Blog slogging

The world is a crazy place. According to the calendar, it's spring. According to the inch of new snow on top of my car this morning, it's still winter. This is Colorado, and that's not terribly unusual. As one wit quipped, this is the only state where you can truly experience four seasons, sometimes in the same afternoon.

The weather isn't fun for me, because I have osteoarthritis in half or more of my joints. This kind of weather makes me reach for the pain reliever - often. Working on stamps - and now on my stamp blog - helps take my mind off my problems, and makes me focus on what I'm doing.

I'm still working on the box I bought from Shayne. It's been a VERY good box for my collection. I was missing about 14 of the Silver Wedding Anniversary low-values. All the ones I was missing were in the box, sometimes in both mint and used copies. There was a complete, lightly-hinged mint set from Bermuda (Scott 175-91, the 1962-65 definitives), and a fine used copy of Scott #58, the 3d violet and yellow on chalky paper, also from Bermuda. I now have both the first and second definitive sets of Bermuda complete. I now need about half of the decimal conversion (surcharged) issue, the $3 Chalice cup flower definitive, and three of the Bermudas Fauna series. I have about half the commemoratives through about 1985, and maybe 20% of the ones after that. I like the stamps of Bermuda - it's a fun country to collect!

How about this? This was in there, too. Gorgeous stamp, isn't it? Near-perfect centering, beautiful color, four margins (barely)...





Unfortunately, it's an excellent reproduction of the redrawn die, which was never issued in black. It's probably a forgery or a piece from a stamp exhibit sheet. I have an Australian sheet like that, here:




The real stamps would be worth $4000. The sheet was sent to me by a friend in Australia I'd been stationed with at Tan Son Nhut AB, Vietnam, in 1970-71, and cost my friend less than $4. This sheet is probably about the closest I'll ever get to the real things... But miracles do happen, and there's always hope. That's one reason why I love "mystery boxes", "old dealer's stock", and "unsorted mission mixture". I've found good, high-value stamps in almost all of them at one time or another, and that's always exciting. The thrill of the search is often more enjoyable than the actual find, but a a true 'find' now and then adds spice to the search!