9/1/26 Report - Tropical Storm Edouard Hits. Stamp Collecting and a Few Examples of Stamps as Money Jobs in Coins.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Edouard formed Monday in the Gulf of Mexico and was expected to gain strength before bringing potentially heavy rains and flooding into parts of Texas and Louisiana.

The storm was upgraded Monday night from a tropical depression and forecasters...

Here is the link for more about that.

Louisiana and Texas under tropical storm warning, while another storm aims for Hawaii | AP News

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It seemed to me that getting coins graded was becoming a bigger thing.  Everybody wants graded coins.  I think the counterfeit problem is one reason.  Coins that are graded are generally easier to sell.

Somebody has to do that, so I was thinking that there must be a lot of job openings for people who grade coins as well as related jobs such as coin conservation.

I looked into it a little and found that there are a lot of those kinds of jobs available.  I noticed that NGC listed a long list of job openings, mostly based in Sarasota but some of their openings were for positions around the world.  I think they listed something like 75 openings.

From a few postings I looked at, it seemed that many of those jobs can be done remotely too.  I don't know what the credentials are.

Here is a listing that for a job with PCGS.

PCGS Grader

Maybe there are some of you that need a job and have the right stuff.  Good luck.

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Stamp collecting is a very old hobby and a hobby that is very much like coin collecting.  I haven't posted ephemera very often, but I like collecting ephemera.  I like the graphics, especially when the graphics present a picture of historical times or is just aesthetic.  Coins do the same thing, to some extent.

Stamp collecting began in thd mid-nineteenth century, shortly after the introduction of the first adhesive postage stamps. The world’s first postage stamp, the Penny Black was issued by Great Britain in May 1840.  This small, black stamp with a young Queen Victoria’s image was designed by Sir Rowland Hill and marked the start of prepaid postage. People began collecting stamps almost immediately, as the new system made them both practical and collectible.

Postage stamps were used as a form of money during the American Civil War, specifically in 1861–1862 and for a short period afterward, when a shortage of U.S. coins made small change.

When the Civil War began in 1861, gold and silver coins were hoarded for their bullion value, and the U.S. Mint could not keep up with demand for copper-nickel coins. This created a crisis for small transactions, as many goods and services cost less than a dollar

On July 17, 1862, Congress signed into law an act that gave the Treasury Department the authority to issue “postage currency.” The postage currency utilized the then-current postage stamp design, printing them on Treasury paper. People generally interpreted this to suggest that postage stamps could be used as legal tender...

John Gault developed a method to encase stamps in a metal frame shielded by transparent mica that he patented as “New Metallic Currency.” The “postage stamp case” featured a sandwich of materials the approximate size of a quarter consisting of a piece of brass with a hole in the center (the frame), mica, a stamp, a piece of cardboard, and lastly, a brass backing.  (Source: Numismatic Oddities: How Postage Became Currency in the Civil War)

If I ever dug up a metal postage stamp holder, I doubt that I would know its purpose.

Stamp collecting is a common activity, but my experience with it hasn't been very exciting.  

My first stamp collecting began when I was maybe eleven years old.  My parents brought me a bag of unsorted stamps and an album.  I sorted them and pasted them in an album.   First mistake.  You shouldn't paste collectible stamps in an album.  Also, contained used cancelled stamps, which you might think is good because you can often see when and where they were used, but like with coins, collectors generally prefer unused mint condition stamps.  Some people, however, collect First Day of Issue or First Day Cover stamps, that are cancelled and collected on the envelope.  Most of them aren't worth anything.

Below is a picture of one of the pages of my first collection.  You can see that I started to cut some out to remove them and put them in a better album.

 

There are a few stamps that are worth a lot, but there isn't much of a chance of finding one.

The Benjamin Franklin Z-Grill is one of only two known examples and is valued at over $5 million today.

Printing mistakes like the Inverted Jenny have become some of the most coveted—and expensive—stamps in history.

Mystic Stamp Company, which began in 1923, specializes in buying and selling U.S. and worldwide postage stamps for collectors. Known for its extensive inventory and mail-order services, it remains a key player in connecting enthusiasts with rare and unique philatelic items.  There must be more stamp collectors than I know about because the Mystic Stamp company has annual revenues estimated between $100 - $500 million and 10-100 employees.  Somebody must still be doing it.

There are other stamp companies.

You don't have to go back to the Civil War to find stamps being used as money.  I remember many years ago when ads in comic books or magazines advertised inexpensive items that you could purchase mail order by sending postage stamps as payment.  I also remember receiving perfectly mint stamps in the mail that if you wanted to purchase you could then send in payment.  I might still have some of those even though I never purchased any that way.

The blue envelope below contained a group of stamps from the Littleton Stamp Co.  Evidently that is evidently a group that I received unrequested.  At the top of the envelope is the price - 6 cents.

Under that is one of the little celophane envelopes that were sometimes sent out.  It still has one stamp in it.

Here is a sample ad for stamps by approval.   This match book advertises a banana stamp and 111 stamps free. 

And here is the coupon for those stamps inside.

You would send the coupon with 10 cents for mailing and receive the 111 stamps.  

I thought that was interesting.  I guess there must be somebody somewhere that collects stamps like this and specifically banana stamps!

People have collected stamps for a long time, from kings to kids.  There are high level collectors that can pay big dollars for super rare stamps.  Kids can learn a lot from stamp collecting.  One of the first things I learned was the various country names in the different languages.  I assume it is much like coin collecting, but I don't know how many people are doing it these days.  

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I don't know if you've ever tried Grokipedia.  It seems to work like Wikipedia, but I think it is better.

Grokipedia is a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system for Grok an AI-generated online encyclopedia developed and operated by xAI, accessible at https://grokipedia.com.

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Source: Surfguru.com.

As you can see, no big change in the Treasure Coast surf.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net