Stamps with borders

Though I collect postage stamps, I know very little about them and my collection of just over 13,000 is very modest and juvenile compared to those of real enthusiasts and experts. Whatever I say on here about stamps is likely to be inaccurate and wide open to criticism. That's fine .... I'm a hobbyist not an expert. 

That disclaimer out of the way, I often find I am drawn as much to the periphery of stamp collecting, as I am to the stamps themselves. For example, a couple of years ago I posted about "Cinderella" stamps and other non-postal issues, which are interesting in themselves.

This post is about the borders that surround the sheets of stamps. Until recently I thought the borders were mostly plain and served no other purpose than providing a Colour Swatch. But then I came across some German stamps with highly decorated borders. Though the patterns and decoration on the borders is usually very repetitive, I found some stamps where the borders were far from repetitive. 

Take the commemorative stamps of illustrious composer Carl Orff, issued in 1995 to celebrate 100 years since his birth. All around the border of the sheet is a musical score. Viewed as a complete sheet, the musical legend would be continuous and complete, but when separated each individual stamp is more unique with it's border attached than it would be without it.

Another example is the 1994 issue commemorating 500-years since the birth of Hans Sachs, a master of poetry and song. The border here is of Court Jesters climbing through Vines, with some titles printed along the top and bottom borders.

Though I have many examples of these decorative borders, in the main they are just individual stamps. The nearest I have to a complete border is with the 1996 issue marking 450-years since the death of Martin Luther.

For me, these unique borders add another dimension to the stamps they adorn. I don't buy mint condition unused sheets of stamps, which seems like the only way to see complete borders. But to discover these gems unseparated and stuck onto envelopes and parcels, is quite magical. Given how many people discard stamp borders without a thought, it raises the question, how many stamps with borders still attached actually get posted and survive to become part of someone's collection.

Previous posts about Postage Stamps

When is a stamp, not a stamp ....

Stamp Collecting

When is a stamp, not a stamp ....

.... when it's a Cinderella. 

Almost since the beginning of postage stamps, there have been 'stamps' produced that are not official Postage stamps. Often referred to as 'labels', these non-postage stamps became known as "Cinderella's". The term was introduced by early philatelists because, like the fairly tale character, these were downtrodden and inferior when compared to proper postage stamps.

Though Cinderella stamps have no intrinsic value, and are essentially worthless, they can still demand high prices by collectors if they are sufficiently rare. To many, like me, the interesting stories behind these 'labels', are what make them collectable. Here are just three examples from my own collection:-

1. Lundy: Lundy is a small island that lies 10 nautical miles (19 km) off the coast of Devon, England. In 1928 the General post Office withdrew it's interest in Lundy so it's owner, Martin Coles Harman introduced his own service, carrying mail free of charge to the mainland. In 1929 he introduced the first Lundy stamps to offset his costs. At first the Lundy stamp charge, or Puffinage, only covered carriage to the mainland but since 1974 an additional charge has been incorporated and separate UK stamps are no longer needed. Lundy is the oldest private postal service operating in the world today.

2. Berlin Airlift: The Berlin Blockade (June 1948-May 1949) was one of the first major crises of the Cold War. The Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. From 26 June 1948 to 30 September 1949, American and British air forces flew over Berlin 250,000 times, dropping essential food and fuel. The plan had been to drop 3,475 tons of supplies daily but by the spring of 1949, twice that was often being delivered. As an off-shoot, a concurrent Operation Little Vittles saw aircraft nicknamed "raisin bombers" dropping candy to generate goodwill among German children.

3. Republik Maluku Selatan: Labels inscribed 'Republik Maluku Selatan' are among the most well-known of all Cinderella stamps. Part of modern-day Indonesia, the 'Republic of the South Moluccas' was a self-proclaimed (and unrecognised) independent nation, established on 25 April 1950 from part of what had been the Dutch East Indies. Most South Moluccas stamps are known to be the work of New York stamp dealer Henry Stolow, and aimed squarely at collectors. Maluku Selatan stamps are therefore considered to be bogus or fantasy issues. I'm sure the very badly guillotined stamp in my collection would be worth good money if it were a genuine postal stamp rather than a worthless piece of paper.

Cinderella stamps .... of little value but far from boring.

Stamp Collecting

One of my many hobbies is "stamp collecting". I started collecting as a teenager, sticking them into paper albums using Stamp hinges, the way most people start. Though I've gone for decades at a time without ever looking at my collection, I've never wanted to part with it. 

Although I have a few stamps 'of interest' none of them have any real value. Many stamps these days are commemoratives and can be quite large, glossy, and colourful works of art. These are great ways of learning about World History as most significant events around the world are commemorated with an issue of stamps.

These days my stamps are stored in Stock Books, which allow the stamps to be stored loose without attaching them to the page. I have just over 10,000 stamps from 202 countries and I believe this to be what 'real collectors' would call a small collection.

I once asked an online group of stamp collectors what stamps I should collect, which was a silly question, because the answer came back "whatever interests you". Duh!! Why didn't I think of that? But that answer explains exactly why my albums contain many old and damaged stamps that most collectors would throw in the bin. I am much more interested in the age of a stamp than it's condition. I marvel at how a small rectangle of paper can have been licked, stuck on an envelope, man-handled over land, sea and air, stuffed into bags, thrown from container to container, poked through letter boxes in all weathers and eventually discarded ... yet still be intact today, over 150 years later. So if it has a corner missing, a tear, or damaged perforations, so what? It's still worthy of having a place in my collection. Sure, it has no value, but to me that's not the point.