Can there ever be a thing of too many postage stamps? I’m testing my limit that’s for sure. I’ve had a couple of shoe boxes of loose stamps at home that I use in my art. Honestly, I don’t need anymore, but when an opportunity presented itself for me to potentially get more interesting (meaning vintage) stamps, I couldn’t pass it up. I came home with another two shoe boxes of stamps from my local stamp club. But honestly, what’s the worst that can happen when you reach postage stamp overload? You share with other stamp-enthusiast artists, and you create more art projects, that’s what.
The box that keeps on giving
This past week I picked up a box of loose, vintage postage stamps, from my local stamp club.
At the bottom of the box, unbeknownst to me when I bought it, was row upon row of tiny stamp bundles. As I began taking them out to inspect, I found that the thread had broken off on many of them and so the stack were in danger of scattering. Carefully, I began removing them and making stacks on my dining room table.
The stamps are old and somewhat brittle. It seems to me that the box was in a place warm and dry, like a garage perhaps, and that’s how they lost their flexibility. Though there are lots of different international stamps in the shoe box, the bundles consist of only two stamp designs. Both are from Denmark and are “definitives”.
A definitive stamp is a postage stamp that is part of the regular issue of a country’s stamps, available for sale by the post office for an extended period of time and designed to serve the everyday postal needs of the country. – Wikipedia
These Danish definitives were issued between 1870 and 1904. After seeing so many postmarks, I learned to decipher dates.
Help arrives
My kids watched me make piles of loose stamps and wondered what I was doing. After I explained that I was going to make bundles out of the loose stamps, they decided they wanted to help me too. Both wanted a few bundles to keep of their own. I readily agreed.
With my little helpers, we bundled a grand total of 68 sets of Danish stamps.
We stopped there, once the cigar box was full. I placed the rest of the loose stamps in a resealable sandwich bag.
Have you lost your mind?
You might be thinking, what will you do with a cigar box of stamp bundles? Why would you waste your time doing such a thing as bundling used stamps? As one person who commented on my photos I posted on Instagram: Keep the bundled ones for a “shrine to postal beauty”. I like that idea. Also, many are going to my friend Pamela, who does indeed have her own shrine to postal beauty including this awesome set of stamp bundles.
Things I learned from attending a postage stamp show
I love your paragraph captions – Help Has Arrived and Have You Lost Your Mind? Too funny. I love that the kids helped bundle and that they each wanted a couple of bundles. And I love that you are sharing with me.
You’re my stamp comrade-in-arms, particularly since I’m going to be handing off a bunch of loose stamps that you can bundle too, if you are so inclined 😉 It’s so much more fun when you have someone to share with!
I havr the stamp 4 ore with normal frame and inverted WMK no. 113,it is rare or not best regards!
It’s such a beautiful stamp, Filip. It’s a great addition to your collection, I am sure.
Such a fun post! I love this cute stamp collection! Thanks for sharing your goodies. I enjoy seeing your stash! 🙂
Thank you! They’re so much fun to play with 🙂
So much eye candy! You really do need to come to Portland when Pamela visits again so we can go to Uptown Stamps together. I might be just a little jealous of these beauties!
Yes! I’m so ready to come to Portland the next time. I’m gonna get there! 🙂
Lovely – I have yet to come across bundled stamps – one day 🙂 And I also enjoy sharing stamps – I have so many there is no way I will ever use them all. I bring to classes I teach and love it when students “discover” old stamps for the first time – you’d think they had died and gone to heaven.
Stamps, especially older ones, are little bits of vintage ephemera. Who wouldn’t love that? I, too, love it when people start to realize what you can create with them.
Now that’s truly dedicated, Margarete, and got your kids involved, too. I’ll never grizzle about my tub of vintage Danish stamps in the same way again. LOL. Just looking at them, all bundled and boxed, is art in itself.
Thanks for sharing
I think I’m tired of looking at these for a while. I know I’ll put them away and in a few months I’ll be all excited about them when I see them all lined up in my cigar box 🙂
Yes Margaret, I too was very impressed with both the stamps and your efforts to bundle them up. 05.02.2021 (uk)
Thanks, Ed! Believe it or not, I keep some of those bundles on a shelf in my livingroom and still enjoy their company 😉