BenFranklin1902

Tom in Exton, PA
21 Feb 2015
10:05:08pm

Greetings! I found this board today and spent a few hours reading the threads. What finally tipped me was the need to add to a thread on Scott 318. I am Tom and I live in a suburb of Philadelphia. I don't belong to any stamp clubs, pretty much collecting solo these days, and why I'm reaching out to this group!

I started collecting stamps back in the early 1970s and collected a lot of different areas. I was always into covers and actually produced the Oddity Cachet in the late 1970s. I have an eBay search for them and am always pleased when one of my old covers pops up.

In the mid 70s I was looking for an area to specialize in. I wanted to build a collection worthy of competing at shows, and always admired the big money displays of 19th century material. I loved the design of the Series of 1902, and was always a Ben Franklin fan, so it was easy to choose the one cent 300, 314, 318 of this series. I was in my teens at the time and rationalized that if I copied the seriousness of the stamp studies that scored awards at show, but going right across the century line to 1903-08, and a stamp that sold for about a dollar, I could indeed build a worthy collection. I eventually got it to be an APS Silver Award collection around 1978.

Like many, I lost my passion for stamps in the early 1980s as I got married, got a career and set upon raising a family. Enter eBay around 1999 and I started to find items I needed for my collection. Soon I had my first booklet pane (300b), which I had never even seen in person before the Internet! And this past year I completed my set of all catalog varieties of the private perforations. And here I am on an Internet stamp board!

I still buy a few pieces a month, and am collecting all cancels and interesting postal markings and usage on 'my stamp'. So I regularly buy neat things, some of it absolutely unique but inexpensive at the same time. I'm especially in love with old corner cards and ad covers, perfins and precancels on cover. I never thought junk mail would become collectible.

I am looking to meet with folks with similar interests, whether is cancels and usage of this era, private perforations and their usage. I'll share what knowledge I have but I also have a load of questions!



I wanted to give you an example of something that makes my day. The above postcard was found in a dollar box many years ago. Note that it's a Leap Year cover. How unique is that?

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CapeStampMan

Mike
22 Feb 2015
01:02:15pm

re: Tom from PA Signing In!

Another from the Sunshine State welcoming you aboard.
Mike

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amsd

Editor, Seal News; contributor, JuicyHeads
22 Feb 2015
02:04:45pm

re: Tom from PA Signing In!

love to see a new cover guy

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BenFranklin1902

Tom in Exton, PA
22 Feb 2015
08:20:49pm

re: Tom from PA Signing In!

Thank you to all for the warm welcome! To answer Tim's question, I'm originally from NJ and have a pretty good collection of NJ post office cancels on cover that I started in the 1970s. Whenever I get a hoard of covers, I always check the NJ ones against what I have in that box. I even printed pages for them back then, but never got to completing an album!

Here is the reverse side of the Leap Year cover, would be nice if it was on theme, but even better that it wasn't created by a philatelist, and just occurred and survived. I also have covers of Christmas Eve / Christmas Day and New Years Eve / New Years Day on greeting cards. I have gone to post card collector shows to find my Franklins on cover, and one time a dealer actually corrected me that I was looking at the wrong side of the cards!

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donhearl

25 Year APS Member
23 Feb 2015
11:48:40am

re: Tom from PA Signing In!

Welcome Tom!!! the 1902-03 series is one of my favorites. I haven't focused on just one stamp however!! I will dig around for interesting Ben Franklin items...

Cheers,

Don

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