Israel Stamp Reviews

Hobby , identity and community are distinct but closely related concepts. The distinction is one of experience: a hobby is a thing we do, an identity is a thing we have, and a community is a thing of which we are a part. The relationship, meanwhile, is one of progression: engaging in a hobby can form part of a person's identity, and people with common identities tend to cling to one another and form communities. Not everyone who collects stamps will identify as a stamp collector, and not everyone who identifies as a stamp collector will join a philatelic community; however, the distance from point A to point B and from point B to point C is shorter now than at any time in the past. What has shortened the distance has been the rise of social media, because social media has increased the visibility of identities and made accessing communities virtually effortless. Case in point: Had it not been for social media -- specifically YouTube, and more specifically Graham Beck's Ex...

When it comes to stamps, like architecture or fashion, no design can please everyone. Stamp collectors are as opinionated when viewing a stamp as food critics are at a restaurant, and rare is the collector with no philatelic pet peeves. For some, it's when the design is too bland and lacks color; for others, it's when the design is too vibrant and colorful. The design can be too sparse or too dense, too conventional or too sophisticated, too derivative or too bold. When a new stamp is issued, collectors line up on opposing sides and either lavish it with praise or heap their scorn on it, largely in reaction to the design. Even a subject as harmless as solar energy can polarize audiences on account of how the designer chose to manifest it visually. Despite appearances to the contrary, the stamp above is not the result of a printing error. It represents a deliberate attempt on the part of the designer -- in this case, Osnat Eshel -- to require viewers to either tilt their h...