USA 1957 - 1964

Champion of Liberty - The Champions of Liberty series honors a select group of people who strived for freedom, no matter what the odds. Ramon Magsaysay, the former president of the Phillipines, was the first to be honored by the series.

I have all the stamps in the series and I'm most proud of the set that honors Mahatma Gandhi. Can be seen on the third picture on the left below

1960-61 American credo series
Each stamp from the series features a quote from a historically important American. The stamps are fashioned to resemble colonial currency. Also, symbols that relate to the statement are incorporated into the designs, as well as a likeness of the author's signature. The first contains a statement taken from George Washington's farewell advice to America, specifically those who would be leading the government in the future. All of the credos are important facets of the uniquely american point of view.
I do not have the Lincoln - Credo yet here. Ones you see in the picture on the right above are:
Credo - Washington
Credo - Franklin
Credo - Jefferson
Credo - Key
Credo - Henry

The Project Mercury stamp features the ''Friendship 7'' space capsule flown by John Glenn in the first successful orbit of the Earth. It was printed and distributed to 305 post offices in sealed pouches, long before John Glenn even left on his historic flight. On his safe return, February 20, 1960 at 3:30 pm., Postal headquarters ordered the pouches be opened. Within 1 1/2 hours, many offices sold out their stock

U.S. #1204 was a “Special Issue,” ordered by Postmaster General J. Edward Day in response to an error on U.S. #1203. After a color invert on the yellow background (The yellow background was inverted in relation to the foreground images creating white strips and blotches) was found on the 1962 Dag Hammarskjold stamp, Day ordered a reprinting of the stamp – with the error. A printing of 40 million stamps was made so that the error would not be regarded as a valuable rarity. The special printing was called “Day’s Folly.”

The 5-cent City Mail delivery stamp was issued for the 100th anniversary of Congress' authorization of free mail delivery in cities with a population of 20,000 or greater. Art-work by Norman Rockwell portraying a city letter carrier is featured on the stamp.

The 1964 Christmas stamps were the first American se-tenants. I do not have the se-tenant here, only the individual stamps, but will be more than happy to have one.

Do feel free to add your thoughts, comments or suggestions
NOTE: Please click on the images for a larger view / closer look.

USA - Aeronautics Conference - 1928

The International Civil Aeronautics Conference of 1928 was established to commemorate the 25th anniversary of powered flight by the Wright brothers. The conference was attended by delegates from around the world as well as hundreds of American dignitaries and aviation pioneers including Orville Wright.

The Wright brothers success is primarily responsible for about 25000+  commercial flights to USA alone. This is excluding private planes, planes to hire, military and air-cargo flights. 

Two different stamps were issued for the conference, a red two cent stamp featuring the Wright Brother’s airplane and a blue five cent stamp featuring a then current airplane over a globe that you can see in the picture below. Both stamps also feature the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capital building. I do not have the Wright brother's airplane stamp in my collection.

1928, Dec. 12

5c blue, Globe and then airplane

The Conference concluded with a trip to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (the site of the Wright brother’s first flight) on December 17th, exactly 25 years after their historic flight. After a final trip back to Washington, D.C., the conference ended.

The International Civil Aeronautics Conference has been essentially forgotten over the years, but the two striking postage stamps that were issued to commemorate it remain.

It also looks like an error of a print shift in the stamp above which frankly, I had not noticed before. Actually now, I would like to have both the stamps from this set of two of the 1928 conference.

Do feel free to add your thoughts, comments or suggestions

NOTE: Please click on the images for a larger view / closer look.

Errors on Stamps

I am no collector of errors on stamps and hence have never particularly tried to get my hands on any. The following sheet was a chance find when I was at the PO here, buying sheets to send across to some of my trade friends. I do not intend to part with it and it goes straight into my stock album of Indian miniature sheets.

Errors can be of various kinds spanning design errors and production errors, which could be further sub-classified into mirror and upside down images, letters and figures, dates and events, colour shifts, miscuts, perforation errors, errors with or in overprints. Some of these may be rare and of very high value, while some others are not so.

This one is a classic example of perforation errors on stamps. As you can see, there is a huge shift in the horizontal perforations. To see it better, I am putting up a picture of the back of the sheet too. Very interesting find.

So, am I going to venture into another area of this vast, amazing world of errors on stamps? At this point in time, I am not so sure, but such chance finds will always find place in my collection. I may, though, soon look specifically for errors in stamps of USA, UK, Canada, Australia. Or maybe, not until I have got hold of most of the regular ones from each of these countries.

Do feel free to add your thoughts, comments or suggestions
NOTE: Please click on the images for a larger view / closer look.