Pre-internet, collectors tended to be far more reliant – dependent even – on the catalogue that was written in their own language. Buying and selling was limited to the relationships with dealers you knew, and the auctions you attended were those nearer to home. I’m generalising but you get the picture. Move on to the […]
Hackmey’s Chile to be sold
Conveniently following on from my plug for SOFICH a few weeks ago, comes the news that Joseph Hackmey is to part with his Chile collection. This is set to be a landmark auction with rare and exceptional items from one of the most important classic Chile collections ever formed. You’ll need deep pockets for this […]
SOFICH, so good
I recently acquired a very nice collection of pre-1940 Chile that had been collected by SOFICH and cross-referenced by Scott. It clearly shows just how much room for expansion there is by collecting using this specialized work. The SOFICH catalogue is published by the Chilean Philatelic Society (Sociedad Filatelica de Chile). It is a lavish, […]
Part 20, Part 20, wherefore art thou Part 20…?
It is now ten years since Stanley Gibbons printed the fourth and current edition of their ‘Part 20’ South America stamp catalogue. And the separate ‘Part 15’ that covers Central America was last published in 2007. It looks like these are the final editions of these heavily referenced catalogues. Stanley Gibbons business has gone through […]
Bookshelf Essentials Part II – The Central American Newsletter
Although The Mainsheet covered all twenty republics, its focus was primarily on South America. In 1980, under the editorship of Bernard Davies, The Central American Newsletter was launched as a sister publication to The Mainsheet. Bernard edited until his death in 1985 when Mike Birks took over the helm. The CAN ran for twenty years, […]
Bookshelf Essentials – The Mainsheet
If there is one thing philatelists are not short of it is reading material. Decades of book publishing has produced a wealth of literature on every subject imaginable and each month brings a swathe of new titles. Coupled to that, society magazines, articles, catalogues and the multitude of websites and forums and, well…you get the […]
Colombian air post rarities under the hammer
One of the most iconic and distinctive series of stamps in Latin American philately are the nine colourful labels used by CCNA (Compania Colombiana de Navegacion Aerea) in 1920. These beautiful designs have an almost cartoon like appearance and were originally designed as promotional labels for the Curtiss Aeroplane Company. Used to supplement the regular […]
El Salvador finally makes it to London
After a mere 148 years, the RPSL finally got to put on a display of El Salvador on 9th November. Guillermo Gallegos had come from over from Mexico to present “The Prestamp Period of El Salvador” with a twelve-frame display covering the colonial period through until the end of the pre-stamp Republican period. Much of […]
Brasilia 2017 – is this the future for major stamp exhibitions?
If I’ve read one article on “how do we attract more collectors to the hobby?”, I must have read it a hundred times. And no stamp exhibition escapes the post-event commentary on “how many visitors really attended?”, “how did it compare to last time?” and “what do we need to do better to encourage greater […]
Brian Moorhouse RIP
Brian Moorhouse, the renowned Latin America expert and dealer, died on 15th July. I last saw him at his September auction, seemingly as fit as a fiddle and with no indication that this was on the cards. This will come as a sizable shock to the philatelic community, not least to the thousands of collectors […]
South American stamps continue to appreciate in value
“While stamp prices of Europe and North American countries have shown significant weakness over the last five years, South American countries are showing continued appreciation with little or no price erosion during that time”. So says Richard Lehmann in this month’s ‘American Stamp Dealer and Collector’ magazine. Lehmann is the founder of StampFinder (www.stampfinder.com) and […]
And the second most expensive Latin American country to collect is…Honduras. And the least expensive? Guatemala. Debate!
Back in 2000, a Canadian Gentleman by the name of Michel Bégin compiled a database entitled “The Most Affordable Classic Stamps to Collect” and published his findings on the web. Clearly a man with time on his hands, he manually ploughed through the entire Scott 1840 – 1940 Specialized Catalogue and sorted each country’s listings […]