Stamp album, that is. Mine was published by Minkus and titled, appropriately enough, My First Stamp Album. My father gave me the album as part of a kit, My First Stamp Outfit. The kit included the album which had spaces for 4300 stamps, a packet of 100 all different stamps (one hopes all in the album), a plastic pocket magnifier, 1000 stamp hinges, stamp tongs, and adhesive flags and coats of arms of the world. Cost for the kit was $2.95 (1959). Although my album and kit probably disappeared before I was in high school, I remember distinctly some of the stamps that came with it, such as Scott # SD7, the 20 cent Special Delivery stamp featuring a 1920s postal truck which was decades before my time, as well as some 3 cent US commemoratives which were only a year or two old. It's interesting how some things stick with you.
9 comments:
My first album was a yellowish Harris Pioneer World-Wide Stamp album with the Astronaut on the front. I got it from my Uncle for Christmas in 1979. I still have it. I remember being frustrated that I couldn't find spaces for stamps. Most of my stamps came from those Red and Green Harris bags you would find at Woolworths.
My first album was a yellowish Harris Pioneer World-Wide Stamp album with the Astronaut on the front. I got it from my Uncle for Christmas in 1979. I still have it. I remember being frustrated that I couldn't find spaces for stamps. Most of my stamps came from those Red and Green Harris bags you would find at Woolworths.
Like the previous commenter, I had the same album. I received mine as a birthday present in 1974. Sadly, I no longer have it. I gave it to an aspiring young collector in the early 90s to collect stamps.
My childhood album appears on eBay with some frequency, and I thoroughly enjoyed picking one up (actually, the entire kit) and leafing through it again. Not the same as having your original, but fun nevertheless. I rather like the idea of "recycling" our original albums, though, to encourage others to explore this hobby.
My parents started me out with "My First Stamp Album," too.
While the album is long gone, I still have the tongs and perforation gauge that came in the box.
I love your blog, Bob. I've been reading it for a while now but am now working my way from the beginning. :)
My first album was a Harris Traveller album. I got it when I was 10 but then foolishly took all the stamps out when I became 'serious' as an adult. Big mistake.
Mark
Madbaker, thanks for the kind words. I've entertained the idea of trying to complete my first stamp album. Might be fun, but ultimately the Big Blue is enough of a challenge.
My first stamp album was a H.E. Harris two-volume Standard album although I remember lusting after a Scott Global Award album before finally settling on the Standard album. I sold all of my stamp collection including the albums which at the time numbered about 10,000 different in 1972 while raising funds for college.
On graduation from college in 1975 I purchased a U. S. collection as a restart to my stamp collecting activities and later bought a leather bound Scott USA Hingeless album which occupied my efforts up until 2006 when I purchased a Minkus Supreme Global album but never really did anything with it until 2016 when I purchased a Scott Canada Hingeless album which matched the USA album and started expanding its contents. Then in early 2017 I found the Filling Spaces blog and the Big Blue 1840-1940 blog and started working on an International Part I collection in earnest. In mid-October 2017 I decided to move the original Supreme Global album which contained mostly unused hinged stamps with many countries expanded into the late 1960's and some into the 1970's into a separate new 1A through 1D album later expanding to parts 2, 3, 4, and 5 for coverage through 1963. While there are some used stamps in this album, mostly early stamps for France, Great Britain, and Canada the vast bulk of the stamps are unused and hinged with quite a few newer stamps being added as MNH in clear Scott mounts depending on what comes my way. I will admit that moving the stamps into the International has reactivated my interest in expanding this collection for a higher level of completion. The aesthetics of the Scott International seem much better as well. It looks like of the original 14,000+ stamps in the Supreme Global nearly 4,000 have no match in the International albums although many of these are from after 1963 or some duplicates on blank pages in the original album. Surprisingly I have made enough acquisitions during the migration that I will definitely exceed the original stamp count in the initial album set. It has been a lot of fun and made me much more aware of the content of the International albums.
I recently bought the My First Stamp album as well as it looked like an interesting side challenge to try to complete it since it contains pictured stamps with Scott numbers. Goal will be to only get the identified stamps in the album.
Actually the beginner album that I recently purchased was in a box that has similar colors to the My First Album but the album is actually from Scott and is titled "Magic World of Stamps". This album has stamp pictures with Scott numbers under the stamps whereas the "My First Stamp Album" was published by Minkus and doesn't have Scott numbers.
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