India's Struggle for Freedom Series

When I restarted my hobby, I picked up the thread on my collection of stamps from India's Struggle for Freedom series. I had originally posted about this in Jun 2016. Since then I have finally managed to complete this series. Technically it took me 34 years to complete this series, since I bought the first stamps from the post office when they were issued :-).

Different sources on the Internet provide varied information about this series on India's Struggle for Freedom. One source talks about the series starting in 1983 with the ambition of issuing 4-6 stamps each year until 1997, marking the 50th year of India's Independence.

The Philacent India catalog lists seven series from 1983 to 1989 with 44 stamps as India's Struggle for Freedom series, with similar design of tricolor on the edges commemorating a freedom fighter personality. Post 1989, there have been a few stamps with tricolor being used in the stamp sometimes on the edge, sometimes in another way, but none like the design of tricolor on both edges. Also the catalog doesn't list the other issues as part of the Struggle for Freedom series.

The official India Post website run by the Department of Posts (Ministry of Communication, Govt. of India) lists only the first three stamps in the series as INDIA'S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM. The other stamps are listed as commemorating specific personalities.

Here's my exhibit for India's Struggle for Freedom series.

Ships on Stamps

Ships on stamps always makes an interesting theme. Countries have long issued stamps with intricate designs of ships on them. Here are few stamps of this theme.

Norway 1991, To commemorate the centenary of the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue

 

shown here: Skomvær III

The Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue was founded on 9 July 1891. The first rescue boat went into service in 1893, and in 1894 the Colin Archer saved 37 lives in a storm. Colin Archer (1832 – 1921) was a Norwegian naval architect and shipbuilder from Larvik, Norway.

He and his shipyard were known for building durable and safe ships. The most notable single ship built by Colin Archer was the Fram, which participated in expeditions to the North Pole and, later, in Roald Amundsen’s historic first expedition to the South Pole; Fram is now preserved in the Fram Museum on Bygdøy, Oslo, Norway.

Today, there are 43 vessels continuously manned and on standby along the coast of Norway. The society has about 6000 engagements every year. 13 of the 43 boats are operated by volunteers,  the rest of the boats are manned by a professional crew who live and work onboard on a 28 day rotation.

Info source: http://gcaptain.com/maritime-monday-feb-eleven-twentythirteen-rms-philately/

And some more from my collection:

1937 Coronation Omnibus Stamp Album

About a year back I wrote a post on 1937 Coronation stamps. After unsuccessfully scrounging around the internet for a free album to print, I have finally decided to make my own album. I used a software called AlbumEasy, which is available at http://www.thestampweb.com, to create the 1937 Coronation Omnibus album pages. There are a total of 22 pages plus 1 cover page.

I am happy to offer this album to anyone who wants it in exchange of 100 stamps. I am not too fussy about the stamps, except they should not be duplicates and not too common. You can send me pics of what you can offer. Once I receive the stamps, I will email you the full album. Email me at theamateurphilatelist at gmail dot com, or send me a DM on Instagram or message me at Facebook.

You can see sample pages here:

Stamp on Stamp

I have been fascinated by the Stamp on Stamp theme. Not as much about collecting those stamps that have stamps represented on them, but collecting the pairs with original stamps and the stamps commemorating them. Kinda sounds confusing, all these stamps on stamps words. Here's what I am talking about.

Technically the stamp on the left isn't 1852 Britannia stamp that's being commemorated in the stamp on the right. Its actually either 1860 or 1871 rough perforation one. But hey, for the purpose of collecting stamp-on-stamp theme, I think I'll sneak this through 😉

In this one too, the classic India Four Anna is not the same as that shown in the Philately Day stamp on the right. What the right stamp (minisheet) has is an error variety of the classic Four Anna stamp. I guess this will do for my collection, given the rarity of the error variety.

Album Pages or Stock Pages/Books

A blog post after a long time. I have been posting mostly on my Instagram account.

I have always used stock books/pages. After restarting my hobby I am discovering printed album pages and loving it. They just help organize the collection a lot better. While stock books and pages have the ease of moving thing around, somehow I like the charm of well organized album pages.

Here are a few pages from Austria album. Nothing out of the ordinary in terms of stamps I have, but so much better organized, don't you think.

#postmarks365 Project

Inspired by the Postmark calendar post at The Stamp Forum boards, and more importantly, the fact that I bought a couple of Machin kiloware, I am sharing my #postmarks365 project. It's a start and there are still many dates without stamps. While I will try to complete this with Machins only, it is very much possible that I run out of patience and add stamps of other countries too.

Sorry, no April pic because for some reason it didn't come out well and I am too lazy to click again. Will upload sometime later maybe.