cddstamps on stamps

my thoughts on stamps, stamp collecting, philately in general and maybe a few other topics !

Tuesday, October 27, 2015


Hello, just one stamp tonight from Ceylon because I really like the colour and thought you might enjoy it too.

SG 336 bright magenta with the War Stamp overprint.  Often seen with faded colour due being soaked. But this copy seems good to me.

Tonight tip then is not to soak older stamps in too hot water or for too long, especially if they have a useful catalogue value. :-)

Enjoy your collecting  

Best wishes.... Michael
www.cddstamps.com




Monday, October 26, 2015





Hello, tonight another study in perforations and why it is worth studying the stamps that, on the face of it, seem to be the same stamp.

These from my Ceylon stock this past weekend.  Nothing really of high value mind you, but still worth recognising the difference in my view.

From top to bottom / left to right
SG 387 with perf 13 x 11½ with a catalogue value of £2.50
SG 387b perf 13½  with a catalogue value of 10p
SG 387c with perf 14 with a catalogue value of £1.00, and finally
SG 387d with perf 11½  x 11  with a catalogue value of 10p

Small catalogue differences but  have you got all 4 in your collection?  Check if you do not know, and then visit cddstamps here,  type the SG number in the Search Store For field ( eg SG387 remove the space as the search engine does not recognise it) )  and hopefully you will be able to fill a gap or two in your collection at a very affordable price.

Or, just visit cddstamps here and see what other countries, GB and British Commonwealth, are in stock.

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



Friday, October 23, 2015


Hello,  Saturday here and so that means time for stamps (after shopping and laundry of course :-)

 Do you like this one?. Stunning in my view.  Anything special about it?  well yes there is. It has an inverted watermark.

 It is always worth checking the watermark. Normal unmounted mint is catalogued at 5 GBP,  The inverted watermark is 11 GBP.

If this is a gap in your collection why not have a look at my  store  or copy this link  http://stampwants-stamps.bidstart.com/Hong-Kong-QEII-SG-207-MUH-wmk-inverted-/62976059/a.html or go to www.cddstamps.com and click Bidstart Store on the menu bar.

 Have a great weekend   Michael

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Hello, I have just had a few hours studying some Hong Kong stamps. Thought you might like to see these as they are examples of why you need a good catalogue and why it is always worth studying the stamps you have very carefully, sometimes.




The first (left) stamp is SG 155a.  This has a short leg to the R  in the word Dollar. It has a very nice catalogue value of £190. It is on chalk surfaced paper. If it were on ordinary paper it has a catalogue value of £325.   Still, no complaint about having the cheaper copy is there.  The second stamp is SG 156, This also has a short leg to the R but there are three varieties, Ordinary paper, Chalk surface paper and a yellow orange and green shade.  Catalogue  £65,  £90 and  £275 respectively. I am hoping I have not identified this last one wrongly as it is in my cddstamps online store here for 40% of lowest catalogue,  as is the SG 155a.

Apart form the fact I hope you enjoy seeing these and learning (perhaps) something about why it is worth studying your stamps carefully, I also show because if you have a few gaps like these in your collection, then one place you can fill those gaps is at cddstamps

More tomorrow from the stamps I have been adding to my store today

Best wishes   Michael   www.cddstamps.com

Monday, October 19, 2015


Hello, a new theme this week, as promised.  As many readers will know I was in the UK a few weeks ago and I managed to get a copy of the Rugby  World Cup stamps mailed to me.

Hope you enjoy seeing this se-tenant pair.  Not my sport I have to admit - especially as I was there to see England lose to Australia :-), and then, last night, my other adopted country, from my father's side, Scotland, also lost to Australia :-(

And, I think the stamps are pretty boring as well!, and no way could they have inspired the teams to win. :-)

If you are looking to get these stamps, do watch the listings in my online store  - details here -  I will be listing these soon, along with the other values.

I maybe show some of the others over the coming days, but, as I say, they are pretty boring I think, just being in black and white.  Yeah, go the All Blacks  !!!!!!!!!!!! hahahaha

Michael     www.cddstamps.com.


Saturday, October 17, 2015


Thank you to all who wrote and who entered the Honey Bee  competition. 

Yes that image from the Royal Mail stamp was actually of a bumblebee - I guess Royal Mail didn't have enough images of Honey Bees   So here is another of the issue. This is a Potter Flower Bee from the £2.25 stamp, another that is not a Honey Bee. 

So much interesting learning from this issue. 

One final snippet for you.. I hope I am correct in saying bumblebees do not need to store food over the winter period – i.e. they have no need for ‘winter stores’. This is because bumblebee colonies do not have the same extended colony life cycle that honey bees have. Honey bee colonies should ideally thrive through the winter, and because of this, they need winter stores – the honey 

And finally, the winner of the competition. Larry from Australia, had his name drawn at random by a visitor to my apartment today. Well done. MS will be the mail soon.

More GB stamps next week. Best wishes     Michael www.cddstamps.com

Friday, October 16, 2015


Hello, Friday night again. Busy week and now time to write about bees and show this lovely stamp and postal cancel stamp.

When I was in the UK two weeks ago I sent myself some of the honey bee  stamps. They arrived this week and with excellent cancels. Thought you might like to see this one.

I read that there are currently only seven species of honey bee with a total of 44 subspecies, though historically, from six to eleven species have been recognized. Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the roughly 20,000 known species of bees. Some other types of related bees produce and store honey, but only members of the genus Apis are true honey bees. The study of honey bees is known as melittology

Finally, there are 24 hours of thereabouts left in the Honey Bee competition, for the Miniature sheet as a prize. I have given various clues. I do have some entries to choose a winner from but am surprised not more readers have entered. Maybe I made it just too hard this time.  Remember all answers have to do with Bees of have the word Bee in the answer J

Look at my previous postings for the questions.  I hope to get more entries by late Saturday my time.


Have a great weekend… Michael www.cddstamps.com  where you can easily fill a gap of two in your collection at a very competitive price. click here to have a look at the country selection.

Saturday, October 10, 2015


Hello, as I guess you know, yesterday was World Post Day. This is the lovely Miniature Sheet that Hong Kong Post issued.

World Post Day marks the anniversary of the Universal Postal Union's establishment and is annually held on October 9. The union aimed to create and maintain a structure for the free flow of international mail around the world.

If anyone wants to send me images of the stamps issued by their country I will show them over the coming week.


Have a great weekend    Michael   www.cddstamps.com

PS  entries still being received to the GB Honey Bee competition. Entries close next Saturday.

Wednesday, October 07, 2015


Hello, one of things I enjoy so much about stamp collecting is that one meets some really nice people. This from someone - only met online - who reads me. How nice to receive this in the mail today. A lovely MS issued in 2005.  I do hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I did receiving it.

Many thanks...Michael
www.cddstamps.com


Tuesday, October 06, 2015


Hello, well I am back in Hong Kong after a lovely few days in the UK. Weather was very nice and I even managed 9 holes of golf.  I also managed to find a few stamps and they should arrive soon, hopefully with some clean postal cancels for me to show you in future posts.

The above is a Miniature sheet I had not read about and I hope you like seeing it.

I said I might do a competition with some new GB stamps if I got some. Ok, how about this for a prize.

So, here is the competition question, four parts   - I have to make it harder and fun and perhaps cryptic for a prize this special don’t I  J  Hope you enjoy the research.

  1)   Many years ago I used to enjoy a pint at a pub near Manchester Airport,  What was the name of the Pub?

  2)   What was the name of the band that recorded a piece of piano music that reached number 21 on the USA charts in 1961

   3)    Who said, “That buzzing noise means something. Now, the only reason for making a buzzing noise that I know of is because you are... a bee! And the only reason for being a bee is to make honey. And the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it”

  4)    I rarely go near these but I pray a lot when I do. (answer is a 6 letter word)

I will draw a winner from all entries received 09:00 Saturday 17th October here in Hong Kong,  – to give you time to think these questions through.

Email answers to me at cddstamps@gmail.com and include your mailing address (I do not keep previous addresses and will not use the mailing address for anything else except this competition)

Have fun


Michael    www.cddstamps.com

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