BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps

Subject: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Mar 12 - 03:40 PM

I remember, years ago, seeing, and getting, requests for stamps from kids in foreign countries.
Many kids in my grade school had collections, and we learned much about geography and history from them. We sent letters to post offices in countries all over the world, asking that they be given to someone who might write back, including stamps from their country. The requests were often answered, leading to interesting correspondence, and many little pieces of paper that were put into cheap stamp albums that were available from most dime, book, and stationery stores.
I particularly remember the letters and stamps depicting African peoples and animals that I received, as a pre-teen, from someone in Kampala, Uganda.

Teachers tell me that this hobby has died, the result of television and the internet.

Do any mudcats remember this collecting phase that many kids went through?

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Mar 12 - 04:19 PM

I know a boy who collects stamps. I doubt very much that he is alone.

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 11 Mar 12 - 04:26 PM

Oh no alive and well, I gave away thousands and thousands from every estate sale that I went to and still go to. I buy them for friends kids .. Kids love them .. My friends little boys take them out look them up put them in their envelopes and mark what country what date ... still incredibly popular for little boys and girls and all the little neighbor kids all love them to collect.

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Mar 12 - 05:07 PM

Glad to hear it. So many kids just play the inane computer games. I still save stamps from letters and packages, but have no one to give them to.

When I was a kid, I lived near the state capital office building. The waste paper was dumped in a large recess at an angle in the building, from where it was collected and baled for disposal. Three or four of us went there almost daily and salvaged the stamps, which came from all over. I collected New Mexico (where this was) town postmarks for a while, and got most of them. Still have them in a box somewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: MartinRyan
Date: 11 Mar 12 - 05:18 PM

Many kids in my grade school had collections, and we learned much about geography and history from them

Some fifty years ago, I remember a classmate of mine who used to attempt to cheat at Geography examinations by having stamps showing maps of various countries, stuck to a handkerchief in his pocket!

Regards

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Mar 12 - 05:23 PM

I was moderately serious about stamps when I was between 11-15 or so... had a BIG album (Master Global)...and I had begun to specialize in Hungary.

There was an old man who was a dealer near me, and I also sent away for a couple of deals.
'
(I also collected..(well, accumulated) matchbook covers even earlier..9-12 or so. Pasted them in cheap albums.)

Then from 19-23 or so, I got into U.S. coins. That can get expensive. Finally sold my 1909-1944 pennies.

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Mar 12 - 05:44 PM

Bill D-
My parents, in the 30s, had a government job that entailed staying in various cities for a month or more at a time. To pass the time after dinner, in their hotel room, they would sort through rolls of pennies, dimes, and nickels obtained from the banks. They would sort the coins by date and condition, and got complete penny (1909 on) and dime sets, and I think most of the nickels as well as some better quarters and halves. Still have them in a steamer trunk, along with stuff I have added. I think it would take 4 men to shift the weight.

I guess once the collecting bugs bite, the illness is permanent. Still working on a Japanese postage stamp collection, and Canadian coins.

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Mar 12 - 05:55 PM

Oh...my! That would be quite a collection! Even 'average' copies of some of those bring quite a premium. Ever have the important stuff appraised?

(I was 3/4 of the way to an 'extremely fine' set of Lincoln cents..including the best 1921-S penny anyone ever saw)(I had copies of everything except the 55 double-die, but only moderate examples of some other rare ones.) I still have 1941-1961 in EX-fine.
I worked in grocery stores at the cash register in 1955-1962 and found a lot that way.

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: Bettynh
Date: 11 Mar 12 - 05:58 PM

I had a small handful of wheat-ear pennies in my last yardsale of the season. A dealer complained that at my price (50 cents) he'd never make any money, and a 7-year old was big-eyed contemplating owning something a hundred years old. The kid got the pennies and a smallish tin to keep them thrown in. He had big plans for scouring flea markets and yard sales for more pennies.

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 Mar 12 - 06:22 PM

last week one of my friends asked for foreign stamps for her 8 year old grandson, so I gave her those I could find - gotta sort thru the mess & find the others.

When I was about 12 I was given my Greataunt's stamps. She was born in the early 1890s & had many older stamps - including a Green? penny but not a black penny, which was the world's first postage stamp, issued 1840. She also had a set of stamps issued by the Commonwealth countries in 1953 for the Queen's coronation this lot but her stamps came from the edge & had a perforated bit of white paper on the bottom. I can't find any info on such stamps (any stamp collectors here?)

I added any stamps I could find, or buy, especialy art & paintings, & was still sporadically collecting in 1970 when Australia celebrated 200 years since Captain Cook "discovery" of the east cast of Australia., so I bought this mini-sheet

Years later Mum took over the unwanted albums & added to them, I assume my nephew or niece has it now.

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 11 Mar 12 - 10:27 PM

Adding to the side track of coin collecting on this thread, someone might want to take a look at the children's book "The Hundred Penny Box." There's a summary here. http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/hundred-penny-box

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: SINSULL
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 10:18 AM

Scott Catalogues are available at any library. Look up your stamps there. I loved collecting stamps. It always fascinated me (and still does) that this little bit of paper has been to countries I can only dream of visiting.
The bulk of my stamp and coin collections were stolen - a sad loss.
SINS

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: fat B****rd
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 12:42 PM

I had a fad for collecting stamps in the 50s. You could buy a packet of 100 for a shilling from Imeson's Post Office in Cleethhorpes. One day I opened my new packet and there was a gust of wind and ....yes...they all blue away. Kind grown ups picked some up for me. Then I graduated to collecitting cigarette packets. As Grimsby was more of a port then there were quite a few foreign brands around. I swapped my collection for a book about the Roman Games by Daniel P Mannix.

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 02:41 PM

There are also coin catalogues; both stamp and coin listings are updated in new printings every year.

1953 Coronation. Most sets are reasonable, but a few that were in short printings are worth a few dollars. Some collectors prefer marginal copies (those with the sheet margins, and blocks of some have premium prices.

Bill D, when I moved to Canada, I started to collect half-dollars from rolls at the banks. I got a few good ones, then the banks decided to get in the act. In a corner of my large downtown branch, someone was situated at a desk, sorting through the coins that came in. The good ones disappeared after that. I never found out how the bank handled 'finds'.

Canadian banks were allowed to handle British gold, and the English sovereigns, with St. George and the Dragon on the reverse, made attractive presents. This was before the great rise in gold prices, so the coins were affordable.

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: olddude
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 03:55 PM

The little guys I gave a huge collection to, their mom says they sit there with their catalog and say this one is from xyz country and they the other ones say but it is not a country anymore LOL ... she said that the stamps and their pocket watches are their prize possessions. When my little guy gets older, he will be doing the same. Now these little kids are 15, 12, and 10 and still interested in their stamps that I gave them 5 years ago. It is very much alive

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: Bettynh
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 05:25 PM

My favorite story about kids and stamps involved Richard Feynmen, Nobel Prize Winner, and a youngster who had become his friend. The question was "Whatever became of Tuva?" - a country that had interesting stamps which Feynman had collected as a child. Feynman's last passion was figuring out how to get there (it had been swallowed by the Soviet Union) in the 1980s. That almost, but never did happen, but his friend Ralph Leighton, did. Meanwhile, a blind blues musician listening to shortwave radio heard Tuvan music (throatsinging) and learned how to sing it. He also learned a bit of the Tuvan language (think of it - a blind man, learning an utterly foreign language that is only transcribed into Russian. The only way to learn Tuvan is through a Russian dictionary). Ralph and a couple film makers helped Paul (Pena, the blues musician) to travel to Tuva, resulting in one of my favorite films, Genghis Blues. So there's foreign intrigue, genius, folk music (!!!), and kismet, all started by a kid collecting stamps.

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 06:51 PM

I didn't know kids were still collecting stamps. I was in a stamp club for years until fairly recently. I think the mean average age of the members was about 62, with only one member being under 40 (and not very much under).

One year we gave packets of stamps to young folks at a community fair, but got no new members.

I think philately is too passive a hobby for kids of this cyber age.

JotSC

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 09:18 PM

In the US, the postal service has been pushing collection of "uncancelled" sheets, and it apparently is popular enough that they introduce "lots" (I have no idea of the number) of commemorative designs. Most collectors buy full sheets and salt them away somewhere in the hope of making a profit some day. (It's a little difficult to display full sheets?) A few collect "quarter sheets." It apparently is profitable enough for the USPS to get a significant input to their operating expenses.

Collecting of cancelled stamps has all but died here, since in most cases the stamps aren't cancelled and have no indication of where or when they were mailed. While you might make a collection of stamps from different countries, making a collection of "letters from different cities" in the US would be almost impossible, since they're not marked to indicate a place of origin.

Occasional "issues" will allow you to buy a commemorative with a "hand cancellation" showing the post office of origin and the date, but there's some difficulty in getting those (which are intended only as "collectibles") unless you happen to be in the right place "on the day," or subscribe to info bulletins so you know when to order them.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Kids Collecting Postage Stamps
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 10:07 PM

Q, thanks for the info on margins

sandra