eBay chatboard archive: Jan-21-08 to Jan-27-08 week

Posted by sheryll*net   ( 91 ) on Jan-27-08 at 23:36:15 PST   Listings
I joined the board in 2001, just at the time Mitch and Rob F were getting Mitch's webpages going. Io soon joined in from NY and that got me motivated to convert my CANPEX 2000 New Hebrides exhibit scans to a HTML intro page and frame webpages along the same lines (thanks to mteton for the basis of my layout).

One of the many benefits of having my exhibit online was having D2 critique it as I prepared it for Stampshow Melbourne '02. Thanks, D2!

I'd have liked to do something along the lines of Billsey's webpages when he first started, but found mapping the individual stamps too hard at the time.

I've also liked what Richard F has done with HTML exhibits, but haven't had the time to convert over. I had planned to do a separate web exhibit this January, but problems with my eyesight put paid to that idea. (New monitor glasses arrived yesterday - yay!!)

We're off on a road trip to Mexico (San Carlos, Mazatlán and possibly even Guadalajara) till latish March, so I plan to work on my COALPEX exhibit after we get back.

S2
Posted by de66   ( 1184 ) on Jan-27-08 at 22:18:28 PST   Listings
D2

I was offered payment in what looked like brand spanking new hot off the press WA gold unc die proofs, but i took the cash which was passed under the table in a very smart kit bag from the Korean War, and as it was passed i was told the he was a fighter pilot in the Korean War. I said pull the other one and he did.

D1
Posted by dbenson   ( 8816 ) on Jan-27-08 at 22:10:13 PST   Listings
D1, by chance was the money paid in a small Brown paper bag dropped off in a trash can in a park, (Queensland humor)

David B.
Posted by de66   ( 1184 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:56:15 PST   Listings
D2

What a guy alright, he spent some serious money with me, it just goes to show being an expat pommie Londoner living in Queensland i will take any bodies money and ask no questions!!.

D1
Posted by dbenson   ( 8816 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:51:45 PST   Listings
D1,

It was 4 years ago, can't remember what it was. I didn't know it was him, if I would have known I would have still sold them to him as I always abide by Ebay's rules.

I like the feedback you left him,

" Fast & Friendly 5* all the way thank you what a guy "

David B.
Posted by billsey   ( 878 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:49:37 PST   Listings
My vision for my online collection is to have a database for the images, with various attributes included, and generate the page displays automatically from that database. This would allow me to update the collection without rescanning each changed page. Instead I'd only need to add the new stamp scans to the database, and change the positioning parameters if I've moved stamps around on the page. It would also allow nifty elements like a comment describing details about the stamp in question by hovering your mouse over the image and generating a .pdf of the collection or the blank pages 'on the fly'. This type of web page is actually fairly easy to do these days, most of the shopping pages you see on the web are formatted out of a database and generated as needed. It will, however, require a lot of free time... Something I've been pretty short of over the last few years. :-(
Posted by mini*lindy   ( 578 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:47:05 PST   Listings
yep Dave, he's had that goldfinger nick since the 1970s...funny as he lost 2 or 3 in prison!!
Posted by de66   ( 1184 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:44:53 PST   Listings
D2

Just had a look at davidlightfinger's feedback and noticed you also have sold him some goodies.

D1
Posted by billsey   ( 878 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:43:48 PST   Listings
OK, on to the collection page itself. I create a 1x3 table with the navigation panes, a 1x1 table where I'll put the page image, and duplicate the navigation table at the end. In the middle table, I place the -small image and create a map for that image. I then enter the map elements for each stamp (position in the big image, plus size) and then link that element to the stamp image. When I'm done with mapping each stamp on the page, I'm done with page! Fifteen pages later, I've got the first frame ready to go.

Needless to say, this sounds like a lot more work than it really has to be. I create frame pages by copying another frame page, then changing the images and links. I do the same when I create a page page, copy another and change the images, links and map entries. I also use a web publishing program to do the grunt work on the image maps. I'm currently using Microsoft Expression Web for that, I used to use Microsoft FrantPage.

I scan using the software provided with my HP scanner (I buy my scanners used from Goodwill, typically for under $10 each, and have one for each computer). If I just need to do a quick HTML edit, I'm more likely to use Notepad++ than firing up Expression Web. I can publish from Expression Web or use FTP (I use wither FileZilla or just the Explorer that comes with Windows for FTP transfers). I let Expression Web do some of the linking from page to page for me, I do some manually.

Next up, what I'd *really* like to do for my online collection...
Posted by de66   ( 1184 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:38:41 PST   Listings
PS to Gee

He is davidgoldfinger on eBay [what else!] his son has been using his handle to buy model toys which he collects.

Somewhere back in his feedback i should be there as a seller to him.

D1
Posted by mini*lindy   ( 578 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:36:40 PST   Listings
Rainer, the Australasian Philatelic Traders worked with the Federal Police on his activities.. he has been in jail before for much bigger forgeries, including gold. (ONLY 3 years in the 1970s)
there is an interesting book about him called, HEADS I WIN by Jeffrey Watson, Don Thomas & Jack Bennett. 'The true story of David Gee Australia's most audacious Coin Forger'
It is a good read!
Posted by billsey   ( 878 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:33:14 PST   Listings
Not quite right, but not too back for this venue... :-)
Posted by billsey   ( 878 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:32:45 PST   Listings
If I'm at the start of a country, I add that country to my list in the [World, Title Page] web page shown below. I actually have three of these, with countries grouped alphabetically, by geographical placement in the world, or by political affiliation during the period I collect.

I then create the CountryIndex.html page, with appropriate info and links to the other countries, as well as back up to one of the world pages.

I then create the first frame page, with an empty 4x4 table with appropriate formatting.


<tbody>
























</tbody>
       
       
       
 
 		  


Next, I create a 1x2 table within the first cell of the main table, and enter the page title in the top cell and place the thumbnail in the lower cell.

































Azerbaijan Title Page


     
       
       
 
 		  


I repeat this process for all the pages in the frame. Next stop, the 'page page'...
Posted by de66   ( 1184 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:32:10 PST   Listings
Gee fans:

He phoned me offering some revenues talking about an inverted OS on a railway stamp which Prestige sold [last sale] and a dinner out on the Gold Coast all of which i turned down BUT i have had dinner with him several years ago when he wanted to get into revenues and i had a nice holiday on what i sold him, he said he had been in hospital for 6 months.

D1
Posted by billsey   ( 878 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:20:07 PST   Listings
First step, make the master scans. I've found that (for me) the best method is to scan the whole page, scan the individual stamps on the page, then scan the stamps on the next page, then scan the next page. That allows me to most easily put the pages in one directory and the stamps into a different directory. Here's the directory structure I use:

CountryIndex.html
[alphabet letter]
Frame001.html
Frame002.html ...
[Country]
Page001.html
Page001.jpg
Page001-small.jpg
Page002.html ...
[stamp_images]
ScottNumber-extentions.jpg
[forgery_images]
F-ScottNumber-extentions.jpg
[postal_hostory_images]
Date-Location-Rate.jpg
[page thumbnails]
Page001-thumb.jpg

I scan the whole page at 300DPI, then scan each stamp on the page at 300 DPI as well. If I have more than one example of a stamp (ie,. a used, a mint and a CTO) I pull them out and scan them as a group. I try and do about a frame's worth of pages at a time, before any HTML work.The -small and -thumbnail images above aren't yet created, I'll use the original scan to do that. Since that scan is much too big to be used for much other than printing a copy of the page, I first resize it, using any of the graphics manipulation software, to a size that fits well on the web. In my case this is about 600 pixels wide by whatever high that matches the aspect ration of the whole page. I save this image as the -small file, then resize again to get the thumbnail (150 pixels wide). When I'm done with this process for a frame's worth of pages, I can start on the HTML generation...
Posted by 22028   ( 1681 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:11:53 PST   Listings
mini*lindy, in regard to A. Machin, i remember him very well..., and ones (1995 or so) was involved in some China-Tibet forgeries. Me and some other Tibet specialist tried to trap him in UK but failed. At that time i also tried to get the Australian Philatelic association or how ever it is called, involved but failed. I still have the images of items which went thru my hands..., a dealer prepared even a draft of a publication which eventually never was completed and published. I did not lost money as I only was the middle man but some others lost quite a considerable amount of money.
Posted by billsey   ( 878 ) on Jan-27-08 at 21:04:49 PST   Listings
When I started this process several years ago, I was simply following in Mitchell's footsteps. I really liked the way he was putting his collection online, but I wanted to expand that to show better images of the individual stamps. I decided to take his hierarchal structure and expand on it to allow the inclusion of individual stamp images. Here's the hierarchy:

[World, title page]
[Individual countries]
[Sixteen page frames]
[Individual pages]
[Stamps on the page]

The top layer is the easiest, unless you do as Mitch did and actually use a world map. You simply introduce your collecting interests, then list the countries you wish to show, with each country linking to a country page.

In the second layer I put a map and/or a flag of the country, a quick blurb talking about the history of that country's stamp issues, and a link to each of the frames that encompass the collection.

For each frame I display a 4x4 grid showing thumbnail images of the pages. I add links to move up to the country level and links to the next and previous frames, wrapping from the last to the first. Each page thumbnail links to the 'page page'.

For each page I display the page itself, with navigation links as above, moving up to the frame level and forward and backwards through pages. The last page for the frame wraps to the first page on the next frame, and the first page for a frame wraps back to the last page of the previous frame. I also add mapped links to the page image that link to the scan of the actual stamp.

The stamp display is the only one that opens in a new window, I've done some testing with stamp image pages that open to the correct size for the stamp, but that turned out to be more work than I was willing to do. :-(

Now that the hierarchy is designed, we'll step into the actual creation process...
Posted by mini*lindy   ( 578 ) on Jan-27-08 at 20:49:21 PST   Listings
...one of those aliases being A.MACHIN of Sydney !
Posted by billsey   ( 878 ) on Jan-27-08 at 20:46:05 PST   Listings
Meeting Topic

I've been out of town more often than not this weekend, but I'm back at home as of this evening (until Tuesday AM sometime, when I head out again), so I've been catching up quickly. Forgive me if I don't comment on the many great postings.

As most of you know, I have a fairly good portion of my worldwide collection on the internet now, though I haven't been updating it regularly for the last couple of years. Hopefully things will settle down now and I'll be able to work at getting it caught up soon. :-)

I'll quickly go through the process I use to create the web site, how I update it, and how I hope to revamp it in the future in the next few messages...

Bill Seymour
Posted by stamphick!   ( 338 ) on Jan-27-08 at 20:33:05 PST   Listings
Hey Greg...Where you been?
Posted by philatelic.com   ( 11361 ) on Jan-27-08 at 20:22:23 PST   Listings
Hey. Wow. This board is still here? Who all is here?

Posted by iomoon   ( 1057 ) on Jan-27-08 at 20:17:37 PST   Listings
Maybe I ought to elaborate further.

David Gee (with 70 other aliases) according to V.E.Tyler, has been prosecuted for forging stamps, from Burma, among many other places. It seems that Purves and Lowe were the only people willing to take a public stand in condemning his concoctions at the time.

AFAIK
Posted by iomoon   ( 1057 ) on Jan-27-08 at 19:51:52 PST   Listings
Linda

Like I wrote, must be at least 74.
Looks like he's 78.
Posted by mini*lindy   ( 578 ) on Jan-27-08 at 18:54:11 PST   Listings
io, David Gee was born ca. 1929 in Canton, (Guangzhou). He arrived in Australia in 1939
Posted by iomoon   ( 1057 ) on Jan-27-08 at 17:00:12 PST   Listings
Gee,

Gee must be at least 74 years old!
Posted by dbenson   ( 8816 ) on Jan-27-08 at 16:54:38 PST   Listings
D1,

I hope your not involved with any of David Gee's business activities " stamps ", " coins ", " girls " and I heard a rumour " boys " of course that may have been after he had a " vacation " which you helped pay for,

David B.
Posted by dbenson   ( 8816 ) on Jan-27-08 at 16:51:40 PST   Listings
Nelson Eustis life history,

http://www.apf.org.au/valeeustis.htm

David B.
Posted by de66   ( 1184 ) on Jan-27-08 at 16:44:02 PST   Listings
Used to see and chat with Nelson Eustas and his brother when he lived on the Gold Coast he never mentioned a David George, i remember a David Gee [who phoned me 2 days ago] but that's another story.

D1
Posted by breffington   ( 402 ) on Jan-27-08 at 16:33:36 PST   Listings
Nelson Eustis also acted as agent for Tokelau at one point. And I collect Tokelau and forerunners.Frank
Posted by dbenson   ( 8816 ) on Jan-27-08 at 15:27:07 PST   Listings
Richard S,

Sorry, the name doesn't David George doesn't ring a bell. Nelson Eustis was the philatelic consultant to Burma for many years and was behind the design, printing and distribution of some issues. I don't know the complete capacity that he was involved in and which issues they were.

David B.
Posted by chaswilly   ( 1685 ) on Jan-27-08 at 14:07:08 PST   Listings
jaywild and "paper dust" as well (whatever that is).
Posted by de66   ( 1184 ) on Jan-27-08 at 13:51:43 PST   Listings
Matt

Many thanks for your kind words. I have had a lot of fun getting both of them together; i feel it is very important to put something back into our hobby, if they can help a few people it can make it all worth while. Besides i have done very well out of my private treaty pages.

You ALL may be able to help, on the Revenue Society site i have set up a Departure Tax page you may have a Departure Tax stamp sitting on an old air ticket from one of your holidays, if you do have one that is not on the page can i please have a scan along with your name and i will get it loaded up.

http://www.revenuesociety.org.uk/departure/departure.html

D1
Posted by keleofa   ( 3722 ) on Jan-27-08 at 13:39:57 PST   Listings
D1 (Dave),

Your site is beautiful --- looks like a lot of work went into it.

Matt in Arizona
Posted by jaywild   ( 1042 ) on Jan-27-08 at 13:38:44 PST   Listings
NOIP… A good example of someone who got carried away with catalog values…

Jim
Posted by mini*lindy   ( 578 ) on Jan-27-08 at 13:09:04 PST   Listings
sayasan, Richard, I have not come across the name David George that I recall, but you could try emailing Charles Leski. He publishes the Australian Air Mail Catalogue (8th edition released this month), originally compiled by Nelson Eustis. Charles also runs regular Air Mail Auctions. He handles more Air Mail material than any other auctioneer in Australia.
www.leski.com.au

Linda
Posted by de66   ( 1184 ) on Jan-27-08 at 12:48:52 PST   Listings
My contribution to this months meeting:

As a self taught web designer [big deal] i built my own site here:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/dave1/index/


I also built The Revenue Society web site here:

http://revenuesociety.org.uk/

Both sites have complete Exhibits which I could improve, with a page by page forward reverse button but I am in to deep now to change things I have enough problems remembering what I have done and how I done it.

I am working on getting 3 x Tasmania Revenue exhibits on line I have 2 of them and once I can get the third exhibit coming up from Canberra on a CD people can then see virtually the same material in 3 exhibit but will be able to see how 3 different exhibitors have chosen 1, write up 2, layout. This should/may help up and coming exhibitors in preparing exhibits. The 1st exhibit [National Gold UK] is on the revenue society site here:

http://www.revenuesociety.org.uk/invited-displays/Tasmania/frame1.html

The second [National Vermeil Australia] which is mine but not linked to a site just yet here:

http://www.revenuesociety.org.uk/invited-displays/tas1/frame1.html

And the 3rd as I said is still coming to me.

D1
Posted by sayasan   ( 741 ) on Jan-27-08 at 10:47:08 PST   Listings
Richard - thanks for your comments. Yes, I'd go along entirely with you in a situation, such as you describe, where there is "no way now to sort out conclusively what happened", and a formula phrase is needed to pencil a boundary around certain items. But in the case of all the Burma JO reprints, the history is known - the plates stayed in the possession of identifiable postal officials who used them to make private reprints for their own profit. I can name the issues, describe the papers and perfs, name the men responsible and even give you one or two addresses in Rangoon where the reprinting most likely took place. All this is fairly well known, but kept at a kind of unspoken, unofficial level, and I'm not sure that "uncertain status" is really an adequate warning here, that's all. But I take your general point, and respect your opinion, of course. And yes, if we cross certain boundaries we have to accept the consequences, granted.
Posted by jim_lawler   ( 1464 ) on Jan-27-08 at 10:19:53 PST   Listings
Bookmark
Posted by bjornmu   ( 970 ) on Jan-27-08 at 09:42:41 PST   Listings
Meeting topic: I haven't done much in the way of "digitizing" my collection, in fact I haven't done very much organizing of it since 1995. :-(

Until then, I've been making up my own album pages for Norway, Denmark and Sweden (Sweden currently up to 1971 or so). This was a 100% manual process using empty album pages with a control grid. And when I eventually start up again, I will continue to do this manually for consistency. Besides, those sheets are too big for a standard A4 printer.

I have preprinted albums for Iceland, Finland, GB, Germany (DR and BRD) and China (PRC), all except Iceland bought as collections. I standardise on Leuchtturm hingless albums, so it took me quite a few years to find a DR collection in the right type of album where the collection itself wasn't too expensive.

For the one exhibit (one-frame) I've done, I scanned all items, then used StarOffice, which is Sun's extended version of the OpenOffice office suite to create the 16 page text document. Scans were imported and scaled to "original size"; this requires the scanner program to store this as meatdata in the JPG file. That way, when printed, the image is exactly the same size as the real item.

The actual StarOffice document was just 14K in size, as it didn't include the actual images, just file references. To print the pages without the scans (for the actual exhibit sheets) I used an option to "protect" the size of the image in the document, then replaced the image with a dummy image which was just a small white rectangle.

I have also produced a PDF version of the exhibit (NB almost 3Mb), I didn't have time to experiment with creating an HTML version.

Oh, and for FTP to upload stuff to my ISP hosted home page, I use, well, ftp of course. :-) That is, the standard, basic, no-GUI ftp program that comes with any Unix (or Linux) system...
Posted by 1covers   ( 1374 ) on Jan-27-08 at 08:57:37 PST   Listings
Richard - As so many tell me, each collector must set his/her own boundaries as to what they collect. The phrase serves as a adequate warning to all those who choose to play, or not play, outside the traditional boundaries.

Currently, I am working on Costa Rica and there are many expensive surcharges that I would use that phrase to describe. They bring big money when sold but I use a strict criteria: if it doesn't exist on a genuine, postally used cover, I consider the item of uncertain status. On the 1881-82 surcharges for example, only the 2c exists on cover (1 example known). Personally, I beleive that one of the 1c types and one of the 5c types were prepared but not issued (I have the decree with the three stamps affixed). The others were not ever issued and they may all be fakes, or prepared but not issued. As the raw stamps were turned over by the government to a philatelic dealer, along with cancel devices, many of these things, in innumerable varieties exist both mint and "used". No way now to sort out conclusively what happened in the 1880's and 90's. So, "of uncertain status".

Posted by thines   ( 1552 ) on Jan-27-08 at 08:11:31 PST   Listings
Got an interesting cover in the mail (that is, delivered by the USPS to my POB) yesterday and wonder if anyone else has.

The cover is franked with a single copy of an Angola stamp overprinted CFA 500 and CABINDA. The stamp is cancelled by a machine cancel with an unreadable date and place. I can't even tell if the cancel is from the US or, maybe, Britain. It's probably British since there is a British-type orange OCR spray-on on the reverse. Also a USPS bar code sprayed on on the front. The cover bears a sort-of return address of the "Republica de Cabinda / Legal Officer" along with "PAQUEBOT OFFICIAL MAIL". The address looks like it was printed at the same time as the return address. The envelope is a Cunard Line envelope. Inside is a handwritten "Merry Xmas!" note signed by "J. Levy", whom I know not. The note is on stationery from the Hyatt Regency in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

So, anyone else get one of these?

Terry Hines

Posted by stamps12345   ( 225 ) on Jan-27-08 at 08:01:01 PST   Listings
RICHARD /SAYASAN -------Thanks for your help ,your right it could of been 15 years ago .The binder wasn't purchased as a seperate item at auction but came out of one of those massive accumlation lots .Before E-BAY became popular those end of the stamp auction lots were almost given away .

I remember Richard Drews stamp auctions were he had huge crowds coming to his auctions for better U.S. material and me being one of the few foreign country bidders.Then after the auction his staff would call me to his store and he make me a " offer, I couldn't refuse " to take everything foreign that didn't sell at a special price.Threw everything into cigar box lots and sold hundreds of boxes for $18.00 each from a stamp newspaper ad .....paul

Posted by sayasan   ( 741 ) on Jan-27-08 at 07:49:17 PST   Listings
Paul, the pencilled in Gibbons catalogue values are only a few years old. But no matter.
Posted by sayasan   ( 741 ) on Jan-27-08 at 07:45:05 PST   Listings
Thanks, Paul. The peacocks are id'd OK - Myaungmya type 1, Myaungmya type 2, ditto, Pyapon (so-called) type 4, Henzada type 5, in the Gibbons types. Not easy to be 100% sure from these scans, but I think all five peacocks are forged - the second and the fifth certainly are, and the others look like it to me. The imperf one anna "farmer" lower left is imitating the imperf proofs on laid paper, but it's too orangey, and is in fact a modern Indian forgery. The "state crest" lower right is also a forgery, from the same source.

You say you bought this lot "twenty years ago", but the court fees type were first issued around 1990 onwards. Well, yes, fifteen years maybe. To be honest, these mixed collections that turn up in auctions seem to be put together in India by someone with a contact in Burma (I think I may know who), and usually contain some Occupation, mostly forged, lots of Chettiar covers, and some decent but fairly cheap modern stuff, all mixed in together. Sorry about the peacocks.

Posted by djs127   ( 645 ) on Jan-27-08 at 07:36:35 PST   Listings
philaweb Thanks for mentioning Picasa software from Google. I downloaded last night and used it to categorized stamp and personal images on my hard disk. I am not ready to start scanning my worldwide used collections or any of my mint specialized collections at this time as I am still buying small collections on Ebay and through dealers and need to merge them into my Scott internationals for used and the scott specialty albums I own for mint. As I win more specialty pages for mint I will expand the number of countries I will try and collect mint.
David Snyder
Posted by sayasan   ( 741 ) on Jan-27-08 at 07:27:24 PST   Listings
Richard, the phrase is a useful catch-all for the expertiser, as you suggest, but if one is not privy to the code, it's hardly helpful - with the sort of result seen in this case. If an expertiser knows that an item is an official reprint, or a reprint from a plate in private hands or whatever, they should say so in so many words, IMHO. Exactly the same language is used, for instance, by Gibbons in their sales descriptions of these reprints, though the actual and precise status is not at all "unknown" or "uncertain", but is perfectly well known, I'd suggest, by those selling the item.

I suppose one could say, learn the language before you bid, much as it is the new bidder's responsibility to check out the meaning of phrases such as "school of", "follower of" or "in the manner of" (i.e modern pastiche) in the small print at an Art sale. But let's face it, the practice of using these sorts of euphemisms smacks of duplicity, doesn't it?

Posted by stamps12345   ( 225 ) on Jan-27-08 at 07:20:59 PST   Listings
BATTLE GOING ON ???????? ........who's fighting who
Posted by stamps12345   ( 225 ) on Jan-27-08 at 07:17:39 PST   Listings
RICHARD Thanks for your help ,I made notes from your postings .As you can see ,I had no reference point on this material so left it on the original pages for the past twenty years because I wasn't sure of its status.Got about thirty pages in the original binder of covers,stamps,BOB material and telegraphs with stamps on them.

Here are the Peacocks ,as you can see someone else ID them but the accuratcy is questionable. BURMA 4 ....paul

Posted by 1covers   ( 1374 ) on Jan-27-08 at 07:10:19 PST   Listings
I rather like "of uncertain status" as an expertising phrase - it encompasses fakes made from original devices in private hands, copies made from original devices in corrupt official hands, reprints made officially, items manufactured and never released or issued, and in many instances, fakes made so well that nobody can tell them from any of the above.

It really means to me "they are crap that some people like to play with and I could care less about the battle going on about what the exact status is, as it is possibly not resolvable anyhow."

The above is a comment on the phrase, not any particular items which it may apply to.
Posted by scottpel3   ( 862 ) on Jan-27-08 at 06:15:28 PST   Listings
Alec
No problem opening when I used Internet Explorer. FWIW
Scott
Posted by sayasan   ( 741 ) on Jan-27-08 at 06:10:16 PST   Listings
Sorry, I meant to say that the 2C imperf pair on eBay like Paul's finished at £65 GBP, not $65 US - $127 in fact. But I emphasise again, that was a bit of a freak price.
Posted by sayasan   ( 741 ) on Jan-27-08 at 06:03:21 PST   Listings
Paul - Post links to some Burma JO peacock overprints here that give you problems and I'll be happy tell you straight off what they are and which are good and bad. If I don't know, I'll say so. Only my opinion, but it might help.

PS - your Aol hosting seems a bit hit and miss, but your windows open for me 2 times out of 3.

Posted by sayasan   ( 741 ) on Jan-27-08 at 06:00:53 PST   Listings
- Bill, thanks for the advice. Appreciated. I'm comfy with pdf, and use Cute pdf writer, which Acrobat reader seems to open just fine. So maybe that's the way I'll go ...

Paul - Looks like you've bought one of those mixed, rather random, Burma collections on gridded album pages that seem to have been coming from India, or maybe Burma itself, over the last few years, ending up in auctions all over the UK and USA.

image 1 - There's a lot of this used postal stationery about, thanks to the archiving habits of the Chettiar caste, South Indian moneylenders who were very active in British Burma, Malaya, etc. These are all chettiar letters, and the script is Tamil, rather than Burmese.

Image 2 - The insurance revenues are fun. The lower postcard is an interloper, not used in Burma - postmarked in South India.

Image 3 - the long stamps are modern court fee revenues, nice copies. Bad news on the imperf Occupation items, I'm afraid - mostly forged. Sorry. The 1C at top left and right (same stamp) look like a modern forgery, probably made in India, and quite often passed off as "proofs" etc. The set of three 1943 Independence on piece below are all forgeries, clipped from a "Japanese Special Service Post" fake cover, probably produced in Bombay - the cancel is the giveaway, as its a forgery of a Malacca (Malaya) cancel, which the forgers insisted on using for no apparent reason. However, the 2C green marginal pair at top centre is better news - these are from a postwar reprint sheet - original plate but with new numerals inserted. The 2C seems to be the most common imperf reprint. The reprints are not clearly mentioned by the catalogues - just hinted at in Gibbons. A similar 2C pair just finished on eBay and fetched $65 after 9 bids, but that was exceptional, and the result of bunch of starry-eyed newbies bidding in ignorance, despite an accompanying BPA cert that defined this pair as "of uncertain status", i.e. BPA-speak for reprint. $20 or less would be nearer the usual price.

Hope that helps. Cheers,

Richard W.

Posted by infla-alec   ( 574 ) on Jan-27-08 at 05:55:06 PST   Listings
Bill Tried accessing via IE 7 and Firefox neither will open for me. No idea why. Other links here I can open ok just seems to be the mm rule, Fournier/index and the Forgery id site . Damn annoying if nothing else.
Posted by stamps12345   ( 225 ) on Jan-27-08 at 05:48:20 PST   Listings
DCDEROO----The ones that give me a problem is the Japanese issues that are known as the Peacock overprints.
Posted by dcderoo   ( 1718 ) on Jan-27-08 at 05:33:21 PST   Listings
I recognize some of your "burma3" items as Japanese occupation issues.
Posted by stamps12345   ( 225 ) on Jan-27-08 at 05:27:33 PST   Listings
FOR NEW READERS an COLLECTORS This is the type of material the BURMA group would study . burma 1 .........burma2.......... .....burma3.........paul
Posted by claghorn1p   ( 414 ) on Jan-27-08 at 05:02:35 PST   Listings
Sayasan My thought is that PDF is great if you have it and are comfortable with it.

CD format is great because, as mentioned earlier, the printing costs are minimal and it is easy to update and print more.

Alec What browser and version are you using? THe MM gauge is somewhat browser dependant and even has browser detection code in there.
Posted by claghorn1p   ( 414 ) on Jan-27-08 at 04:54:42 PST   Listings
Alec I am using Microsoft Internet Exploder 7 and it all works for me.

Mozilla FireFox:
Fournier Works with ruler
Austria loads but no MM scale

Opera:
Fournier works with ruler
Austria works with ruler

Sayasan CD Formats Html is great for indexing and clicking.

PDF is great for album pages, especially because you can protect the pages images somewhat with special settings.

Adobe Acrobat is expensive, however. THere are some other Acrobat clones for Distiller which are free.

I would still say HTML is great for browsing and Indexes. Acrobat is nice for lots of text and picture mix content.

PDF is easier to convert from other documents such as Word.
Posted by mini*lindy   ( 578 ) on Jan-27-08 at 04:43:10 PST   Listings
BOOKMARK.
midnight, the tennis is over, Novak Djokovic (the Serbian) won.. great game.
Posted by sayasan   ( 741 ) on Jan-27-08 at 02:21:02 PST   Listings
Alec - I edit (and print) the Burma PSC journal, so there's no problem with that as such. It's more that (1) the subject is tangential to Burma (it's the "Chalo Delhi" unissued stamps of the Indian National Army, printed in Burma in 1944), so maybe not right to ask the Study Ciorcle to bear the initial cost, and (2) we don't have a lot of spare cash to finance publications anyway, and (3) we're financing another separate publication soon anyway, so a second one might be unwise at the moment. So all in all, I thought I'd do it myself. The cost isn't really the problem, but I was wondering what might be the most economical and efficient format. But thanks for the thought.
Posted by sayasan   ( 741 ) on Jan-27-08 at 02:15:50 PST   Listings
David B, or anyone else out there in the antipodes - have you come across the name of D V George, maybe David George, as an Australian collector in the 1960's? I've come across what seems to be his signature on a flight cover created by the late Nelson Eustis - whose name I'm sure you will know - and I think he worked in Burma in the 'sixties. There's a reason for asking (research related) though I won't bore you with at right now. Thanks,

Richard W.

Posted by infla-alec   ( 574 ) on Jan-27-08 at 02:12:36 PST   Listings
Bill S The mm gauge and Fournier/index pages won't open for me. Comes up "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" Refresh isn't allowing access either. Is the web site ok or it just me ?

Richard Would it not be possible for the Burma PS to finance the publication ? I assume your research does involve Burma in some form or another. I know the Germany and Colonies PS here in the UK do finance publication of monogramms which are suitable for smaller philatelic subjects.One day I also hope to produce a monogramm on my collecting area but that could be several years away yet. I'm not due to retire for another 17 years or so.
Posted by sayasan   ( 741 ) on Jan-27-08 at 01:59:04 PST   Listings
claghorn or anyone - What do you think the best format is for a cd publication? Word, pdf or web page? In the sense of most accessible / user friendly?
Posted by claghorn1p   ( 414 ) on Jan-26-08 at 22:52:15 PST   Listings
Publishing on CD is very simple. If you can make a web page you can make a CD. Just use HTML and JPG and the CD is readable on PC or Mac or LINUX. You can put your INDEX on the root and do a simple AutoRun and the CD will even come up when you put it in the drive.

Forgery Identification Site

Posted by claghorn1p   ( 414 ) on Jan-26-08 at 22:32:53 PST   Listings
Here is a Better Example of Millimeter Gauge which is movable.
Posted by claghorn1p   ( 414 ) on Jan-26-08 at 22:22:06 PST   Listings
To make the movable millimeter ruler I scanned a perf gague at 600 DPI.

I then used Java to make it movable.

If you right click on the main page and look at View Source you can see the Java. It is simple text. You are welcome to use it and the millimeter scale as you see fit. The Java is public domain.
Posted by claghorn1p   ( 414 ) on Jan-26-08 at 22:14:09 PST   Listings
Meeting Topic

archiving collections on computer and internet display

HERE is an example of the Fournier Album project. If you click on a stamp you get a 600 DPI image. There is also a millimeter rulet which you can move around to make measurements.

HERE is the index of the entire album.

FIrst I scanned a page, I think at 100 DPI. THe pages are large so it is a large image.

THen I set the scanner to capture each stampat 600 DPI by setting the scanner area by click and drag the outline using the scanner software.

I then saved the images as JPG.
I numbered the master pages according to the index in the Ragatz book.
I numbered each stamp with the page number and starting with a and incrementing the alphabet for each stamp.

Using Notepad I made a master template for the main page and a stamp page.

I made a folder tree with folders numbered for each page.

I then wrote a simple program and batch file which parsed the folder with all the pictures. It used the template HTML files and named and numbered them and put the pictures and HTML pages in the folders.

I used "Happy Lad Image Mapper" to create the clickable image map. You can Gogle that name and get the download. I am sure there are other free image mapper programs now, but that one worked for me five years ago when I made the pages.

Actually I bought two different original FOurnier Albums, one on eBay. I scanned the first at 400 DPI and then decided that the second one would be at 600 DPI because that gave better images.

THe resulting collections were too big for the web so I made a CD.

Another project was to scan the House of Stamps catalog as a gesture of good will for the philatelic community. Maybe some day I will publish all the House of Stamps covers and images I own.
Posted by stamps12345   ( 225 ) on Jan-26-08 at 21:52:47 PST   Listings
STAMPS and ITALIANS don't mix ,they started trouble once with their Fiume stamps and now as can be expected here we go again ---------- italians again ....paul
Posted by claghorn1p   ( 414 ) on Jan-26-08 at 21:50:04 PST   Listings
Welcome to the eBay Stamps Chat Board!

It would be greatly appreciated if chat board participants
provide LINKS to pictures
rather than posting them directly to this board.
Here's how to post a LINK. Thanks.



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06/28/07

Posted by stamps12345   ( 225 ) on Jan-26-08 at 21:43:53 PST   Listings
JAY-----I don't have any double overprints in my collection that I know of ,you got me mistaken with someone else .That smuge stamp was a mixture find bonus for me.
Posted by stamps12345   ( 225 ) on Jan-26-08 at 21:39:23 PST   Listings
FARNSWORTH ----There is a firm in BETHEL CT. that can give you a free apprasial of your stamps it is H.R.Harmer .
Posted by jaywild   ( 1042 ) on Jan-26-08 at 21:33:06 PST   Listings
Paul… You misunderstood my post, but that was my fault because I didn’t make it clear. The item you showed was the rejection note from the expertizer, and it was that note I was referring to. But congrats nevertheless on the “q” for “p” type.

Jim
Posted by jaywild   ( 1042 ) on Jan-26-08 at 21:28:29 PST   Listings
NOIP (Richard F, if you are familiar with these)… I have a sense that the Postmaster’s Provisional at right here is a fake. The genuine is shown at left, taken from Scott catalog.

The left tail of the “J” is not consistent, neither is the “P” or “D” of PAID. The color also seems too light.

Ideas, anyone?

Jim
Posted by antonius-ra   ( 667 ) on Jan-26-08 at 21:18:16 PST   Listings
On topic regarding page making:
Two borders are shown here.
Which one is which?
Hint, one page costs twice what the other does.
Posted by stamps12345   ( 225 ) on Jan-26-08 at 21:17:20 PST   Listings
go good ==NO GOOD
Posted by stamps12345   ( 225 ) on Jan-26-08 at 21:16:24 PST   Listings
See the Italians are up to go good and starting trouble again .......more later
Posted by stamps12345   ( 225 ) on Jan-26-08 at 21:12:00 PST   Listings
JUST FOR THE RECORD ----That Zanzibar stamp and decline Cert. came from a mixture lot ,the cost was zero because it wasn't factor into the purchase price .

JAY----Your wrong about the Zanzibar stamp ,it does make you look foolish with your statement . David B. -----much happier, for a $12.50 stamp now about $50.00 not bad .

Posted by antonius-ra   ( 667 ) on Jan-26-08 at 20:47:47 PST   Listings
Paolo Thank you for responding, old friend.
Your input is always valued.
I did have a "warm fuzzy" feeling about those.
Under the cuff; Unfortunately they are not damaged in any way (other than HR)so I should best put them in the trash. Wait a minute, I could just put a steel hinge on, then rip it off to form a thin or maybe just make a nice tear or something possibly a smudged overprint or cancel would rate. They wouldn't fit into my collection without a major fault. You know, life use to be simplier. I could look at damaged stamps at dealers shops and stamp shows and scoup them up. Now, buying off ebay I mostly get stamps without faults, what a let down. I usually just through them in the trash.
As everyone knows, I only collect damaged stamps .........
........HEHEHEHE
Posted by vonbag   ( 207 ) on Jan-26-08 at 20:33:29 PST   Listings
Sorry, I am temporarily at short of useful input for the present interesting eUSC meeting topic.
It is not excluded I will intervene later.
I joined the Helvetia Study Group at the last bourse I Loosdrecht and gained some literature of interest. I will be present tomorrow (in a few hours) as well.

Short report:
A certain guy asked me whether a stamp of Tuscany in his collection for sale was genuine or not; on the field of real life stamps I don't forgive neither mistake most of the times: an obvious forgery.
Later he complained with me, together with the president of our club, he could not sell the collection for 4000 euro to that Sir because, upon bilateral request, I said the stamp is fake and he had heard it. No comment (I got angry, as usual).
Among the things I hate the most are bad education and tacky behaviour.

If hypocrisy was living and material, I could risk my life to kill it.
Paolo
Posted by vonbag   ( 207 ) on Jan-26-08 at 20:12:37 PST   Listings
Mitchell,
Both the red overprints you showed a few days ago of those Provisional Postage Due Stamps appear to be genuine, due to the correspondence of the characters and the marked presence of the foulage (indentation) on reverse.
Jaywild- Jim, Thank for your kind words.
Nomad55, I am transliterating your document right now.
Paolo
Posted by dbenson   ( 8816 ) on Jan-26-08 at 20:12:33 PST   Listings
Of course that should be inverted " q " for " b ". It occurred as the printers ran out of type and had to improvise with what they had to make up the printing plate,

David B.
Posted by dbenson   ( 8816 ) on Jan-26-08 at 20:10:38 PST   Listings
Paul, the kiss print has the variety " inverted Q for P " which Gibbons cats. at 4 times normal which should make you happy. it is surprising that the experts at BPA didn't notice it but these things happen, happier now,

David B.
Posted by dbenson   ( 8816 ) on Jan-26-08 at 19:53:43 PST   Listings
Paul, please read the form properly, the 3 boxes at the top are the non certificate. I didn't plan the form that is the way they issue them. It states that the item is on no philatelic significance however I slightly disagree with that comment, it does have some slight philatelic significance and I, for one, do collect Kiss Prints and think they should be part of a collection but they shouldn't have catalogue status or considered to any more valuable than a normal overprint but they are still collectable. You must remember that the machine that was used was extremely primitive and was applied at the Zanzibar Gazette, a newspaper office using their printing equipment was would have been used for printing newspapers. The paper had to be moved by hand many times to complete a sheet and it was liable to be smudged very easily.

I know you think I am always running down your material but if you ever showed nice material I would praise it but I have seldom seen anything nice that you have shown. Just because it may be expensive doesn't make it nice to me, it just means that you can hold your hand up longer at a sale than other people. Show something rare and I will be the first to compliment you,

David B.
Posted by jaywild   ( 1042 ) on Jan-26-08 at 19:43:17 PST   Listings
Paul… What you showed was, alas, worthless. The overprint shows an example of sloppy printing, nothing more, yet the person who submitted the item (you?) thought, with starry eyes, that it was some kind of rare/valuable double impression. Essentially you showed the return notice from the expertizers stating the item wasn’t worth bothering with.



You have shown other smudged items here in the past that you thought were “double-printed”. Study the example in front of you and you will be able in future to recognize this very common, very undesirable “type”.

Jim