Inside Linn’s: Eye-catching used stamps require patience to find

By Charles Snee

The March 6 digital-only issue of Linn’s Stamp News will be available to subscribers Saturday, Feb. 18. While you wait for your issue to arrive, enjoy these three quick glimpses of exclusive content available only to subscribers. 

Eye-catching used stamps require patience to find

Attractive used examples of United States high-denomination stamps, as Charles Snee explains in Dollar-Sign Stamps, “require some diligence (and, in my case, patience) to locate.” He starts off with a used plate number block of four of the 1979 $1 Rush Lamp and Candleholder (Scott 1610) from the 1975-81 Americana series. “I have a bit of a soft spot for the Americana stamps because they were current when I was a young collector just getting started in the hobby,” Snee writes. Another nice item that Snee highlights is pictured here: a used on-piece 2000 Escaping the Gravity of Earth souvenir sheet containing two holographic $3.20 Priority Mail stamps. Read the full column to see and learn about the other two stamps that grabbed Snee’s attention.

Four decades of computers and stamps

“A lot has changed in the computer world since I started writing for Linn’s 40 years ago,” writes William F. Sharpe in Computer and Stamps. In the beginning, Sharpe didn’t own a printer. He typed his columns on a typewriter and mailed them to Linn’s. He purchased his first personal computer in 1984, which greatly simplified the writing process. He kept mailing his columns until email became commonplace. To show how much technology has improved, Sharpe pictures two album pages that he created. The first is an early example made using a program that could create rectangular blocks using special characters. The second was made much later using a more sophisticated graphics-oriented program. The differences between the two are quite remarkable. He also mentions some computer-related stamps, including his favorite, which is not from the United States.

Kitchen Table Philately: worldwide stamps from a large hoard

In each weekly issue of Linn’s, either E. Rawolik VI or E. Rawolik VII dissects the contents of a stamp mixture offered to collectors. E. Rawolik is a pseudonym that is also the word “kiloware” (a stamp mixture) spelled backward. This week, E. Rawolik VI reviews half of a mixture of worldwide stamps from a seller on eBay. According to Rawolik, the seller’s description “mentioned low duplication, mint, used, hinged, unhinged, canceled-to-order, singles, mini sheets, sets and part sets, on album pages, loose in envelopes, in glassines and stock cards.” Most of the stamps (81 percent) were valued at the Scott catalog minimum of 25¢, and the years of issue ranged from 1893 to 1997. Enjoy the full review in this issue.

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