A big carton box from buyee.co.jp landed on my porch this morning, full of stamp albums and sets of stamps and books that I had bought from sellers in Japan over the course of a month.
The package followed a circuitous route to make it to Seattle from Kawaguchi, Japan:
Trucked from Kawaguchi to Narita Airport,
flown from Narita Airport to FedEx hub in Anchorage AK,
flown from Anchorage AK to FedEx hub in Newark NJ,
flown from Newark NJ to FedEx hub in Memphis TN,
flown from Memphis TN to local FedEx facility in Auburn WA,
trucked from Auburn WA to Willem’s porch in Seattle WA.
Danielle Dowling writes for the New York Times: If you missed this summer’s eclipse, don’t worry.
There are still a handful of opportunities to catch the “eclipse of the century” next year. Imagine standing beneath a blackened sun among the ancient Egyptian tombs in the Valley of the Kings or overlooking the Nile at the Hatshepsut Temple. The eerie darkness might fill you with a primeval mix of terror, awe and wonder. In other words, perfection. In the midmorning and afternoon of Aug. 2, 2027, ten countries (and a few territories) on the Mediterranean Sea and in the Middle East and Africa will find themselves in the 160-mile-wide, nearly 9,500-mile-long zone.
In some places, darkness will last as long as an incredible six minutes and 23 seconds.
Danielle Dowling also offers this cruise ship information in the NYT article: If you wish to combine travel around Spain and other nearby destinations with a cruise on the Mediterranean, where totality will last up to five minutes, you have options. Celebrity is offering two cruises: an 11-night Italy and Spain trip, with the eclipse falling on Day 8 (from $3,121 per person), and a seven-night Spain and Morocco journey, with the eclipse on Day 3 (from $4,883 per person). And there are still a few rooms left aboard VACAYA LGBTQ+ Vacations’ 10-day eclipse cruise (from $18,963 double occupancy), which sails from Trieste, Italy, to Barcelona.Aerial view during sunrise of the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, Luxor, Egypt. The mortuary temple built during the reign of Pharaoh Hatshepsut of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. The temple is considered to be a masterpiece of ancient architecture. Its three massive terraces rise above the desert floor and into the cliffs of Deir el-Bahari. Her tomb, KV20, lies inside the same massif capped by El Qurn, a pyramid for her mortuary complex. Across the river Nile, the whole structure points towards the monumental Eighth Pylon, Hatshepsut’s most recognizable addition to the Temple of Karnak and the site from which the procession of the Beautiful Festival of the Valley departed. Image by Diego Delso/ Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0 File:Templo funerario de Hatshepsut, Luxor, Egipto, 2022-04-03, DD 13.jpg Created: 3 Apr. 2022 Uploaded: 27 Nov. 2022 Location: 25° 44′ 17.66″ N, 32° 36′ 23.94″ E
I was at the Magus Books used book store in University Village today.
I had to ask AI who this person in the photo on the wall was. It is the English poet, artist, designer and socialist William Morris (1834-1896), famous for his leadership in the British Arts and Crafts Movement. This is an iconic 1884 portrait of him taken by photographer Frederick Hollyer. (And what was the British Arts and Crafts Movement about? It was an influential design movement that emerged in Britain around 1880 and lasted through the 1920s as a response to the Industrial Revolution. It rejected mass factory production in favor of handmade quality, original materials and traditional craftsmanship.)Among my favorite shelves in the bookstore are the ones with dictionaries, and the one with the graphic comic books in foreign languages. This beautiful and enormous old Chinese-English dictionary was $120, maybe just a little bit too expensive for an impulse buy. In the top left corner of this page, we can learn how to write ‘China’ in Chinese: 中国 (pronounce zhōng guó). The characters stand for ‘Middle Kingdom’, a term that dates back to many centuries before BCE. It reflects the belief that China was situated at the center of a vast square Earth, surrounded by the Four Seas, beyond which lay islands inhabited by barbarians.
One would think everything is at a standstill in Ukraine because of the war, but no— my purchase of Japanese stamps from an Ebay seller in Kyiv arrived in the mail today, courtesy of Ukrposhta (Ukraine’s postal service).
These stamps were on the outside envelope.
2017 Definitive Series – Coats of Arms Issued Jun. 13, 2017 Perf. 14 x 13½ | Design: Natalia Andreichenko | Offset Litho. | No watermark 1656 BFO Domestic Postal Rate H | Multicolored | Coat of Arms of Marynyn Notes: The Ukrainian trident (tryzub) appears in a small shield at the top left Marynyn (Маринин) is a village located in Rivine Oblast (Рівненська обл.), as noted in the small text near the bottom [Sources: stampworld.com, Claude AI]2011 Household Items – One of a set of 4 stamps Issued Jun. 7, 2011 Perf. 13¾ | Design: Ekaterina Shtanko | Offset Litho. | No watermark 1191 ANW ₴ 6.00 | Multicolored | Bandura (Бандура) Notes: The Ukranian monetary unit is the hryvnia (symbol ₴). A bandura is a pear-shaped, multi-stringed plucked instrument unique to Ukrainian folk music. The image shows the instrument’s rounded wooden body, long fretted neck, elaborately carved scroll/ pegbox, and the many strings (both the neck strings and the shorter sympathetic strings stretched across the soundboard) that give the bandura its distinctive harp-like sound. A decorative rosette surrounds the sound hole. [Sources: stampworld.com, Claude AI]2023 Definitive Series – Pysanky Decorated Easter Eggs Issued Apr. 21, 2023 Perf. 13 | Design: Natalia Andriichenko | Engraving: Integrated Printing Plant Ukraina For Securities | Offset Litho. | No watermark 2096 BWQ Domestic Postal Rate T | Multicolored | Pysanky Decorated Egg from the Hutsul ethnocultural region Notes: About pysanky: These eggs are decorated using a wax-resist (“batik”) method, where designs are drawn in hot wax before dyeing in successive colors, with the wax removed at the end to reveal the multicolor pattern. Each region of Ukraine has traditionally developed its own distinct motifs and color palettes, and Hutsul pysanky are especially prized for their intricate geometric symbolism. Region label: “ГУЦУЛЬЩИНА” (Hutsulshchyna) in small text at the top — indicating this pysanka pattern comes from the Hutsul ethnocultural region, an area in the Carpathian Mountains (spanning parts of Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, and Zakarpattia oblasts) renowned for its distinctive folk art Design: An elaborately patterned egg rendered in the traditional pysanka wax-resist dyeing technique, featuring a black background with a central stylized fish motif (a common Christian symbol) in green, yellow, and white, surrounded by geometric bands of triangles, stars, and wave/comb patterns in yellow, green, black, and white — colors and motifs characteristic of Hutsul pysanky [Sources: stampworld.com, Claude AI]
In 1995— as part of a series commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II— the postal service designed a stamp with a painting of a mushroom cloud captioned “Atomic bombs hasten war’s end, August 1945.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Japanese government, peace activists, and many others were offended by a stamp that appeared to celebrate a terrifying weapon that multiple countries now possessed and occasionally threatened to use.
After the intervention of then-President Bill Clinton, postal officials reconsidered the matter and the stamp was never released (although a prototype for it, showing “00” where the stamp’s denomination would have appeared, is easily found online).
In its place, the post office substituted an image of President Harry Truman announcing Japan’s surrender on August 14, 1945. (The stamp in the middle at the bottom of the souvenir sheet below).
– From a discussion of the most controversial stamps in the history of the United States on history.com
1995 World War II Souvenir Sheet Fifth and last souvenir sheet issued to commemorate the 50th anniversary of World War II Includes 10 stamps plus a world map Stamp Category: Commemorative Series: World War II Value: 32¢ (Denomination of each individual stamp) First Day of Issue: September 2, 1995 First Day City: Honolulu, Hawaii Quantity Issued (if known): 100,000,000 Printed by: Bureau of Engraving and Printing Printing Method: Offset, Intaglio Format: Sheetlets of 10 (arranged in 2 strips of 5, one across the top and one across the bottom of the sheetlet, with world map in between) Perforations: 11.1 (Eureka off-line perforator) Tagging: Overall, large block covering stamps and part of selvage Why the stamp was issued: This souvenir sheet was issued to commemorate the 50th anniversary of World War II. It was the last in a series of five that were issued over the course of five years. [Source: mysticstamp.com]
My Ebay purchase of stamps from Germany arrived today, sent by the seller from Backnang in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Let’s take a closer look at the stamps that he put on the envelope.
2021 World of Letters (two stamps from a series of 18 stamps) Issued Dec. 2, 2021 Perf. 12 Die Cut | Self-adhesive | Design: Bettina Walter | Engraving: Bundesdruckerei| Photolithography | 2D barcode panel | No watermark 3266 DQN €0.05 | Multicolored | Letter-and-pencil water lily 3267 DQO €0.85 | Multicolored | Letter-folded-into-swan origami [Sources: stampworld.com]2001 The 300th Anniversary of the Kingdom of Prussia Issued Jan. 11, 2001 Perf. 14 | Design: Aretz | Photolithography | No watermark 2037 BVK 110 Pfg/ €0.56 | Cream, brown-olive, gray & black | Coat of arms of Kingdom of Prussia (1701-1871) The Kingdom of Prussia was a powerful European state that existed from 1701 to 1918, ruled by the House of Hohenzollern. It was centered in Berlin and Brandenburg, and it led the 1871 unification of Germany. [Sources: stampworld.com, Wikipedia.com]2005 The 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Hans Christian Andersen, 1805-1875 Issued Apr. 7, 2005 Perf. 14 | Design: Blume-Zander & Zander | Engraving: Stampatore: Bundesdruckerei | Photolithography | No watermark 2311 CFZ €1.44 | Brown orange & black | Plaque and characters from the fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was a celebrated Danish author, renowned for his literary fairy tales. He is also the author of plays, novels, poems, travel books, and several autobiographies.
2005 Definitive Series of Flowers (one stamp from a series of 28 stamps) Issued Jan. 2, 2010 Perf. 14 | Design: Stefan Klein et Olaf Neumann | Engraving: Stampatore: Bundesdruckerei | Photolithography | No watermark 2584 CQI €4.10 | Multicolored | Lady’s-slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceolus) The lady’s slipper (Cypripedium) is a fascinating terrestrial orchid distinguished by its striking, shoe-shaped flower lip. In the wild—such as the strictly protected yellow lady’s slipper (Cypripedium calceolus) in Central Europe—it grows in open deciduous and pine forests on calcareous soils. [Sources: stampworld.com, Brittanica.com, Bund Naturschutz]
I am pulling apart a pile of definitive stamp series from Japan issued from 1913 to 1937 called the Tazawa series, after their designer.
Following the death of Emperor Meiji, the Japanese government held its first-ever open prize competition to select a new standard stamp design.
Tazawa Shōgen was an employee of the Japanese Printing Bureau and won this national contest to design the country’s standard definitive stamps in 1913.
The stamps typically feature the Imperial Chrysanthemum crest, floral motifs, or national coats of arms and were used extensively for domestic and international mail.
Two different printing methods were used for the stamps, resulting in slightly smaller and slightly larger prints of the design. The 18 and 19 on the pieces of paper are millimeters, and the dots on the papers indicate the width of the stamp as I measured it. <b/r>The first two piles (narrower prints) were printed with a flat plate process, and the latter two piles (wider prints) were printed with a rolling press.A closer look at the details of the stamp. The characters at the top say “Greater Japan Imperial Postal Service”. The vertical characters is Japanese for ½ Sen, the denomination. The chrysanthemum symbol below the characters appeared on almost every Japanese stamp up to World War II and symbolizes nobility, longevity, and rejuvenation. Introduced from China, it holds ultimate royal significance, with this stylized, 16-petal version serving as the Imperial Seal. The design was printed on granite paper, a paper with fine colored threads in.
Here are some of the first pages from my Japan stamp collection.
Japan’s Showa series stamps are definitive postage stamps issued during the reign of Emperor Hirohito (the Showa period), spanning from 1937 through the early post-war era.
1st Showa Definitive Series (1937–1940) Design Motifs: Classic imagery showcasing iconic cultural landmarks, historical figures, and scenic vistas. Key Designs: Mount Fuji with cherry blossoms, General Nogi Maresuke, and the Horyu-ji temple pagoda. Paper Types: Printed initially on distinct granite paper (containing tiny colored fibers) before transitioning to plain white paper. Production: High-quality photogravure and engraving with standard, clean perforations.
. 2nd Showa Definitive Series (1942–1945) Design Motifs: Heavily militaristic and industrial themes reflecting World War II mobilization. Key Designs: War workers hammering, military pilots, fighter airplanes, and industrial factories alongside classic Mount Fuji with cherry blossoms imagery. Austerity Measures: Production quality suffered heavily as the war progressed.
Perforations became rough or uneven, and the gum backing was often omitted due to resource shortages.
. 3rd Showa Definitive Series (1945–1946) Design Motifs: Mostly repurposed wartime designs but produced under extreme emergency conditions immediately following Japan’s surrender. Key Characteristics: These are completely imperforate (no holes, required cutting with scissors) and printed on coarse, poor-quality paper with no gum.
It is Day 102 of the war with Iran (the war that is not a war, right?).
More than two months have passed since Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire.
We’ve been hearing every few days that the two sides are close to a deal .. but besides the Strait of Hormuz, there is the issue of Iran’s nuclear program and the spillover skirmishes and strikes elsewhere in the Middle East.
We’ve also been hearing that the price of oil may hit $150 per barrel ‘soon’, but instead it has stuck to a price ranging from $80 to $100.
Economists talk of ‘demand destruction’: if the world learns how to get by with 15 million fewer barrels of oil per day, the price of oil may not go up by much more. (The world consumes about 103 million barrels of petroleum and liquid fuels every day).
Reporting from the New York Times about the sea drones that rescued the two pilots from the helicopter that was shot down. The sea drones are officially ‘Task Force 59 unmanned surface vessels’. The U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter was struck and brought down by an Iranian Shahed one-way attack drone while patrolling international waters off the coast of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz.
Happy Friday.
I’m reading up about the stamps from Greenland that had I bought at the stamp show from a friendly guy from Nuuk, at the Greenland booth at the stamp show.
2025 The 75th Anniversary of the SIRIUS Patrol Issued Jan. 31, 2025 Perf. 13 | Design: Miki Jacobsen | 40 mm x 30 mm | Offset Lithography | Printing: Gutenberg AG | Paper: FSC SecurPost 110g/ m2 | No watermark 01100788 19.00 Kr | Multicolored | SIRIUS Patrol with provisions and dog sled
The headquarters of the SIRIUS patrol is Daneborg, located on the east coast of Greenland, close to 74 degrees north latitude. The headquarters is completely cut off from the outside world. To get there, you have to fly in a small propeller plane from Iceland. At the station, twelve men and 80 sled dogs are each other’s only company for a radius of about 250 kilometers. There are not many distractions outside of work. There is mail from home six to seven times a year. SIRIUS’ northernmost station is called Station Nord. Five men are stationed here year-round. The main task is to keep a large runway free of ice, but there are also many other tasks. On the patrols, the menu is freeze-dried food, powdered milk, chocolate and rye bread, but after arriving at the station, there is food in abundance, as well as videos, music and even a shower. Everything is in sharp contrast to the patrols’ harsh living conditions. Station Nord is therefore a very popular place to stay for the patrols. In a modern era, when surveillance of Northeast Greenland could easily be carried out using satellites or aircraft, the SIRIUS patrol may seem redundant. However, the fact is that, according to international conventions, sovereignty can only be enforced by entering the areas that a country possesses. So the unique Danish military unit will probably continue to operate in Greenland’s northernmost regions in the future. [Sources: stampworld.com, stamps.gl/greenland-collector, Google AI]2025 Greenlandic Dog Sleds Issued Jan. 31, 2025 Perf. 13 | Design: Konrad Nuka Godtfredsen | 56 mm x 33 mm | Offset Lithography | Printing: Gutenberg AG | Paper: FSC SecurPost 110g/ m2 | No watermark 895 AEK 3.00 Kr | Multicolored | East Greenlandic sled 896 AEL 38.00 Kr | Multicolored | Greenlander with East Greenlandic sled [Sources: stampworld.com, Google AI]2025 EUROPA Stamps – National Archaeological Discoveries Issued May 26, 2025 Perf. 13 | Design: Maya Sialuk Jacobsen | 30 mm x 40 mm, 40 mm x 30 mm | Offset Lithography | Printing: Gutenberg AG | Paper: FSC SecurPost 110g/ m2 | No watermark 902 AER 25.00 Kr | Black and white | Boy with animal skin clothing from the Thule culture More: Qilakitsoq is an abandoned Inuit settlement on the Nuussuaq Peninsula on the West coast of Greenland, about 450 km north of the Arctic Circle. The settlement is renowned for the discovery of eight mummified bodies from the Thule culture in 1972. The discovery was made by two local reindeer hunters, Hans and Jokum Grønvold. In two graves were the mummies of six women and two boys. They comprise three generations with close familial links across the graves. Although the causes of death are unknown, they probably died at the same time in the Autumn shortly after arriving at the Winter settlement. They were wrapped in animal skins and fully clothed. They were equipped for a long journey to the underworld, carefully prepared according to ancient, traditional rites. They had extra skins and clothing to afford them a safe journey and a good life in the realm of the dead. The five oldest women have almost identical facial tattoos that can express both kinship and social status. The youngest woman of about 20 years is not tattooed. Perhaps she was either unmarried or childless. Tattoos have been in common use among Inuit women for thousands of years. There were amulets on and among their clothing. The Inuit probably employed these amulets to muster strength and protection from evil spirits. The mummies from Qilakitsoq have since afforded valuable insights into the life of the Inuit who lived in the area some 500 years ago. The stamp reproduces the most recognisable and most iconic of the eight mummies. It is presumed to be a small boy of about six months. While the gender is based on the clothing, the age has been ascertained from the development of teeth and bones through radiographic examination.
903 AES 28.00 Kr | Black and white | The Kingittorsuaq rune stone More: The Kingittorsuaq rune stone was found in 1824 by a man called Pelimut. The discovery was made on top of the mountain on the small island of Kingittorsuaq about 20 km north of Upernavik. At the highest point of the island, he saw three collapsed cairns placed in a triangle formation. Near the largest of the cairns, he spotted a stone with several markings that he did not recognise. The stone, which is known as the Kingittorsuaq Runestone, bears medieval rune inscriptions. It is conclusive evidence that Norsemen in Greenland on their fishing trips along the West coast of Greenland reached as far North as North of the present-day town of Upernavik. The stone, which currently resides in the National Museum in Copenhagen, has been dated to the Middle Ages between 1250 to 1333 AD. The last part of the runic script remains undecipherable as it appears to be a group of meaningless characters. However, the first part of the writing on the runestone translated from Old Norse reads: “Erling, son of Sigvath and Baarne Thordar’s son and Enriði Á’s son, on Saturday before Rogation Day raised this stone and rode…” [Sources: stampworld.com, europe-stamps.blogspot.com, Google AI]2025 Dove of Peace Issued Sep. 12, 2025 Woven cloth with embroidery | 100% Recycled polyester | 55 mm x 42 mm | Mfg. by Hämmerle & Vogel (Austria) | Self-adhesive 909 AEY 75 Kr | Stylized, white-and-blue embroidered dove carrying an olive branch Part of an international joint initiative where multiple postal services worldwide issued identical embroidered stamps. It features the exact same dove motif across over a dozen postal organizations (including the UN, Switzerland, Austria, and the Faroe Islands) with only the country name and local currency varying. [Sources: stampworld.com, Google AI]2026 Boston World Expo Issued May 23, 2026 Perf. 13 | Two stamps in minisheet (140 mm x 80 mm) | Design: Martin Mörck | Stamps 40 mm x 30 mm | Offset Lithography | Printing: Gutenberg AG | Paper: FSC SecurPost 110g/ m2 | No watermark 01100819 25.00 Kr | Multicolored | Leif the Lucky’s discovery of Vinland* 01100820 37.00 Kr | Multicolored | Thor Solberg’s flight aboard the Leif Eriksson biplane**
*Leif Eriksson, also known as Leif the Lucky, was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus did. Vinland is the coastal region of North America (Newfoundland & eastern Canada) explored and temporarily settled by Norse Vikings around 1000 CE. **Thor Solberg was a Norwegian-born aviation pioneer who made the first successful flight from the United States of America to Norway in 1935. He made the journey, which started in New York City, in an open-cockpit single-engine aircraft with no landing instruments. [Sources: stampworld.com, stamps.gl/greenland-collector, Google AI]
I’m going to have to find another way to get my summary of the day’s calamities, now that the Stephen Colbert Show is over.
(Background: The cancellation announcement in July 2025 closely followed a legal settlement in which CBS paid Donald Trump $16 million over a controversial 60 Minutes interview. Because Colbert was a relentless and high-profile critic of the Trump administration, many media critics and fans speculated the cancellation was tied to political and corporate dynamics. At the time of the announcement, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, was navigating a complex, multibillion-dollar merger that required government approval from the Trump administration — Google AI Overview).
Here is how Edward Norton (American actor and filmmaker), described the difficulty for the individual following the news, on the Stephen Colbert Show, Mar. 18, 2026.
“The anxiety of these times is particularly intense right now. We know the world is effed up in ways that are unprecedented in our lifetimes. We live in this unbelievable onslaught of information. We see genocide being livestreamed to us. We see American citizens being killed by paramilitary people in our own streets for standing in solidarity with their neigbors. We’re seeing Epstein’s abuses titrated to us on a daily basis. And it is such a conundrum, because we know – we know there is a value, we know that it is good in some ways to know what is exactly happening, to know what is happening in Gaza, to know what is happening in Ukraine and Sudan and Minneapolis, but at the same time it is very difficult to know what we as an individual person can do about all of that while moving through our day.”
It is Memorial Day here in the United States— the day dedicated to honoring and mourning military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.
The Boston Fire Department Engine 4 Ladder 24 at 200 Cambridge Street has the old Stars and Stripes with 13 stars in a circle, on the fire station doors. The 13 original colonies, or states, were: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island. This flag was adopted in 1777, and replaced in 1795 by one with 15 stars on.
The site of the Boston Tea Party incident is a short walk from the Convention Center.
The Boston Tea Party was a political protest on December 16, 1773, where American colonists, frustrated by British “taxation without representation,” destroyed 342 chests of tea. Led by the Sons of Liberty and disguised as Mohawk warriors, the group dumped $1.7 million worth of British East India Company tea into Boston Harbor.
The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum had already closed for the day when I got there last night.
I took a few pictures and then walked to South Station at 700 Atlantic Avenue. It is a large train station that serves the MBTA Subway, bus lines and an Amtrak line.
The site of the Boston Tea Party in Boston harbor.The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum.A block of four 1973 stamps to commemorate the Boston Tea Party.A modern walkway and arches leading to South Station. The tall skyscraper above South Station is the South Station Tower. Standing at 690 feet tall with 51 stories, it is the sixth-tallest building in Boston.The main entrance into South Station, at the corner of Summer St and Atlantic Avenue.The main lobby inside South Station.I took the Red Line with three stops to Charles/ MGH* station. *Massachusetts General Hospital.The Puffers Building, located at 214-218 Cambridge Street in Boston’s Beacon Hill, is a historic Queen Anne-style brick building built in 1899. Financed by carbonated beverage magnate Alvin D. Puffer, the building originally functioned as sweatshops employing newly arrived immigrants in the West End’s cigar-making industry. – Google AI Overview/ Boston Women’s Heritage TrailAnd here is what must be one of the orginal Massachusetts General Hospital buildings. Founded in 1811, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is the third-oldest general hospital in the United States and the original, largest teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. Conceived to treat Boston’s sick and impoverished, MGH has grown into a world-renowned biomedical research and clinical care center.
I attended the opening ceremony of the Boston 2026 World Expo stamp show, and spent the best part of the day looking at the displays, and checking out the offerings from the vendors. (And making a few acquisitions— nothing too extravagant).
There was a little pomp and ceremony during the opening of the exhibition. A marching band called the Concord and Acton Minutemen came in. They performed the national anthem for us, and then marched out. Lexington is known for Lexington Common, or Battle Green, where the first shot of the American Revolutionary War was fired. This picture is from the end of the opening ceremony, with the unveiling of ten new stamps issued by the United States Postal Service, called Treasures of the Revolutionary Era. On the stage are several dignitaries of the Expo, of the USPS and the Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (The Honorable Kim Driscoll).A view of the main exhibition hall as one descends down the escalator from the main lobby. There are some 10,000 exhibits with a total of 4,000 frames, each with 16 pages, on display. An estimated inventory of some $10 million worth of stamps are for sale at the booths of the vendors and at the auctions that will be held.The USPS is a major sponsor of the show and there were long lines at the counters in the morning.Prints of about 2 ft x 3 ft of stamps of the world adorn the panels that form the spaces on the floor of the exhibition center. I still have to track down the ones depicting stamps from South Africa. (Do you know where in the world Zanzibar is?)An offering for serious collectors that also have deep pockets: a whole sheet of the 1918 issue of USA airmail stamps, 24c apiece, can be yours for $13,000.The 24c airmail stamp from the previous picture was printed in separate runs for the red link and blue ink. On one AND ONLY ONE SHEET, the Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” biplane was accidentally printed upside down. These stamps are called the 1918 24¢ “Inverted Jenny”. When this single sheet of 100 Inverted Jenny stamps was purchased by William T. Robey in May 1918, it was quickly sold to stamp dealer Eugene Klein. Klein then sold the intact sheet to the eccentric multimillionaire collector Colonel Edward H. R. Green. Colonel Green instructed Kleinto break the sheet up into single stamps and smaller blocks. While most of the sheet was split into individual singles, Green deliberately kept the most important positional units intact. The Centerline Block of Four is shown in this picture: Taken from the exact center of the original sheet of 100, this block features the horizontal and vertical guide lines used by the printers. This unique centerline block survived intact and sold at a Spink auction in 2019 for $1,740,000.The famous Cape of Good Hope stamp from the Cape Colony in South Africa, issued 1853 to 1864. It was the world’s first triangular stamp. This panel is part of a thematic collection of triangular stamps of the world.And here is the stamp that started it all: the 1840 Penny Black issued in the United Kingdom. These were imperforate and cut apart with scissors. This is one has four full margins around the edges of the stamp. The display envelope with the stamp on goes for $295. So far I have resisted the temptation to buy one!
Happy Friday.
Trump is back from China, where he tried hard to undo the catastrophic damage of his trade war— the one that he had started last year in April.
The headline of the order for 200 Boeing jets looks good, but the article mentions that Boeing was hoping for an order of up to 500 jets.
Front page of the Seattle Times today.
I asked Google AI to summarize the trip for me— what is publicly known about it, anyway.
At the bottom: “Highlighting deep-seated paranoia over Chinese surveillance, White House staff immediately confiscated and threw away all Chinese-issued credentials, delegation pins, and burner phones before anyone was permitted to board Air Force One to return to Washington.”
I bought a large batch of Japanese stamps from an Ebay seller.
These are from 1981, and depict the very first stamps issued by the Imperial Japanese Post (today simply called Japan Post).
Japan’s first postage stamps, known as the “Ryu” (dragon) stamps, were issued on April 20, 1871.
These imperforate, hand-engraved stamps featured dragon designs and used “Mon” currency.
It would be nice to own just one or two of the original dragon stamps, but man! they are listed for anything from $500 to several thousand dollars on Ebay.
Then you have to take really good care of this little square of paper.
Also: a lot of well-made forgeries are floating around.
Some sellers offer authentication certificates, but can even those be trusted?
1981 International Stamp Exhibition “PHILATOKYO ’81” Tokyo, Japan— Stamps on Stamps from 1871 Issued Oct. 9, 1981 Perf. 13 | Photolithography and engraving | No watermark 1481 A1063 60y Multicolored with vermillion 1871 stamp of pair of dragons facing characters of value 200 mon 1482 A1063 60y Multicolored with brown 1871 stamp of pair of dragons facing characters of value 48 mon 1483 A1063 60y Multicolored with yellow green 1871 stamp of pair of dragons facing characters of value 500 mon 1484 A1063 60y Multicolored with blue 1871 stamp of pair of dragons facing characters of value 100 mon [Sources: 2021 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue Vol. 4A, stampworld.com, Google AI]
I am expanding my collection of stamps from Japan, and have bought some older ones on Ebay recently.
I love the graphic design of this one.
Check out its interesting history in the caption below.
Japan, 1923 ‘Earthquake Stamps’ Issued Oct. 25, 1923 Imperforate | Offset lithography | Granite paper with colored fibers, parallel lines watermark | No gum 183 A51 4 sen Gray-green | Mount Fuji, cherry blossoms and dragonflies around the Imperial Chrysanthemum Seal (the 16-petal flower at the top center) Text on the stamp: 日本郵便 Nippon Yūbin (Japan Postal Service) 四錢 Yon Sen (or Shi Sen) 4 Sen, equal to 1/100th of a Yen [Sources: 2021 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 4A, Google AI]
Historical Background These stamps were created following the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1, 1923, which devastated Tokyo and Yokohama. The disaster destroyed the government’s Printing Bureau, along with its stamp-making equipment and stored inventory. To maintain postal services during reconstruction, the government commissioned a private corporation to produce these emergency definitives. Unlike standard stamps of the time, these were issued imperforate (no holes) and without gum (adhesive) on the back due to the emergency conditions. They were used until April 30, 1925, after the Printing Bureau was restored.
Reporting by Josh Holder, Adina Renner and Blacki Migliozzi for the New York Times:
On Monday, the United States imposed its own naval blockade, intent on ending Iran’s dominance of the waterway and cutting off its oil income by blocking all traffic to and from its ports.
More than 12 American military vessels were stationed in international waters in the Gulf of Oman, beyond the strait, a U.S. official said on Tuesday. And the military is likely monitoring the region from a distance, using radar, patrol aircraft and drones, said Jennifer Parker, a former naval officer now at the University of Western Australia’s Defense and Security Institute.
Since the U.S. blockade took effect, no ships linked to Iran have been spotted leaving the region, according to the vessel‑tracking company Kpler.
Headlines, images and captions below are from the New York Times:
U.S. And Iran Fail to Agree on Peace Deal After 21 Hours of Talks, Vance Says
Vice President JD Vance said the Iranian delegation had not accepted American terms for ending the war after a marathon, face-to-face session in Pakistan.
– Headline and reporting from the New York Times
A report from Farnaz Fassihi on the New York Times live blog.
I was very relieved late last night, to learn that the US airman whose fighter jet had been shot down* had been rescued out of Iran.
*We subsequently learned he is an Air Force colonel, actually.
But then Sunday morning came, and here is whatGreg Jaffe, Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt and Julian E. Barnes reports for the New York Times:
The moment of celebration seemed to pass quickly for Mr. Trump, who on Easter Sunday morning returned to the reality of an unpopular war for which he seemed to have no clear exit strategy. The airman was safe, but the Strait of Hormuz was still in Iranian control, imperiling as much as 20 percent of the world’s oil supply and the global economy.
Mr. Trump had tried bullying America’s allies in Europe and Asia to come to his aid, but his entreaties were ignored.
So he threatened Iran’s leaders in an angry and profane social media message.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.
