
Collecting stamps from countries that don’t exist - sohkamyung
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/micronation-stamps
======
WalterBright
I'm a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to stamp collecting, and only like the
pre-WW2 ones when stamps were lovingly engraved.

After the war post offices realized they could sell stamps to collectors who
wanted "uncancelled" stamps, meaning they were pure profit for the P.O. Stamps
were sold from the P.O. directly to collectors who never used them for
postage. Hence, the variety of stamps exploded, and the designs were cheaply
done. In my not so humble opinion, they wrecked the hobby with this, and it
shows in that stamps printed after WW2 have little to no collector value.

The same thing happened to coin collecting. For example, a US mint collector
set from the 1970s is worth its metal value today. They look nice, but that's
it.

~~~
Scoundreller
Then there’s people like me helping that problem by buying MNH stamps for
50-60% of face value and using them as postage.

Yes, my packages are covered in stamps, but I like working with the numbers.

The clerks at the PO must hate me, but I see it like using a gift card that
was bought 10 years ago.

~~~
WalterBright
I surprised people sell them at lower than face value? I suppose they never
mail anything anymore?

~~~
Scoundreller
Not enough I guess. Even then, a lot of big sellers get a discount from Canada
Post, so often not worth it for them to deal with stamps.

And our domestic shipping is kinda expensive: often cheaper to buy
internationally...

------
c-smile
USSR' stamps should be there too I think.

Hacker News special: [https://terrainformatica.com/wp-
content/uploads/2018/10/Stam...](https://terrainformatica.com/wp-
content/uploads/2018/10/Stamp_Soviet_Union_1977_CPA4778.jpg)

This is the stamp featuring first (AFAIK) optical character recognition state
wide implemented service - USSR's automatic postal cards and letters sorting
by indexes.

------
lb1lf
Also, you have countries that do not exist anymore; Norwegian author Bjørn
Berge published a book (Since translated into English with the title
'Nowherelands') in which he briefly sketches the circumstances that brought
countries like Tripolitania, Heligoland and Batum into - and out of -
existence, accompanied by a selection of stamps from said countries. It made
for quite interesting reading for me, who've always been a geography geek.

------
jaclaz
Different, but somehow related, in the '90's in Italy there was a funny
attempt to send letters via the mail with fake (completely invented) stamps,
hand drawn, and satyrical, by three friends, the stamps were hand-drawn but
passed just fine the checks (Italian, but not too bad with an online
translator):

[https://corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it/napoli/notizie/ar...](https://corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it/napoli/notizie/arte_e_cultura/2011/7-dicembre-2011/grande-
beffa-francobolli-finti-1902451148257.shtml)

~~~
ryanmercer
Somewhat similar I remember various discussions/articles on various BBS and
even sites like the former TOTSE.com (Temple Of The Screaming Electron, now
redirects to a mirror [https://totseans.com/](https://totseans.com/)) that
instructed people on how to attempt to reuse actual postage stamps.

It generally involved coating them with a common substance so that your
recipient could remove the ink easily with others discussing solvent
concoctions telling you how to remove ink on stamps you received.

Also I recall various posts telling you different ways you could defraud
vending machines that had different levels of anti-theft devices. Some
involved using washers a comparable weight and dimensions of coins that were
cheaper than the coins, some involved building tape structures on paper
currency and feeding it into the machine and knowing the precise time to begin
pulling it back out with just the right amount of force to get the machine to
accept the bill but still retrieve it.

Then of course all of the different phreaking boxes, some of which worked and
some of which were pure fantasy.

While I appreciate this sort of thing at a hacking level "I wonder if I can do
this", it always amazes me when people that would never steal from a store or
a person are quick to try activities like stamp fraud, unlicensed violation of
radio spectrum, system penetration/data theft, ripping off vending machines
and payphones etc.

Mind you in my youth in the 1990's I tried lots of these things too.

~~~
frandroid
> coating them with a common substance

Covering stamps in clear glue so that your correspondent could remove the
cancelling stamp when steaming them off the envelope for eventual re-use was
something that was commonly discussed during the heyday of the zine scene in
the 1990s. Now postage has become so obscenely expensive again for anything
beyond a letter that maybe I should get back into the glueing trade... :P

------
DrScump
The wonderful Robert Arthur short story "The Marvelous Stamps from El Dorado"
is a great take on this theme.

------
golem14
Interestingly no mention of the diskworld stamps:

[https://www.discworldemporium.com/46-stamp-collecting-for-
be...](https://www.discworldemporium.com/46-stamp-collecting-for-beginners)

~~~
sohkamyung
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Discworld Stamps are not stamped?

The article features stamps that have been stamped by imaginary countries.
This might make a difference to stamp collectors, I believe.

~~~
golem14
I’m not sure but I think they have also special editions that are franked.

~~~
golem14
[https://picclick.co.uk/Lot-of-30-Franked-Discworld-Stamps-
En...](https://picclick.co.uk/Lot-of-30-Franked-Discworld-Stamps-
Envelope-124016421207.html)

------
ericol
No an ex country; but I found this episode from 99% invisible about the Great
bitter Lake Association (And it's stamps!) rather entertaining:

[https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/great-bitter-lake-
ass...](https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/great-bitter-lake-association/)

Disclaimer: I found it here in HN a while ago.

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fctorial
Should append "anymore" to the title

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anonsivalley652
Interesting. I happen to have some Siamese and pre-partition Indian stamps and
coins. I didn't think there was really a market for these anymore.

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cdelsolar
The whole premise of Tuva or Bust! stems from a young Richard Feynman falling
in love with the stamps from the short-lived country of Tannu Tuva.

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DubiousPusher
Gotta stop borrowing postagr from Jorge Luis Borges. My mail keeps getting
returned.

