a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010
Here’s a Cybertruck clad in white wrap, that we spotted in Columbia City today.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a classic ice white look for one’s wheels— but how about a whitish wrap with a little pizzazz, such as the Satin Flip Ghost Pearl (from the website buywrap.com, and assuming it was available for my car)?
These stamps from the USA landed in my mailbox (on an envelope from an Ebay seller that I had bought stamps from).
Issued Aug. 28, 1987
Perf. 10 hor. on 1 or 2 sides Photogravure
Booklet with 4 panes of 5 stamps printed in cylinders of 120
2355 A1720 22c |Multi-colored |Preamble to the US Constitution
2355 A1721 22c |Multi-colored |Preamble to the US Constitution
2355 A1722 22c |Multi-colored |Preamble to the US Constitution
2355 A1723 22c |Multi-colored |Preamble to the US Constitution
[Source: 2003 Scott Stamp Catalogue Vol. 1]
Issued Oct. 23, 1993
Perf. 11 Litho. & Engr.
Booklet with 4 panes of 5 stamps printed in cylinders of 120
2787 A2126 29c |Multi-colored |The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*
2785 A2124 29c |Multi-colored |Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm**
[Source: 2003 Scott Stamp Catalogue Vol. 1]
*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by American author Mark Twain that was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. [From Wikipedia]
**Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a classic American 1903 children’s novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her aunts, one stern and one kind, in the fictional village of Riverboro, Maine. {From Wikipedia]
I had business downtown and missed the No 10 bus on the way back.
Oh well, I thought, it’s such a beautiful day— let’s just walk back up to Capitol Hill.
Top to bottom:
The monorail station at Westlake Center.
The Summit Convention Center, the addition to the original Seattle Convention Center. (The Arch + Summit Convention Centers hosted 160 events in 2023, up from 114 in 2022, but still came in with an operating loss of $23 million for 2023).
Fall leaves at East Pike Street and Boren Avenue.
The Starbucks Roastery at East Pike Street and Melrose Avenue.
The pooch is wearing booties.
Beer truck from Ninkasi Brewing Company in Eugene, Oregon.
Korean Restaurant on Denny Way. (And now you know how to write Korean Restaurant in Korean!).
Hey! And here’s the Google Street View car at work. Maybe an image of me will make it onto the next update for Capitol Hill. 😆
My little ultraviolet lamp arrived today: one that is specifically designed to inspect postage stamps. (My pictures below).
Starting in 1969, South Africa began to add phosphorescent frames to stamps from its first definitive series of stamps*. Starting in 1971, the phosphorescent element appeared throughout the paper. It is almost impossible to distinguish between these two types of stamps without the aid of an ultraviolet lamp.
*Definitive series of stamps for the Republic of South Africa. The Union of South Africa became the Republic of South Africa in 1961 when it gained its independence from Great Britain.
Issued 1969-1972
Perf. 14×13½ Photogravure, chalk-surfaced paper, printed with phosphor bands
282 168 ½c New blue, carmine-red and yellow ochre | African Pygmy Kingfisher
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps, 2016 Edition]
Issued 1969-1972
Perf. 13½x14 Photogravure, chalk-surfaced paper, printed with phosphor bands (LEFT, 1969, bands badly misplaced!) and without (RIGHT, 1971)
277 169 1c Rose-red & olive brown | Coral tree flowers
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps, 2016 Edition]
Issued 1969-1972
Perf. 14×13½ Photogravure, chalk-surfaced paper, printed with phosphor bands
284 132 1½c Red brown and light purple | Afrikaner bull
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps, 2016 Edition]
Issued 1969-1972
Perf. 14 Photogravure, chalk-surfaced paper, printed with phosphor bands
285 133 2c Ultramarine and yellow | Pouring gold
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps, 2016 Edition]
Issued 1969-1972
Perf. 14 Photogravure, chalk-surfaced paper, printed with phosphor bands
286 134 2½c Violet and green | Groot Constantia wine estate
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps, 2016 Edition]
Issued 1969-1972
Perf. 14 Photogravure, chalk-surfaced paper, printed with phosphor bands
287 135 3c Red and deep blue |Burchell’s gonolek
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps, 2016 Edition]
Issued 1969-1972
Perf. 14 Photogravure, chalk-surfaced paper, printed with phosphor bands
293 138 10c Brown and pale green | Cape Town Castle gate
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps, 2016 Edition]
Issued 1969-1972
Perf. 14 Photogravure, chalk-surfaced paper, printed with phosphor bands
294 139 20c Turquoise-blue, carmine and brown orange| Secretary Bird
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps, 2016 Edition]
Here are my pictures of a ride today on the new northbound extension of the Sound Transit light rail system to downtown Lynnwood.
A letter arrived today from Antwerp, with more South African stamps inside.
Belgian Railways 175th Anniversary
Issued 2010, May 10
Perf. 11½| Photogravure & Engraving
2438 Belgian Railways 175th Anniversary| €1.18 | multi-colored
[Source: 2018 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1B]
Let’s see what’s on these stamps from Spain.
They were put on an envelope sent to me from an Ebay seller from Barcelona.
There was a single stamp from South Africa inside, to add to my collection ☺️.
Stamps (from South Africa) that I had bought in March (on Ebay) from a seller in China, showed up in my mailbox today.
.. being President of the United States*— or to collect stamps.
*President Biden sent a cease-and-desist letter of sorts to House Democrats today, telling them to support him in the election.
In the mean time it’s Christmas in July for me, because my latest two purchases from the UK landed on my porch today.
Happy Independence Day.
These are from my small collection of US stamps.
These coil stamps were still printed with engraved plates. Nowadays the vast majority of American-issued postage stamps are printed by using offset-lithography.
Flag Over Capitol Dome
Coil stamp Issued Mar.29, 1985
Perf. 10 vert. |Engraved |No Watermark
2115 A1498 22c Blue, red and black
Flag Over Mt. Rushmore
Coil stamp Issued Mar.29, 1991
Perf. 10 vert. |Engraved |No Watermark
2523 A1878 29c Blue, red and claret
[Source: Scott 2003 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1]
I already had this 1969 stamp from South Africa, but these control blocks were for sale for just a few dollars, and I bought them.
The two control blocks were printed on different types of postage stamp paper.
(Are these two distinctly different postage stamps— and should the philatelist put one of each in his or her album? I say yes: if you have both types, put both in your album.)
When the stamps are held up against a light, it’s easy to see the watermark clearly, in the white margins of the block.
These are some of the last South African stamps issued with watermarks.
In the United States, stamps with watermarks were issued only for a short time— from 1895 to 1916.
My stamps from a seller in Poland arrived today.
There were no Polish stamps on the outside (international registered mail is franked by machine), but the seller put some Polish stamps inside for me.
[From Wikipedia] “Polish Hamlet” was painted in 1903, and is one of the most famous works of Malczewski. It presents the grandson of Aleksander Wielopolski – Polish politician, a member of the Polish Kingdom government in the early 1860s, who tried to maneuver between the interests of the invaders and the Polish population – in the act of considering his grandfather’s legacy. The painting is symbolic and patriotic, it can be read in several ways. The women placed on both sides of the picture are an allegory of two different visions of the fate of their homeland. Located to the right is an elderly woman with white hair, dressed in dark robes, her hands cuffed by shackles, and her face takes on an expression of sadness, despair and awareness of their situation. She embodies Poland enslaved, experienced by fate, remaining under the yoke of others, and who can not be liberated. On the left side there is a young girl, half-naked, shown at the time of breaking the shackles. She is full of energy, and her face is very expressive. It symbolizes the “young Poland” – capable of action and being able to release from the long-term captivity.
These UK stamps arrived on the outside envelope of my latest order of South African stamps from a seller in Great Britain.
Issued 1979, Sept.26 Perf.15×14 Phosphorised paper
1108 585 |15p |Grey-black, magenta, brown, slate-blue, deep brown & Greenish black |River Patrol Boat
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part I British Commonwealth Volume 1]
Issued 1979, Nov.21 Perf.15×14 Phosphorised paper
1108 585 |15p |Orange-vermilion, steel blue, drab, grey-black, deep blue-green & gold |The Annunciation
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part I British Commonwealth Volume 1]
Issued 1989, Nov.14 Perf.15×14 One phosphor band
1462 924 |15p |Gold, silver and blue |14th-century Peasants from Stained-glass Window
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part I British Commonwealth Volume 1]
Issued 2002, Feb.6
Re-issue of 1952-54 definitive series stamps of Dorothy Wilding portrait of QE II
Booklet sheets w. new values & syncopated perforation (elliptical holes)
522 T157 33p Brown |George Knipe design
525 T158 37p Magenta |Mary Adshead design
530 T160 1st Class |Green |E. Dulac design
[Source: Stanley Gibbons Great Britain Concise Stamp Catalogue 2009]
So Nikki Haley* will vote for Trump, she said on Wednesday. She had called him ‘bad’, ‘unqualified to be President’, ‘do not trust him’ blah blah blah.
She didn’t bother to wait for the outcome of Trump’s first criminal trial— 34 felony counts over allegations that he falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. (Closing arguments for Trump’s case are on Tue May 28 and then the case goes to the jury).
*Former governor of South Carolina, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration, and the last remaining challenger to Trump in the 2024 Republican primaries until she dropped out of the race after Super Tuesday in March.
Cartoon by Michael Ramirez/Las Vegas Review-Journal for The Washington Post.
I bought this single stamp from a seller in Canada.
It’s the highest value stamp (10 shillings) in the series known as the 1927-1930 London Pictorials; the last South African stamps printed in London.
(After that stamps were printed in South Africa).
The Afrikaans-English se-tenant (joined) stamp pairs are very expensive (up to $200), but the single ones are $10 or so.
I’m still looking for an English one with ‘SOUTH AFRICA’ inscribed at the top.
Mail from Great Britain with Sherlock Holmes stamps on the outside, and South African stamps inside, arrived yesterday.
I am hounding down the last ones I need to complete my Union of South Africa (1910-1961) collection.
Congrats to the owner and team for Mystik Dan, the winner of the 150th Kentucky Derby, by a nose.
Hey, and the envelope with my latest order of stamps (from a seller in Belgium) has stamps with tulips on.
Issued 2003 in booklet panes Perf. Die Cut 9¾ on 2 or sides
1991 A858 0.59€ Multi-colored Yellow Tulips
Windmills
Issued 2002, Jul. 15
Perf. 11½ Photolithogr.
1925 A824 0.42€ Multi-colored Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Lombeek windmill, Azores
[Source: Scott 2018 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1B]
Issued 2002, Jun. 10
Perf. 11 ½ Photolithogr.
1917 A820 0.42€ Multi-colored Leffe Abbey, 850th Anniversary
Belgian Castles
Issued 2002, Jun. 10
Perf. 11 ½ Photolithogr. Mini-sheet of 10
1918a A821 0.42€ Multi-colored Ecaussinnes-Lalaing
1918c A821 0.42€ Multi-colored Corroy-le-Chateau
1918d A821 0.42€ Multi-colored Alden Biesen
1918e A821 0.42€ Multi-colored Modave
1918f A821 0.42€ Multi-colored Horst
1918j A821 0.42€ Multi-colored Wissekerke
[Source: Scott 2018 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1B]
Issued 2005 (types of 1985 with Euro denominations)
Perf. 11 ½ Photolithogr.
2072 A524 0.05€ Multi-colored Bruant zizi (Belgium Cirl bunting bird)
Issued 2023, Jan.23
Perf. Die Cut 11½ Litho. Self-adhesive
Registered Mail Multi-colored Red-Knot Sandpiper
[Source: Scott 2018 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1B]