Hello, finally making some time to write. I received this in the mail today, along with the really stunning Miniature Sheet. I expect many of my readers will have seen that sheet  so thought I would just show the Booklet.

It too is really nice in my view. A lovely new colour for a Machin. For details I recommend reading Ian Novics blog from 9th September. He is the man when it comes to reporting on GB issues.  Enjoy

Am off to London tomorrow and don't expect to have much access to a computer, but you never know. There could be a competition  with some new GB stamps?   Keep reading.

Best wishes..

Michael  www.cddstamps.com

PS  yes I know my web site is down again.   I thought the last re-write was going to be good..... turns out not to be the case.Any really decent web developers with Wordpress CMS talent please apply!

Hi, TGIF, what a wonderful feeling :-)   and tonight back to a couple of stamps from Canada, as I am still sorting the stock to put into the Bidstart Store. Golf will take a back seat for a while. Next trip is Macau in late November. The Christmas Classic trip as our club call it. Two days planned at the moment.  we played there last year and the Macau Country Club is well worth the visit.

Anyway, these are from the Writers series, the 3rd series in fact, issued in 1979. Are you familiar with the writers I wonder. Emile Nelligan and Fredrick Philip Grove. Grove was renowned, so it is said, because he constructed his entire life as an intricate web of fact and fiction. Don't we all I thought!    Nelligan, a poet actually, and another interesting character, is speculated to have gone insane because of the vast cultural and language differences between his mother and father.  Well who wouldn't!

Back to golf and the more simple life, or just enjoy your stamps and learning about the people and themes presented.

Have a great weekend.   Michael    www.cddstamps.com where you can buy  at competitive prices to fill a few gaps in your collection.

Hello, I am back in Hong Kong after a wonderful few days playing golf in Hua Hin, in Thailand. Hard to get back into the swing of things at work, excuse the pun!  Three very enjoyable courses in three days.

So, a golf stamp theme just came to mind and I thought these might be nice to show.  They are from the 1994 Scottish Golf Courses issue from Royal Mail. The stamps were issued to commemorate the the 250th anniversary of golf's first set of rules produced by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.

Hope you enjoy seeing these.

Best wishes   Michael    www.cddstamps.com

It is the night before............I go to play golf in Hua Hin in Thailand with the guys,  and stamps are really not my top priority tonight. But, since I just finished filing away the last few I loaded into the Bidstart Store - visit me at www.cddstamps.com  to get details of countries I stock and access to the Store - I thought I would show this one as it is rather nice I think. GB, obviously, SG 263

Anyway, just also to say all orders will be packed and mailed next Monday. Apology for a slower than usual mailing of orders.

Have a great weekend..  see you next week.    Michael

www.cddstamps.com

Hello, and thanks again for reading the blog. The winner of the Group of Seven competition was Antoine from Malta. I have replied to a few of you and I wish I could write to each of your personally, sorry I am a bit stretched for time.

The correct answer was the A Y Jackson image of his painting Alaska Highway which was used on the 1967 8c definitive stamps, SG 584. The best example I have is shown along with an image of the actual painting. Which is an oil on wood and was painted in 1943.

Art on stamps is a wonderful theme I think, so will try to find some more, especially Canada, as Canada Post have done many excellent  tributes to Canadian artists.

Thanks as always for reading the blogs and don’t forget,  if you have a few gaps in your collection and want to fill them at competitive prices please have a look at michaelatcddstamps on Bidstart and Stanley Gibbons Marketplace

If  cddstamps is new to you and you want to find out more please read SG Blog here. scroll down a little to see the Featured Story

Have a great day... Michael   

www.cddstamps.com

Hello, welcome to the blog if you are a new reader. I hope you enjoy my writings and my stamps.

This tonight, another stamp I like seeing and one that those of you who enjoy art will surely appreciate.

It was issued in 1973 to commemorate the birth centenary of J E H MacDonald. SG 756.  No, he had nothing to do with the restaurant chain. !!  He was a brilliant artist and one of the founders of the "Group of Seven".  My Canadian readers will for sure know of this group.  I visited the the McMichael Art Collection at the gallery in Kleinburg just north of Toronto when I lived there. It really is just one of those galleries you have to visit.

Anyway I won't ramble on about the  Group of Seven, you can  look them up if you want to learn more.

How about a quiz -  this one because I just love the idea I had.    What was the first stamp that Canada Post issued to celebrate an artist from the Group of Seven?   SG number will do or just the year and the stamps details.. I don't mind  ....  just email the answer to me at cddstamps@gmail.com  and include your mailing address.. No address and no win as I do not keep mailing addresses from anyone who has entered a previous competition   I will select a winner on Saturday.. random draw from all entries received.

Enjoy your stamps....  Michael   www.cddstamps.com

Hello, thanks for reading the blog. I hope you enjoy seeing these two stamps tonight.

Do they look the same?  Of course they are not and to complete your collection it is worth studying your stamps carefully. The one on the left is SG 702 Type I and on the right is Type II, SG 702a, well actually Type II B because of the perforation difference ( perf 13 1/2  versus perf 12 1/2 for the normal SG 702. Small differences and  little difference in catalogue value but always nice to find when sorting what you think are all the same stamps.

I hope you enjoy looking for the differences if you do not already know them. Perhaps these two images below will help

Best wishes  ... Michael..          these and more will be in my Bidstart Store soon, when I finish cataloging more over the coming few days.   click here for Canada   or here to see all the British Commonwealth Countries I have in the Store.

Hello, I just got back from Sydney and while there I picked up a couple of Minisheets. This is one of them, titled, as you can see, SIGNS OF THE TIMES.  click to enlarge image.

Now I had no idea what they were about so I checked out the Australia Post website, and they provide this interesting write up.  Certainly helps one enjoy the stamps more I think. Copied courtesy Australia Post.

Neon signs are intensely coloured electric signs lighted by long, luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. Neon tubes were first demonstrated in 1910 by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show, and were reportedly first used to advertise a barber’s shop. Neon signage and advertising subsequently became popular throughout the world. Today we are conscious of the heritage value of our historic neon signs.

The Skipping Girl, known as Little Audrey, possibly the country’s best known neon sign, was built by Neon Electric Signs and erected in 1936 in Victoria Street, Abbotsford, Victoria, as an animated advertisement for Skipping Girl Vinegar.

After World War II, Queensland’s Gold Coast became a popular destination for Australians. The Pink Poodle, built in 1967 on the corner of Fern Street and the Gold Coast Highway, Surfers Paradise, was a popular honeymoon motel. The motel was demolished in 2004 but the famous sign was saved, and now stands in Fern Street near its original location.

The jaunty Dandy Pig neon sign was first erected in the 1950s on the Princes Highway, Dandenong, Victoria, for the Gippsland Co-operative Bacon Curing Company. After closure of the factory in 1983, the much loved pig languished in storage before being restored and re-erected in 1993. The Dandy Pig was acknowledged by Greater Dandenong Council in 2013 for the sign’s social, cultural and historical significance to the community. 

Michael   

www.cddstamps.com