just tonights thoughts........

Hello. Yes I have been offline for a few days. First. thanks for all the emails. Sorry not replied to you all.. The winner of those GB stamps was from Italy. The answer was something like .........

On 26th September 1956 was the first day of commercial service of the Transoceanic Telephone Cables which were fitted with amplifiers installable 3 miles below the ocean surface. These amplifiers could boost the delicate voice signals with their higher frequencies across the ocean.

Built around an electron tube especially developed for this purpose, the amplifiers or repeaters, encased in flexible multi-metal housings, were spaced at 4-mile intervals along the cable. The cable also had an outer sheath of armor wires to provide strength and protection against abrasion and an extra copper sheath to keep out marine worms, which were known to plague telegraph cables. Laying each of the two cables that made up the systems (one for each direction of communication) took weeks and was carried out during two consecutive summers. The first day of commercial service, September 26, 1956, saw a 75 percent increase in transatlantic telephone traffic.

Now actually, that was not his reply, so you, from Germany, also get a runner up prize :-)

Lots of other emails mostly saying same, although there were some other interesting things that I found out also happened in 1956. :-)

No more on stamps... just this... I seem to have shown a few recently, but I hope you enjoy this and in memory of a truely wonderful man.

some nice GB stamps - philately

well ok I only wrote that title to get you to read... not sure if you enjoy my fun or not.. but hey.. here I go again..

this set of stamps I will send for free to the whoever emails me at cddstamps@gmail.com (I will randomly select) if you correctly tell me why I am showing these stamps today.

I guess you could be smart and come up with many answers but if you have an IQ greater than ten you will likely get the right answer....... and as a clue ...something to do with a first in 1956...now that makes it so easy.... oh why do I make it so easy.... :-)

and if you don't know the answer.. enjoy this anyway ... :-)

dirigible..........

too tired to write much to be honest.. but I read that today (24 September) in 1852 a new invention came onto the scene.. the dirigible, or more commonly known as the airship. Lots to read on these quite amazing craft. try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airship

and here is one - famous brand name - the Zeppelin. No not Led Zeppelin.. another page ( ha ha) to plant ( ha ha) on our stairway to heaven.. ...oh well it amused me to write it :-)

Enjoy your stamps oh, and this :-) cool eh.. nostalgia.....

stamps you cannot soak of the envelope

Hello, I received a copy of an article from Linn's today. Interesting. About the loss of the water soluble layer in some US stamps. In other words you cannot soak the stamp off the envelope.
Been there, done that, and not only for the US stamps I might add.

It seems this is being done to save costs in the production of the stamps. Ok, so I can maybe understand that line of thinking. But in the interview between Linn's and the executive director of the United States Postal Service, the question was asked, is this also to stop reuse of stamps. - as in soak off an unfranked stamp and reuse it by applying some gum and resticking it on an envelope. Good question eh!!! Now there are two points here I would like to make. And I am in a grumpy old man mood so bear with me.

1) of course it is to stop that. Does the editor think the Postal Service people are stupid - even if the rest of us do, :-) given the number of issues these days :-) Hope you can see the parody here... and,
2) even if the postal service hadn't thought about it, why would you tell them... derrgghh.. and now the Royal Mail.. don't you just love them for their prolific issuing policy and how they are driving up the price of fine used commemoratives for us collectors - even if the Royal Mail had not thought about it they sure will now.. and gone will be the days when I could keep my family in unused stamps for all their postal needs: and what about those dealers selling lots of 100 unused but no gum. Ye gods..another hit to their back pocket. I wont mention the country that excels in this practice.. or the Postal Authority there will catch on :-)

What is the world comming to I ask myself when a person cannot make a dishonest 55c off the postal service.

These are trying times for the US Postal Service and any organisation, so said the spokesman for the USPS, or words to that effect, yeah right mate... me too, I am trying to save 55c by reusing a stamp and you are being so inconsiderate of my trying times :-)

Enjoy your stamps... Michael

GB QE II MUH

hello, hope you had a good weekend. I sorted some GB QE II MUH.. lots of duplicates so put some on http://www.stampwants.com/

Have a look.. my id is michaelatcddstamps, stamps are in lots from 1972 through 1980.

here is a sample lot

enjoy your stamps.. Michael

Another A380

Hello, couldn't resist showing you these.

The stamp and the real thing

Unfortunately I was not there in Sydney for the arrival.

From the press reports it sounds like there was a very warm welcoming reception for the aircraft.

Not surprising in my view :-)

Enjoy your stamps... Michael

08 08 08

Hello everyone, how many of you remembered the post mark 08 08 08.

well a very good friend in the UK did and I received this in the mail. Not quite 08 08 08 but close enough :-) and a good addition since it fits my flight thematic collection.

Many thanks you know who :-) and for the other stamps... I will write soon.... I promise :-)

That's it for tonight

enjoy your stamps ............ Michael

Wooden stamp...............

Hello everyone. I received a wooden stamp today thanks to a new stamp friend I have in Italy.

Rather nice I think. Thank you.

This shows a sketch of the façade of the Basilica of San Vincenzo in Galliano, Cantù, a church dating from the Early Middle Ages, consecrated in 1007.

The stamp is self-adhesive and printed on a wooden sheet faced with birch measuring 0.3 mm in thickness, backed with 30g/m² non-woven paper and D3 vinyl glue .

It was issued as part of a series - Italian Artistic and Cultural Heritage) dedicated to the Basilica of San Vincenzo in Galliano, Cantù (Como)

It was issued on July 2nd, 2007, and with a special franking.

Maybe a thematic theme here.. stamps made of different materials, other than paper. What have you got that is a postally issued stamp but not on the traditional paper medium. I look forward to hearing from you.

Enjoy your stamps ……… Michael

GB Presentation Packs

Hello, I just finished some work in my hotel room here in Kuala Lumpur and thought about stamps :-) So to tell you this past weekend I put some 30 lots on www.stampoffers.com
GB Presentation Packs. All very nice. Maybe of interest to someone? check them out, user id cddstamps.

Enjoy your stamps, Good night... Michael

I suppose it doesn’t surprise you to see the following.


Thanks for emails and comment.
Yes there are a number of differences and I thought I’d show them, plus the original stamps, plus two more I found today.

First the differences. There are many but I have annotated the most noticeable I think. The missing dot stands out to me more than any.
The reason. Well they are quite different stamps in that they are different shades and would, as I understand, have been printed from different plates.

Maybe the scan is not the best to show the colour but you can see the depth of colour in one is stronger then the other.
If I had the SG Specialised and my colour palette I could probably identify.
Finally two more. Interesting again as this issue of the GB GV 1924-26 Block Cypher definitives had many different shades and printings as I said yesterday.

Here are two copies of the 1d scarlet. Well one is another shade but I’ll call it scarlet until I can properly identify the shade. Notice here the difference in the tails on the letters. Quite pronounced.

Hope you have enjoyed these past few days writings and pictures.

The moral of this is to show that with these GB GV issues, don’t just assume you have a boring old not worth anything stamp until you have studied it.

You will be best off with a very good catalogue like SG Specialised of course. But even without you can still enjoy the study I hope. Oh and these were from my 99c auction offerings that did not sell.

I’m travelling again for the next few days. Will be writing at the end of the week. Enjoy your stamps, Michael

a GB GV study from the digital microscope

I spent some time playing with the new digital microscope today. Actually a lot of time. Many hours. First because it is not the most intuitive of devices if you are looking to save the image. But patience prevailed and I worked that out. Then I wanted to get the image into Photoshop Elements. More trial and error but I have mastered that. How I did it first time last night I do not know. Must have been pure luck. There are a few tricks and for a small fee I will gladly be sharing these with the world. The Manual – yes I tried reading the manual - it is next to useless. Or maybe it is me that is next to useless when I am sober ha ha.

Anyway here is the result of my hours of trial and error.

These two stamps are GB GV 1924-26 Block Cypher definitives. Common as English rain.

I don’t have my SG Specialised catalogue here in Seoul but I recall these have many varieties. I also don’t have many copies of these here either so I was probably lucky to find this small difference between these two stamps.

I doubt this is regarded as a catalogued variety either because as I say there are many engraving and plate differences – I wont even call them flaws until I can check in more detail.

You can see the difference quite clearly. I tried looking through a reasonable magnifying glass and had great difficulty seeing the difference and that was knowing where to look. So the quality of the digital microscope is, in my view, very good.

As I said last night it does take time and patience to study the whole stamp but hey it was a relaxing way of spending a few hours.

Never thought about anything else in life, not once. Now if that is not mental relaxation I don’t know what is. Meditation would probably be easier but without the end result of the stamp scans J

Anyway, have a closer look yourself and see if you can spot another difference. There is one that is quite pronounced.

Back home I have some 200 to 300 of these. How boring am I going to be when I start studying them. But I maybe find a catalogued flaw / variety worth enough to pay for the microscope. J

Enjoy your stamps. Michael

GB Wilding Phosphors

Some weeks ago I had an email asking about seeing the phosphor bands on the GB Wildings. I just said hold the stamp to the light and you should see it. Easy. Anyway while I have not much else to say on the subject, I do want to tell you I have installed my digital microscope and while it is a fun toy it is not easy to use for stamps I have to say.

Well this one isn't. It is cumbersome to say the least. However, I have patiently looked at a few stamps. You cannot see the whole stamp in one view. You have to move the stamp around to see the area you want to study. Pity really, as a larger viewing area - ie large enough to view the complete stamp - would be much more useful. Anyway, patience is a virtue and time - definately required to study stamps - is something I occassionally have, beening here alone in Seoul.

Back to the phosphors. I looked at a phosphor issue and thought I'd try to show you what I could see from the microscope compared to the naked eye. Hope this reproduces ok.

First an image of the stamp from a regular scan. Yes I know it has short perfs.. it is from a booklet I suspect.

You can just see the phosphor bands. The second enlarged image is from the digital microscope and you can see the colouring of the phosphor band - well I hope you can in the uploaded image, and you can see how much of the scan I can see.

So, conclusion. If you have patience and time and maybe even know the area of the stamp you want to study the digital microscope is very useful.

By the way, I found the use of the digital microscope easy when viewing but to load the image quite confusing, but then I did not read the manual. Well I am in IT afterall!!!!

Maybe do that another day :-)

Enjoy your stamps...Michael

this day in history

Hello, well yes am back in Seoul. Here for a few days then off to KL next week. Little time for stamps. I did find something nice waiting for me in Sydney. My Digital Microscope. I wont find time to install it on the laptop until the weekend but hopefully will have some fun with it and will be able to show you some nice stamp images. Have to look for something appropriate to study. Not in the mood for stamps at the moment anyway.

This day in history - September 11th - is one I guess we will never forget. I visited the Twin Towers site the following year because I happened to be going through NY from London on my way to LA.

But while we pay our respects to those who lost their lives that day, I know of another anniversary, that I wanted to mentioned. September 11th, 1962 was the day the Beatle recorded their first single, Love Me Do.
Enjoy ........... Michael.

permission to take advantage of me

...... what I mean is, I have 12 lots closing on http://www.stampoffers.com in the next 4 to 24 hours and they all ( with two exceptions) start at 99c. This is the opportunity to pick up some bargins.. seriously, have a look. just go the the site, type cddstamps in the search bar and click "user" you will see the lots.

enjoy your stamps, best wishes... Michael

Thank you...

for the letters that arrived today.. Covers from India, stamps from Portugal and a great cover from the USA - Charlie, thanks, I will write next week.

Just got home from work 11pm, have a long day tomorrow and fly to Sydney tomorrow night so wont be posting for a few days at least.

Best wishes everyone... Michael

Language............

Last night I showed the new stamp from Korea. Language. Oh how we love our language.

First in answer to the question what is written on the stamps.. roughly translated it says

"if words go up the nation will go up, if words go down the nation will go down" I think that is saying that language defines a nation and the prosperity of the language reflects the prosperity of the nation.

Now having said that I suggest you read this link... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/global/2008/09/01/noindex/tesco.xml&DCMP=EMC-exp_01092008

I don't think I need to say anymore about the direction of the Nation in question do I :-)

I was going to write about Phosphors on early GB Wildings but I think that can wait until tomorrow - got to find some to show you anyway.

Enjoy your stamps and mind your language ha ha ha ha ha ha ha :-) Michael

Centennial of Korean Language Society

Is that something different as a subject heading :-)

It is said that language defines a country. All countries should should maintain and upgrade their language.

On August 31 1908 the Korean Language Society was established.

This new stamp is from a sheet of 20 which I just happened to have the post office staff tell me about - well rather that saw me and pulled the sheet from a drawer to show me - they have obviously decided stamps interest me, even if we cannot talk together about stamps :-) they still like to show me different stamps.

Anyway, this from the middle top of the sheet. Hope you like it. This stamp features the work of calligrapher Seo Huihwan who I have to sadly admit I know nothing about - oh how sad is my knowledge of Korean history and its wonderful people.

Enjoy your stamps, Michael