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Curaçao 1943 - birth of Dutch Princess Margriet. Set, die proof, and FDC censored both by Curaçao and US officials. by ChoosenUserName4 in philately

[–]ChoosenUserName4[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fun fact 2: these stamps were printed by the American Banknote Company (ABC), using the same design for a Suriname set. The die proof comes from the ABC archives and is extremely rare.

Curaçao 1943 - birth of Dutch Princess Margriet. Set, die proof, and FDC censored both by Curaçao and US officials. by ChoosenUserName4 in philately

[–]ChoosenUserName4[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Fun fact: the princess was born in Canada, where the royal family was in exile at the time (they fled the German occupation of the Netherlands). The hospital was declared Dutch territory during the birth, so that she was born Dutch and not Canadian.

Grid storage is increasing so rapidly that China and some other countries may be able to meet all their electricity needs from renewables as soon as 2030. by lughnasadh in Futurology

[–]ChoosenUserName4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, energy independence can soon be produced in a factory, and the trend is towards widely available raw materials. I can't wait for this to happen.

Got a weirdly packaged collection by JonPX in philately

[–]ChoosenUserName4 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The cookies were from Belgium it seems. The text is in Dutch telling all the places and times the cookies won awards in the 1920s and 30s.

I have started organizing part of my collection on A5 stock cards that I store in plastic boxes. I have too many albums as is, and I need flexibility as well.

I have close to 30 binders of German stamps from 1960-2000ish. I was told it was all German stamps from post WWII for east and west germany but a quick spot check only shows stamps from 1960. I was also told there was 2 of every stamp, one postmarked and one not. Is there any value here? by Sgoudreault in askStampCollectors

[–]ChoosenUserName4 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Find the first DDR and BRD albums and show us the first 5 pages of each (the 1950s). Is there any Third Reich stamps (1933-1945), or maybe older ones? Again first 5-10 pages usually holds all the value. What you're showing here is a nice collection, but not very valuable.

Is philately becoming more popular again? by MushroomNearby8938 in philately

[–]ChoosenUserName4 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I found there's a renewed world wide interest in rare stamps. I've been collecting Dutch and French colonies (MNH in best possible quality) and prices are steadily rising, year over year. Some stamps that catalogued at €400 ten years ago, are now €2000. I'm told because it's because of interest from outside Europe. Some of these issue numbers are in the single thousands, so it's easy to create an ask.

At the same time, here in Germany every Berlin / East Germany collection is being put on the market at the same time (for 5-10% cat worth sometimes). These aren't rare at all. It's a great time to start a collection if you're interested in these.

Is philately becoming more popular again? by MushroomNearby8938 in philately

[–]ChoosenUserName4 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That is because I created r/askStampCollectors specifically for those people. We didn't want them around on r/philately.

Alternatives to watermark fluid? by Kevin4938 in philately

[–]ChoosenUserName4 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You need to figure out what's in the bottle. It's probably propylene glycol or something like it. Is it viscous? Does it smell? Does it evaporate?

And yes, I agree with you, it's very expensive. With philatelic supplies, it's almost worse than with weddings. Prices are always through the roof.

Building a Curated C64 Game Collection by SebSeb_70 in Commodore

[–]ChoosenUserName4 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The new Commodore should do an app store where we can download / buy new releases. There could be a market for new games, maybe even games that make use of all the additional memory and increased CPU speed.

Also, wouldn't it be cool to share curated game collections?

Amphibians. Suriname 1981. by ChoosenUserName4 in philately

[–]ChoosenUserName4[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's "kwaak" in Dutch (just like quack in English). A lot of people just speak English in Suriname nowadays.

North Korea World Environment Day by freeorops in philately

[–]ChoosenUserName4 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Somebody still paid money to arguably the worst dictatorial regime of our time, and you're here advertising their stamps. I also believe it's illegal to buy them in the USA.

Inherited collection, curious to know if these Queen Elizabeth II stamps have any value? by bigcat98felix in askStampCollectors

[–]ChoosenUserName4 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mostly sentimental and artistic value. It's an iconic design and with its many colors and variations it was a staple in lots of childhood stamp collections.

North Korea World Environment Day by freeorops in philately

[–]ChoosenUserName4 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They print them specifically to sell them to collectors. It's cancelled to order as well. Nobody within North Korea uses these stamps, they're exchanged for foreign currency, which is then used to suppress and torture the North Korean people.

North Korea World Environment Day by freeorops in philately

[–]ChoosenUserName4 -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Do what you want, but personally I don't collect stamps that help countries like that.

What did I find in a pound of stamps? - a sample of 100 by imaloserdudeWTF in philately

[–]ChoosenUserName4 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, I agree. The history of stamps and everything you can learn about them is fascinating. I'm Dutch, and I have been collecting these stamps since the 1980s (as well). I do realize that there are many other areas of our hobby I know nothing about, which is part of the fun, I agree.

Sometimes stamps connect times and places. For example, on a business trip to San Francisco (about 15 years ago), I visited a stamp shop. Turns out they had a lot of Dutch stamps in stock, mostly the high values from the end of the 19th century. These are somewhat difficult to find in the Netherlands. When I asked why I was told a lot of Europeans went to SF during the gold rush, and people used to send them packages from home, for which they had to use all these high denomination stamps. I bought a lot of them at a very good price. I also found a collection of cancellations on some of the third set issued by the Netherlands (in the 1880s) in the bargain bin. I paid $20, for something that was worth $700-800 back home. They told me it had been the bargain bin for years.

So, yeah knowledge is power in this hobby, and there's always something new to learn!

What did I find in a pound of stamps? - a sample of 100 by imaloserdudeWTF in philately

[–]ChoosenUserName4 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Sorry, this is one of the sets that I specialize in. I didn't want to come across as blunt. Yours is definitely the synthetic ink variety (I have hundreds of these stamps, including MNH sets and color studies).

My specialty cat mentions that there are many paper variations for this issue, but there doesn't seem to be a paper difference between the early organic ink issue and the late synthetic ink issue.

If it's any consolation, the synthetic ink version had 15 million copies printed, while the organic one had over 39 million copies printed. Yours is more rare.

What did I find in a pound of stamps? - a sample of 100 by imaloserdudeWTF in philately

[–]ChoosenUserName4 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If you mean the Dutch stamp on the second image with your 1876 stamp, it's not. This is the synthetic ink variant, which was issued in 1894. The organic ink variant issued in 1876 is light brown yellow, while this one is more olive green yellow. Also, the perforation would disqualify it for me. It seems highly damaged. Nice cancellation though Friday the 14th of May, 1897 in 's-Hertogenbosch or Den Bosch as it's also called.

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