Milsurp After Hours

I am not an actual collector. I just picked up an album that somebody discarded at a flea market. I figured for $2 it was at least a curiosity.

It had a pretty good many stamps in it to start with and I even bought a few stamps afterward to fill it out a little. Like the Occupied nations stamps printed back during WWII.

The oldest stamp in the album is a not very pristine one from 1862 or 1863.

If I ever have any grand kids I'll pass it on......... although I imagine few kids collect stamps now days.

Very nice! My Dad collected stamps well into the 1990's. We have a ton. The earliest we have is an early 1850's Penny Red, which was the second postage stamp ever printed (it's very common, but it was the second printed). It's fascinating to see some of the tiny little countries you've not heard anything about; they printed stamps! When I looked at my Dad's collection, I would read up on the countries in my Dad's atlases and I really think that got me out ahead of the curve in geography when we did that in school.

I collected stamps in my adolescence. I guess I always was a history buff and I learned so much and quickly learned how to identify the different countries and languages. Who today even has heard of Sun Yat-Sen or Chiang Kai Shek or the Hapsburgs?