There is no more appropriate stamp design than the portrait of Hermes, the messenger god in his winged helmet, on the first stamps of Greece.
On July 26, 1775, the Second Continental Congress established a postal system for the United Colonies and appointed Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general.
Check letters are simple a way of indicating where in the sheet a stamp was printed.
Despite the unpopularity of its first commemorative set, the Columbian Exposition issue of 1893, the United States Post Office commemorated the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition with their own set of commemorative stamps in 1898.
The Columbian Exposition set of 1893 (Scott #230-245) was the world’s first commemorative set and it has become one of the most popular sets not only in United States philately but in the world. But this was not always so.
The problem of what quantities exist of different classic stamps has been one of the great difficulties of philatelic research. Counts of stamps such as United States 5¢ and 10¢ 1847 tend to be little more than guesses.
Hobbies are successful when they allow a diverse group of participants to engage in an activity where they can find enjoyment.
The broad appeal for blocks is scarcity or rarity, and eye appeal (blocks of 4 are balanced and pretty).
One of the most interesting philatelic areas is Confederate States. When the Southern States seceded from the Union in 1861, they quickly set up a postal system and issued their own stamps.
