Out of order by request

I have long since given up on recording what number exchange I am up to. This is my 45th post, but not all 45 refer to exchanges. On the other hand, I've omitted several lots that I've won on online auctions (Trade Me and recently eBay) which you could regard as 'exchanges' of a sort. But anyway, when a fellow collector told me she was impatient to see me do a post about her latest letter I had no hesitation about writing about it out of order.

(See 'A' is from Austria) for the first letter filled with stamps that I ever received from a fellow collector. I believe that Edna is originally from Singapore, but she lives in Austria, a fairly dangerous place to live at least in a postal sense, as mail sometimes goes missing - gets diverted to Australia - unless 'Europe' is included on the address. 

That, we suspect, was what happened to my return mail. However, my friend and I persisted in our exchanging, and have now got a regular pattern of letters criss-crossing the skies (when they aren't filled with volcanic ash!). In return for my sending a cover with the set of NZ ancient reptiles Edna promised to send something special . . .

In the mail there wasn't one envelope, but two! Edna collects covers (FDC's too if they are addressed to her) and she kindly sent me a very nice couple. The stamps used for postage remind me of the ones on Behram's letter. They too have a marine theme, a topic that is much on my mind after listening to two TED Talks about the state of the world's oceans.

And what was enclosed? Two packets: 300 European stamps and 50 transport. I think that I owe at least a cover and some used stamps for that. I'll send a cover from Japan when I'm there later this year.

(100 and) Thirteen - lucky for some!

Andras Csapo visited my blog after I sent him the link, asking whether I could feature his stamps.

"I would be pleased if you did so," Andras replied, "I . . . found there the letter and name of John Smith - I exchanged stamps with him in February."

The two share an interest in birds on stamps. Andras asked me for a selection of such stamps

 and also those that feature sports from anywhere in the world.  I chose a few from countries that sounded quite exotic to Andras - New Zealand, Japan, Kiribati, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Singapore and Fiji - and they looked quite attractive, if I say so myself. 

The Hungarian stamps that my friend sent me first, a generous 113 instead of 100, live up to what I remembered from my boyhood, when I first started collecting. Then, Hungary and Poland had the largest, most colorful images. I know now that Hungary at least still does. 

I arranged them on the coffee table (photograph to come) and they easily covered more than half of it. I looked up some of them in my 1987 Stanley Gibbons catalogue, but they weren't easy to find. Up to 1985 the country has put out 3669 stamps (not counting the postage dues etc). Amazing! They must be a great letter-writing nation.

The Birdman of Seville

When someone who calls himself 'John Smith' contacts you from out of the blue, you don'tat first know whether to trust him. It's almost too common a name. This man, though, is definitely not ordinary. He and his wife are English, but they retired to sunny Spain, a land where the people take their holidays seriously. John managed to send me a dual selection of Italian and British stamps before Easter, but it may be that he has to wait until after then before mine reach him.

'D' stands for Dodo. The creature no longer exists, but if there are stamps of it then John is your man. He collects stamps that feature birds from at least two countries: New Zealand and Japan. Originally, John emailed me asking if I'd mind looking at his 'wants lists' to see if I had what he needed. I agreed, but John's needs are quite specific, and it's often only booklets or minisheets that fit his bill. As it turned out, I could only help him with 3 stamps (an official kiwi, a Japanese cormorant and one other) so I had to supply the balance as NZ commemoratives.

Italy and Great Britain produce stamps with quite a different feel to them. The UK ones were quite happy to line up and pose, but the Italian ones were all over the place!