My First Kiloware

Last month I wrote about Kiloware. Well, the bug bit me and I went ahead and bought kiloware of 1 KG Australian Stamps from eBay. I was quite excited at the prospect of getting so many stamps together and waiting eagerly for my parcel.

When I got my parcel, I couldn't wait to open it up. The stamps were peaking at my from inside the transparent polythene bag, screaming to be set free.

I opened the bag and immediately spread them all out. Thankfully I used a newspaper to spread them out as I realized later that the stamps had quite a bit of dust and dirt.

After the initial euphoria, I sat staring at pile of stamps wondering how to sort them out. There were many beautiful stamps but I was quite flummoxed at the number of stamps to be sorted, not to mention removing the paper from the stamps.

Not knowing enough about Australian stamps was only compounding the task at hand. And so I have begun first sorting them out. I have started sorting them by their denomination as I believe that will be a good indication of their issue time. I am also sorting the definitive stamps separately, whichever ones I can guess are definitives. The large number of duplicates was a good way to identify definitives.

My euphoria of receiving a large pile of stamps is gone and I am not staring at huge task of sorting out the stamps.

If you are going to buy kiloware, first I would recommend buying a country that you are familiar with. I bought Australia because that was one of the very few countries kiloware on sale. And perhaps it is better to buy smaller lots instead of buying KGs. Also be prepared for getting a LOT of duplicates. That's what I have, a lot of duplicate Australian stamps. Wanna swap? Drop me a line.

Stamp Stock Books: Black or White

Recently I asked in a Facebook group whether other collectors preferred black or white stamp stock books.

I got an overwhelming response favouring Black stock books. Most collectors preferred black stock books because the details of the stamps show up better and the colours are more distinct. Some felt perforations are clearly visible on black stock sheets. Some felt white is more susceptible to insects, dust and stains.

Ray Petersen explained in detail

I have always preferred black (also for individual mounts). But when I was preparing a few pages for an exhibit recently - my first attempt ever at making exhibit pages - and I asked for advice, a suggestion was made that I use clear mounts because the black backgrounds on black mounts distract the viewer's eye from the image on the stamp.

Ultimately I went with clear, and was happy with the result. I have to say, that because I was exhibiting (and also collect) cinderella stamps - the image is far more important than the actual piece of paper. Things that make black a more attractive choice, such as showing off the borders, perforations, etc., are better suited to a study or research project. But when it comes to displaying the stamps - the image is the thing and nothing should compete with that.

This advice totally changed my perspective on the black vs clear (or white), at least for display purposes.

Philatelic Society of Delhi (PSOD)

Thanks to joining Facebook philatelic groups and connecting with like minded people, I finally managed to get connected to the Philatelic Society of Delhi (PSOD). I attended my first ever meeting of a philately club/society and also joined them as a member, thanks to the specific invite by Aditya Asthana. PSOD typically has meetings on every third Sunday of the month (though this time it was on the fourth Sunday).

The meeting began with a lucky draw of people who reached on time. The officiating members were kind enough to call me out for picking the lucky draw winner. Three winners were given a full sheet of Indian definitive stamps.

After a brief introduction of the members, Aditya Asthana presented the second episode of Tale of the Mail, a study on the mail route from England to India. He spoke about Thomas Fletcher Waghorn a postal pioneer who developed a new route from Great Britain to India. Waghorn's route reduced the journey from 16,000 miles, via the Cape of Good Hope, to 6,000 miles: from three months to between 35 and 45 days. It was fascinating to hear him talk about his research.

Noted philatelist Madhukar Jhingan shared his experiences of the World Stamp Show NY2016. Madhukar stated Stamps of India website, the first online philatelic website of India

After a brief tea break, Sandeep Murjani presented details of the special covers that were released across India in Feb and March this year. 54 special covers were released in Feb and 15 covers were released in March. Different philatelic bureaus of the country release special covers on different occasions. And there is no central release information that is available. So if you are collecting special covers, you need to call different philatelic bureaus and keep abreast with the releases. Quite hard work collecting special covers. Sandeep also shared the history and background information about most of the special covers released. You can stay up to date with his research on his Facebook page Samraat Stamps.

It was interesting to hear other philatelist share their experiences over lunch and during the meeting. Topic of discussions included upcoming exhibitions around the country and the high prices being charged by the postal department of Govt of India for special covers. Overall it was an educative and satisfying Sunday afternoon.

Blocks of Used Stamps

Blocks of used stamps fascinate me more than blocks of mint stamps, especially if these are with clean postmarks. Here are some used blocks from my collection.

Clean Postmarks 2

I had posted about clean postmarks a little while ago. As I rearrange my collection, I discovered some more gems.

And I recently acquired a US Postage Airmail envelope.

Falkland Islands

It's funny how some countries get stuck in your memory because of events that were in the news many many years ago. I was a young boy when I first heard about Falkland Islands in news. It was the war between England and Argentina. I have been fascinated by Falkland Islands ever since because of this ancient memory of the news.

Unfortunately I don't have stamps of the island but I find them fascinating and beautiful pieces of postal stationery. One day maybe I will manage to get my hands on some of their stamps.

(pics courtesy Martin Tan's posts in STAMP COLLECTING Facebook group)

Margins / Selvages

Margins / selvages : To keep or not to keep, that is the question.

Are stamps with margins necessarily better to retain than ones without? If I remove the side bar will it lose significant value? I asked this question on Facebook as I found them terrible for displays in albums.

As always, it was great to get some good responses.

If it wasn't for them, some stamps couldn't be properly identified or verified, especially Imperf stamps. It probably is not an issue with more modern stamps - but older stamps can have specific plate flaws or printing flaws. If you have an example with the margins you know exactly which position in the sheet this stamp had.

While they probably make no difference in value in common stamps, the general consensus seemed to be to not tear them off. One good suggestion was 'If it really bothers you how they display, just carefully fold over the selvage but don't tear it off.' which seemed to make sense.

Visiting Stamp Exhibition

Yesterday I visited the Exhibition of Stamps by by Philatelic Dealers Association of India. Naively I thought it would be an exhibition with mounted exhibits by specialized collectors. I was also expecting a few stamp dealers selling stamps at the exhibition. That's the image I had from the last exhibition I visited more than 30 years ago. Well, it wasn't actually an 'exhibition' per se. It was two rooms full of stamp and coin dealers selling their wares, like a stamp and coin market. While I was a little disappointed by my naive thoughts of expecting an exhibition, I wasn't disappointed actually going there. It was a great opportunity to get to know so many stamp dealers and buy stamps. I ended up spending a lot of money there and still be left wanting for more. Surely, I need to find a better way to collect stamps without spending my fortune on them. Anyway, more on that later.

There were some large dealers with multiple stalls and then many dealers who shared a single stall. Kolkatta seems to be the hub of philately dealers in India as I found most large dealers from Kolkatta.

I didn't get any bargains. The stamps were being sold on Indian catalogue prices with specific discount rates on them (I was primarily looking for Indian stamps). One seller lamented the philately was dead, that buyers just don't pay the prices, and some sellers have spoilt the market by giving deep discounts on the catalog prices. And some stamps I could find significantly cheaper on eBay. Anyway, it was still a great experience seeing so many dealers in one place from all over the country. I managed to get many visiting cards for dealers from different cities that I might visit in the future.

Treasure Hunt 2 - Shimla

My work requires me to travel across India. Having restarted my hobby of stamp collection, I now use the time on my hand for treasure hunting. I am not exactly sure what treasure I am expecting to find but I guess it is to find some scrap/junk dealer or an old antique shop where I can pick up old stamps and postal stationery at a bargain.

My very first treasure hunt took me to streets of old Hyderabad. This time around, it was Shimla. We traversed the roads of Shimla searching for antique shops. We found one somewhere in Lakkad Bazar, selling brass artefacts. He suggested we look for a shop called Maria Brothers on Mall Road. He told us that the shop doesn't open regularly and if we are lucky we might find the shop open. And so we began walking searching for Maria Brothers. We did find the shop but unfortunately it was closed.

Not completely disheartened as this time I had asked our local colleague to find out possibles places for us to check out. He took us further down to Lower Mall Road saying there is a place where dealers set up their temporary stalls. So we marched down searching for the place. Finally we reached the stairs opposite Nandan Shawls only to find it empty. We waited there for some time, sipping tea as we sat on the stairs.

We ran out of time as we had a train to catch.. On our way back we found that Maria Brothers shop was open now. Excited we entered the shop. There was a gentleman inside, who I assume was Maria. "Do you have old stamps or postal stationery?" we asked, only to hear a single word response "No". The gentleman continued to sit at the back of the shop not interested in making conversation. The shop had old magazines, books, paintings, and maps. I asked for prices of a few items and soon knew this wasn't a bargain shop. The gentleman in his soft voice told me prices that might get quoted by a museum or an upmarket art gallery. We quietly beat a hasty retreat after requesting to take a few pictures as memories of our trip there.

And so yet another unsuccessful treasure hunt came to an end. Until next time, in a different city....

Clean Postmarks

I am beginning to value clean post marks on my used stamps. Unfortunately I don't seem to have too many of these. Here are some beauties.

India Struggle for Freedom Series (1983 - 89)

India Struggle for Freedom series: Seven series of 44 stamps issued from 1983 to 1989. The stamps were designed within National Tricolor vertical border. I am missing quite a few stamps from my collection, including all of series 7 that I hope to complete over next few months.

	Series	Stamp	Date of Issue
1.	India's Struggle for Freedom - 1st Series – 1983	Quit India Resolution	09 August 1983
2.		Mahadev Desai	09 August 1983
3.		Madeleine Slade (Meera Behn)	09 August 1983
4.		Hemu Kalani (Revolutionary)	18 October 1983
5.		Acharya Vinoba Bhave (Social Reformer)	15 November 1983
6.		S.N.Banerjee (Patriot)	28 December 1983
7.	India's Struggle for Freedom - 2nd Series – 1984	V.B. Phadke (Revolutionary)	21 February 1984
8.		Baba Kanshi Ram (Freedom Fighter)	23 April 1984
9.		Tatya Tope (Freedom Fighter)	10 May 1984
10.		Nana Sahib (Freedom Fighter)	10 May 1984
11.		Begum Hazrat Mahal (Freedom Fighter)	10 May 1984
12.		Mangal Pandey (Freedom Fighter)	10 May 1984
13.	India's Struggle for Freedom - 3rd Series – 1985	Narhar Vishnu Gadgil (Politician)	10 January 1985
14.		Jairamdas Doulatram (Journalist)	21 July 1985
15.		Nellie & Jatindra Mohan Sengupta (Patriots)	22 July 1985
16.		Kakasaheb Kalelkar (Freedom Fighter, Author)	02 December 1985
17.		Master Tara Singh (Freedom Fighter, Social Reformer)	23 December 1985
18.		Ravishankar Maharaj (Freedom Fighter, Social Worker)	24 December 1985
19.	India's Struggle for Freedom - 4th Series – 1986	B.S. Sachar (Statesman)	14 August 1986
20.		A.S.R. Raju (Revolutionary)	26 December 1986
21.		Sagarmal Gopa (Martyr)	29 December 1986
22.		Veer Surendra Sai (Revolutionary)	30 December 1986
23.	India's Struggle for Freedom - 5th Series – 1987	Hakim Ajmal Khan (Humanitarian)	13 February 1987
24.		Lala Har Dayal (Founder of Gadar Movement)	18 March 1987
25.		Manabendra Nath Roy (Revolutionary)	21 March 1987
26.		T.R. Chowdary (Poet)	25 April 1987
27.		Dr. K.N.Katju (Statesman)	17 June 1987
28.		S. Satyamurti (Martyr)	22 August 1987
29.		H.N. Kunzuru (Freedom Fighter)	31 December 1987
30.	India's Struggle for Freedom - 6th Series – 1988	Mohan Lal Sukhadia (Politician)	02 February 1988
31.		Dr. S.K. Sinha (Freedom Fighter)	04 February 1988
32.		Chandra Shekhar Azad (Martyr)	27 February 1988
33.		G.B. Pant (Politician)	07 March 1988
34.		Dr. A.N. Singh (Politician)	18 June 1988
35.		K. Chaliha (Patriot)	19 June 1988
36.		Shivprasad Gupta (Educationist)	28 June 1988
37.		Sarat Chandra Bose (Statesman)	06 September 1988
38.		Baba Kharak Singh (Patriot)	06 October 1988
39.		Sheikh Mohd.Abdullah (Statesman)	05 December 1988
40.	India's Struggle for Freedom - 7th Series – 1989	Hare Krushna Mahtab (Writer)	02 January 1989
41.		B.G. Kher (Politician)	08 March 1989
42.		Rajkumari Amrit Kaur (Social Worker)	13 April 1989
43.		S. Kitchlew (Freedom Fighter)	13 April 1989
44.		Asaf Ali (Statesman)	11 May 1989