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Philatelic Museums of the World

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Philatelic Federations

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Philatelic Glossary

Glossary of Philatelic Terms.
Contains definitions for most philatelic expressions.
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Introduction of Postage Stamps

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The following glossary contains definitions for most philatelic expressions.

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Handstamp - a stamp or overprint which has been applied to paper singly and without mechanical means; a hand-held apparatus for printing that is struck on an ink pad and then pressed on paper. The die may be of metal, rubber, or wood.


Handwritten plate number
- handwritten numbers found where a die is not used


Harrow perforation - perforation generally used for small souvenir sheets in which the entire sheet is perforated in one operation


Highway Post Office Service - a mail distribution network. To compensate rural communities for the loss of Railway Mail Service, the Post Office Department inaugurated Highway Post Office (HPO) Service on February 10, 1941. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had signed a measure creating the Highway Post Office Service on July 11, 1940. The inaugural route ran between Washington, D.C., and Harrisonburg, Virginia. The expansion of the Highway Post Office Service was postponed during World War II. A second route was established in 1946. This new service, like railway service, was to be a mail distribution network comprised of rapid pick-up, sorting, and dispatch to key points en route between two principal terminal cities. Mail processed on HPO vehicles was transferred along the route to connecting Star Routes, mail trains, and to various rural post offices. Highway mail routes generally served an average of twenty-five post offices directly and many others indirectly through Star Route and railway mail connections. Highway Post Office routes were organized on round trips which averaged 150 miles each way. There were very good reasons for this: 1) the bus generally held enough gas for about one 150 mile trip, and fuel stops wasted time; 2) service garages would have to be set up at both terminal cities, doubling the cost. For roughly the next decade, as railway mail service shrank, highway mail service grew. From 1960 to 1963 HPO service was replacing an average of 20 trains a month. The service essentially became obsolete when the Post Office Department decided to reorganize its mail handling/distribution system by adopting the sectional center concept (see ZIP Code). On June 30, 1974, 33 years after the first experimental trip, the last Highway Post Office made its final run over the Cincinnati-Cleveland (Ohio) route. Ironically, Railway Mail Service outlasted Highway Post Office Service by three years.


Hotel stamp - a local stamp issued by a remotely located hotel to pay for delivery of guests' mail to the nearest post office. Some hotels had their own post offices.


HPO - an abbreviation of the Highway Post Office Service which operated between 1941 and 1974. Highway Post Office buses were used to replace Railway Mail Service in areas where train service had been discontinued.


Hyphen-hole perforation - perforation that utilizes the line method in cutting rectangular holes instead of the usual round ones. Some U.S. revenue stamps use this type of perforation.


HyPO - an abbreviation of the Highway Post Office Service, which operated from 1941 to 1974. Highway Post Office buses were used to replace Railway Mail Service in areas where train service had been discontinued.

 

 

 

All about stamps - Choose your own look

Tales by Mail - Book 1, by Karen Cartier

All about stamps - Tales by MailTales by Mail is for children of all ages, perhaps up through 60 or so. It brings together stories literally from around the world ... from Botswana to Denmark, from New Zealand to the Faroes, from Saar to Israel.
The stories are short, each with a message, and each illustrated by a stamp issued by the country of the story's origin. Each who reads this book no doubt will develop a different favorite story, which is to be expected. Formatted simply, each story is preceded by a full-color illustration of the commemorative stamp that no only is impressive in its own right but also serves through its design to set the stage for the story that follows.
For those who wonder of the relationship between a stamp design and what is "behind" the design, this book serves as an excellent example.

Teddy Bears Celebrate 100th Anniversary


All about stamps - Teddy BearsTeddy bears, enormously popular symbols of human caring and loving, are being honored by the U.S. Postal Service with the issuance of the Teddy Bears commemorative stamps. The 2002 issuance of the stamps coincides with the 100th anniversary of teddy bears.
The Teddy Bears pane of 20 self-adhesive stamps depicts four lovable, cuddly teddy bears. Photos of the bears appear in the header; details of the photos appear on the stamps. The four stamp designs are repeated five times each on the pane. All four teddy bears were manufactured in the United States and are now owned by private collectors. The Ideal bear dates to circa 1905, the Bruin bear from circa 1907 and the Gund bear from circa 1948. The unlabeled "stick" bear dates from the 1920s. Mass- produced stick bears were characterized by their short arms, thin legs and upright posture. The Ideal bear, the Bruin bear and the stick bear belong to Paul and Rosemary Volpp of Carson City, Nev. The Gund bear belongs to Helen Sieverling of Pasadena, Calif.
The idea of the teddy bear was born in 1902 when President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a captive bear during a hunting trip. Washington Post cartoonist Clifford Berryman depicted the incident on the front page of the newspaper, and soon toymakers began to manufacture the "teddy" bears associated with the president's name. People in all walks of life love teddy bears, and enthusiasts—known in the teddy bear world as arctophiles—pay top dollar for the collectibles.
Today there are teddy bear magazines, clubs, collector shows and programs, both educational and medical, that feature these little stuffed companions. Teddy bears have had endless books, songs and poem written about them. Widely viewed as symbols of security and comfort, teddy bears are often used by police officers and hospital staff to calm the young and old alike in traumatic situations.

Second Set Of Penguin Stamps

All about stamps - PenguinsBritish Antarctic Territory has issued its second set of penguin stamps on a miniature sheet and in a booklet from the Port Lockroy Post Office.
The 12 airmail postcard values feature photographs of Chinstrap, Emperor, Adelie, Gentoo and Macaroni penguins, including juveniles.
All the photographs were taken by members of the British Antarctic Survey.


 
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