses and minuses to each storage method and some may be more economical than others.

Following are the various storage methods most of us know of.

·         Stock Books

·         Stock Sheets in Binders

·         Printed Stamp Albums

·         Stock cards

·         Self made Stamp sheets

Some important pointers on stamps storage which I have learnt through my own experience and also through reading interesting articles on the topic:

1) Stamps, covers, albums and stock books should be stored in an area where humidity and temperature levels are moderate.

2) Albums and stock books should not be stuffed with stamps or pages. This is especially true in case of sheets, printed stamp pages stored in binders. When pages are packed tight with stamps, the adhesive has an even greater chance of sticking to the page.

3) Albums and stock books should be stored upright.

When an album lies flat on its side, the weight of the pages on top puts a lot of pressure onto the bottom pages. Storing the album upright distributes that weight evenly and reduces the pressure on both the stamps and the album binder.

Almost all of my stamps are stored in either stock books or stock sheets.  I store them upright in a book shelf dedicated entirely to my stamps and covers collection. I have part of my GB collection stored in a printed stamp album using stamp hinges. However I plan to sooner or later unmount them off the hinges and store them in stock books.

Following is a picture of my cover collection and as of now I have stored them in these boxes you see, one for each continent. And my collection is slowly but steadily growing. No covers from the antartic territories yet hence no seventh box in there. I intend to have atleast one cover addressed to me from each of the countries so the goal is to have atleast 197.

Well the empty rack in between is for stamp catalogues I wish to have and ofcourse more stock books. Sometime soon the six volume set of SOTW by Stanley Gibbons will fill the empty space.  

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