First some numbers:
My collection comprises 181 stamps from 37 countries, as calculated by Colnect. Colnect counts multistamp minisheets as a single stamp and as a country any stamp issuing entity, e.g. United Nations, Northern Cyprus, etc. Using this system, the top five countries in my collection are Israel (50), United States (34), U.S.S.R. (12), Poland (11), and Romania (8). My wish list has 303 stamps, with the top five countries being Greece (36), Portugal (26), Malta (24), Austria (18), and Yemen (18).
July
- July 24th, San Salvador, El Salvador -- Because El Salvador has no currency of its own and uses the U.S. dollar, I cannot purchase a commemorative coin as a souvenir of my visit. Instead, I walk to the main branch of Correos de El Salvador to see if there are any stamps I might want to buy there. As everywhere else in downtown San Salvador, the scene at the post office is one of confusion and danger, like no one is getting the service they need and at any moment the whole system will collapse. I see mounds of packages in one building, which looks like it's been abandoned for years. No one speaks English, but everyone tries their best to be helpful. A security guard who seems to understand what I'm looking for points to a door across a courtyard. The courtyard is full of women selling random things like purses and plastic toys, even though it's inside the post office, because everywhere you go in Central America -- literally everywhere -- there are always women selling things. I enter the door, and sure enough it's the philatelic office. The lady working there apologizes for the construction going on and the mess everywhere and invites me to sit at her desk. No one invited me to sit at a desk in Guatemala City when I purchased a commemorative coin there the week before. My hostess starts pulling out binders of Salvadorian stamps. There is a brochure stand against one of the walls. A brochure with Hebrew letters and what looks like an Israeli flag catches my eye: 1948-2008 Israel y El Salvador, 60 Años de Amistad. The brochure shows a picture of Israel's 12th prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who would go on to serve 16 months in prison for corruption. "Do you have this?" I ask the lady. She shakes her head: "No." "Can I keep the brochure?" She nods: "Yes." The brochures aren't organized in any way and I have to flip through each batch one brochure at a time. There is another brochure with an Israeli flag: 126 Años del Natalico de José Arturo Castellanos. "Do you have this?" She already has a binder with that stamp open. I end up leaving her office with a 2007 ten-stamp "Ex Presidentes de El Salvador" souvenir minisheet and one 2018 commemorative "José Arturo Castellanos" stamp.
August
- August 2nd, San Pedro Sula, Honduras -- San Pedro Sula doesn't just feel like the most dangerous city in the world, it is in fact a perennial contender for that title. As such, I am wary of visiting the local branch of Banco Central de Honduras to purchase a commemorative coin, even though it is just a block from the Parque Central. Instead, my brother, who flew in from the U.S. the day before, and I walk to the city's main branch of Correo Nacional de Honduras. The site is marked on Google Maps and numerous people on the street point us to it, but there is no sign or any other indication of a post office anywhere and we walk past it several times before finally peeking through a doorway that turns out to be the post office entrance. Inside we are greeted by a scene of lethargic despair -- people slumped in chairs who look like they've been sitting and waiting for so long their skin and hair have started taking on the color of the walls. We are directed to a window where I tell the clerk, "Quiero sellos postales para colección." In response he utters the two most dreaded words one can say in this place: "Please wait." Astonishingly, only a few minutes pass before he returns with a small stack of manila folders, whose contents he proceeds to lay out for my consideration. These are not nice stamps, I think to myself, and I start to feel guilty shaking my head at him with each sheet he points to expectantly. It also occurs to me I'm fussing over sums of money that are inconsequential, certainly when compared to what a coin would have cost. I settle on six stamps that appear to me to have the most meaning, and my brother chooses a 2017 stamp that features a bicycle.
September
- September 18th, Jerusalem -- Israel Post has issued a Sehrane festival stamp, and immediately after work I walk to Jerusalem's main post office to buy it. I'm walking as fast as I can for fear they will sell out because it's getting close to 4 o'clock in the afternoon and my imagination has me convinced there are lines of Kurdish Jews spilling out of the post office onto the street waiting since morning for their turn to acquire the stamp. I get to the post office and there are no lines. The security guard calmly checks my bag as I pass through the metal detector, and I enter the main hall and pull a ticket from the number machine. My number appears on the display and I approach the woman at my assigned window. "Israel Post issued a stamp today for the Kurdish Sehrane festival. Do you have any left?" "A Sehrane stamp? I don't know anything about a Sehrane stamp. What are you, Kurdish?" "Am I Kurdish? Well yes, as a matter of fact." "I am too. Hang on a minute, I'll go check." She disappears into a back room and returns a few moments later carrying a box. "These are stamps we just got this morning. Let's see what's in here. Look, flowers. Don't you want flowers?" "I think I'll pass on flowers." "How about this Apples in Honey minisheet? For the holiday." "Maybe next time." "Are you sure? Look how pretty it is." "Okay, put it on the side. I'll take another look after." "Here we are: Sehrane Festival. It's nice! By the way, we have these Year 5780 calendars here. They're great to have in the office or to give as a gift. Would you like one or two?" I leave with a 15-stamp "Sehrane Festival" sheet and a first day cover.
October
- October 6th, Jerusalem -- With the potential beginnings of a stamp collection but nowhere to store the actual stamps, I walk to Jerusalem's only stamp dealer to buy an album (or "stockbook," as I'll later learn they're called). His shop is hidden in a corner deep within a labyrinthine shopping center that has clearly been hit hard by the retail apocalypse. As soon as I enter the shop I feel like a kid at Toys "R" Us, surrounded by stamps in every direction. If there are any lingering doubts in my mind about the path I'm setting out on, they're melting away like marshmallows in a cup of hot chocolate. The dealer is the kind of jovial character in whose company one can spend hours and not feel the time pass, which is exactly what happens. He's curious to know what has drawn me into the hobby. I tell him about El Salvador and the Sehrane festival. He makes a note of my main interests -- running, language, wine -- and promises to start setting aside items that match my preferences for future visits. The stockbook I leave with is a second-hand but new-looking Yvert et Tellier, but it's the experience of the visit that is what's truly valuable.
November
- November 10th, Tel Aviv -- Visit to the Israel Philatelic Federation.
- November 24th, Jerusalem -- Seeing as the Jerusalem Stamp Club's meetings are at a neighborhood community center in another part of the city and that I need to ramp up my weekly training mileage, I decide to run to the meeting and kill two birds with one stone. It's my first time at the community center, but it's easy to find. As I'm walking toward the entrance I can see the club members through a window. Moshe Burshtein, whom I met in Tel Aviv two weeks ago, greets me, invites me to sit across from him at a table, and gives me a rundown of how the club operates. He shows me where the catalogs are stored, introduces me to a few other collectors, and gives me a pair of stamp tongs as a personal gift. The club disperses early, and I barely have time to do any actual stockbook browsing. What I mostly leave with is an impatience to return next week.
December
- December 25th, Tel Aviv -- 33rd Conference of Israeli Philatelists.
Beyond continuing to review Israel Post's new stamp issues, these are goals for 2020:
| TOPIC |
SECTION | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | ✓ Weizmann Institute (2019-11-26) | Stamp review |
| 2. | The Jerusalem Marathon in stamps | Commentary |
| 3. | ✓ Stamp collecting in Malta | Check-in |
| 4. | ✓ Top 10 controversial Israeli stamps | Commentary |
| 5. | The Jerusalem Stamp Club | Check-in |
| 6. | Post offices of Jerusalem | Check-in |
| 7. | The future of philately | Commentary |
| 8. | My language collection | Spotlight |
| 9. | ✓ Interview with a philatelist | Spotlight |
| 10. | Museum of Postal History, Tel Aviv |
Check-in |
| 11. | Book review | Commentary |
| 12. | Bethlehem post office | Check-in |
- I wasn't originally going to review the 2019 "Weizmann Institute" stamp, but seeing as it entered my collection as a souvenir from the conference in Tel Aviv, it might as well receive its own review.
- A couple months ago I edited a map of the Jerusalem Marathon to include stamps that relate to the marathon course. I intend to feature the map as part of a crossover post with my other blog.
- Malta is the next country on my travel agenda, and it's the first time I'll be visiting a country not only to run in but also to explore its philatelic culture. Do I have any Maltese readers?
- What could be so controversial about a stamp encouraging the public to brush its teeth or showing an image of the Ark of the Covenant? As it turns out, a lot, and these are but two examples in a long list of controversies prompted by Israeli stamps. The challenge will be narrowing the list down to ten.
- To the best of my Google search abilities, other than a few cursory mentions there is zero information online about Jerusalem's stamp club, even though the venue where it holds its meetings is too small to comfortably accommodate the crowd that assembles there every week. Someone searching for a stamp club in Jerusalem should be able to find information on the internet, and pretty soon they will.
- Jerusalem's main branch of the post office is a building with a rich history stretching back to the 1930s. It's impressive both inside and out, and every year in the fall there are free guided tours of the building for two days. The tour never interested me before, but it does now.
- A Google search for "future of philately" turns up some interesting results -- in particular, a 90-minute video recording on Facebook of an American Philatelic Society conference in 2016 and a document prepared by a group of British philatelists in 2018. They're a good starting point for a thorough exploration of the topic.
- There are some key stamps missing from how I envision my language collection will eventually look, e.g. a Tower of Babel stamp, a Klingon stamp. Once I get my hands on them, the collection should make engaging material for both philatelists and linguists.
- Every stamp collector has a captivating backstory. I don't mean the stamp hoarders, who can't resist bidding on every lot they see go up for auction on eBay, but the methodical, calculated collector. The two collectors I have in mind for a future interview are the Jerusalem Stamp Club chairman and the stamp dealer in downtown Jerusalem.
- It recently came to my attention there is a tax museum in Jerusalem, and it stands to reason there are revenue stamps on display there. At some point I'll have to visit it and see for myself. Where the real philatelic action is at, however, is at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv. It's possible I'll pay a visit there as early as February 29th, the day after Tel Aviv's marathon.
- A search for "philately" at Amazon.com brings up some interesting titles, and one of them might be the subject of 2020's book review. Either that or I'll choose a title from the IPF library in Tel Aviv. I am very much open to suggestions.
- Downtown Bethlehem is less than an hour's jog from where I live, yet it's easier for me to fly to Morocco than to get there. Which should make the experience of buying stamps and mailing myself a postcard from Bethlehem's post office all the more memorable.
Archives
• 2018 | Year in Review
• 2017 | Year in Review
• 2016 | Year in Review
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