Member postings for Gillian Hutchinson

Very interesting - a lot went on there for sure! It was very peaceful when we visited in 1983.

Sorry I didn't reply to your post sooner - don't know how I managed not to.

Gillian

If postage stamps are going to become a thing of the past, does this mean that stamp forums like this one will follow suit? We'd have to think of something else to bond over!

Gillian

That location is often referred to here in Northern Ireland as Derry/Londonderry, with some people just calling it 'Stroke City'. Looking back over the thread, I can't see where I read that Julian thought it was somewhere other than Northern Ireland.

Gillian

Well, I don't really have the time or expertise to figure out which stamps might be valuable. We haven't had many donated over the years we've been open and I don't know that my little offering will sell.. I did bring them in, but noticed that one of the stamps had been slightly torn, so I just brought them home again. Believe it or not, I haven't got around to replacing the damaged stamp so that I can bring the packets back in!

Your cross-stitch project sounds wonderful and very impressive. I don't think I would have the patience.

Gillian

Sorry, the link doesn't appear to work. Maybe try copying and pasting? I see the article appeared in the August 2017 issue of the Stamp Magazine and there was a thread then about it. I gather from that thread that you might be the one to answer my query, Carmen!

Thanks in advance!

Gillian

I am referring to this, Carmen:

https://www.stampmagazine.co.uk/news/article/champlain-celebration/25476.

Gillian

Is this whom Lake Champlain was named after? My husband and I spent a memorable weekend with my mother's cousin and her husband in a pretty cottage beside this beautiful lake in 1983.

Gillian

Edited By Gillian Hutchinson on 17/07/2019 09:51:06

Hi Julian and everyone else - welcome back Julian! Just to inform you, Londonderry is in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom and therefore British!

Gillian

I thought of it some time ago, Carmen, but the furthest I've got with it is to put stamps into two of those bags I was referring to in a previous message. I haven't quite got around to making up a third bag.

If we find anything we know to be of high value, we try to sell it online so that we can get a price for it that reflects its high value, although I'm sure we wouldn't see too many high value stamps coming our way.

Gillian

Hi Carmen, the reason why I asked was not an old collection but my own swaps. I had thought of putting a few into small sandwich bags - very small ones, don't know if you've seen them? - and donating them to the charity shop where I volunteer. I don't think there's much of value there, so was thinking of 20p per packet or 50p for 3. I haven't actually got around to doing the deed.

Gillian

What do you tell the charity shop, Carmen?

Gillian

Hi Trevor,

My son let me have his ring binder album, which has extra pages, so using that and those, with hinges.

Gillian

I soak all my stamps in warm water. The self-adhesives have a variety of reactions - some come off fairly easily, some tear in the process, some end up very flimsy and some end up with the envelope paper looking like tiny balls of polystyrene. Maybe I should just trim them all - self adhesives I mean - ?

Gillian

I have a lot of GB stamps which were just loose in envelopes etc. I have now started to check if I have any already mounted in my albums. When I've done that I'll start mounting them. I had been putting off doing that because I didn't have a GB Album to mount them in. One of my sons paid heed to my Christmas wish list and gave me a GB album, but without the actual pages for mounting the stamps on. That was going to cost extra, so I've decided to use another son's album, which is a ring binder and has lots of extra, blank pages, which I can put next to the GB page in the album. I do have a stock book, but am using that for overflows and stamps from way back, eg Belgian Congo, Malaya, Nigeria in King George VIth times, even Katanga - all of these came in a packet from hubby at Christmas time - another family member who paid attention to my wish list.

Gillian

Does it have to be Ronson? Not sure we have any of that stuff.

Gillian

Did you ever get that Sierra Leone stamp, Carmen? Have you seen this? I found it on a Google search.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3TwMX8Be7c

Just wondering, would simple lemon juice work? Very interesting video, about why self adhesive stamps were invented and how you can recognize them, amongst other things, although I'm not really any the wiser about the latter. I must have a look sometime at self adhesive and lickable stamps to check it out.

Eric, I usually try soaking all my stamps and if the backing paper is stubborn/reluctant to separate, I just mount those stamps as they are.

Gillian

Would you think of removing the stamps from the envelopes and putting all your stamps in an album? I have albums from my husband's youth and mine.

Which reminds me, I found a stamp from Belgian Congo - don't know where it appeared from - and am not sure what to do with it - find a space in one of those childhood albums or put it in with up to date Congo Republic stamps?

Gillian

Hi Paul,

I like the sound of the posh albums. The album is a Davo and is actually a binder, which comes in a case and has what appear to be page dividers(?) My son gave it to me and I'm guessing he couldn't afford to give me extra pages, but I would have thought there'd be more than 3 to start with. There was definitely no marked spaces for individual stamps.

Gillian

OK, this is the 3rd attempt at this because the webpage keeps logging me out. This time I have clicked Remember Me, so hopefully I won't be logged out before I manage to send my post.

Thanks, Chris and Carmen. I'll put any occupied Poland stamps on the Poland page. So far I've just seen one.

I'm confused about the GB stamp album. Is it normal to have only a few pages in an album but space for more and are those pages normally blank as opposed to squared?

Gillian

I also meant to ask where the stamp from German-occupied Poland should be placed - in Poland or on a special page for stamps from occupied countries?

Gillian