Sunday Reflection: Stamp Collecting Can be Like a Treasure Hunt!
Last time I wrote about the way we can sometimes get our hopes up too high, thinking that we have "hidden treasures" in the attic.
Today, I'll talk a little bit about the flipside to that, as it works out in my life.
The photo shows a couple of utterly unassuming old stamps from Denmark, issued in 1919, during the very earliest years of stamps sold through vending machines at post offices. In some ways, these were rather clever, in the sense 7 øre (the orange stamp) allowed you to send a postcard, 3 øre (the gray stamp) allowed you to send a single sheet of "printed matter" (like a flyer) and the two together paid the 10 øre rate for a regular letter.
What makes them "treasure" is that the Danish post office almost immediately decided to go to rolls of stamps that were attached top-and-bottom, instead of side-to-side.
In fact only 108 rolls of the side-to-side stamps were made, most were used up on mail and very few were saved... as a result of which — 100 years later — some stamp collectors will hand over as much as $100 for the item pictured!
Do you feel lucky?
Interestingly enough, I "found" the stamps in a box of "old junk" I had already decided didn't have anything more of value in it!
Of course, that's almost the exact opposite situation from "counting on" the valuable from grandma's attic... here I discovered value in something I had already written off as valueless.
Not sure whether there's a lesson to be learned there... but it's just one of the fun things that has happened this past week, as I have been going through boxes and setting old stuff up for sale on eBay... a combination housecleaning and fundraising project we are going through, these days.
The Joy of "Finding Things"
I have always really enjoyed the whole process of organizing and particularly finding things. Doesn't have to be things of value; it's just as much fun to find someone's lost keys, as it is to find mushrooms in the forest, as it is to... find rare stamps in a box of stamps I'd already more or less discarded as worthless.
It's one of those things I have always felt called to do, although I have been singularly unsuccessful at finding a way to turn it into an actual living. But then again, maybe our favorite pastimes don't really need to be turned into professions...
Regardless, I will be continuing the ostensible "treasure hunting" process for many weeks to come, and I'll probably bore you with other finds of note!
Meanwhile, it's nice to see the crypto markets bounce back a little bit. I'm not getting too excited about it, reminding myself that we are just clawing our way back to the depressed levels we were at when the whole FTX scandal struck!
Well, that's about enough for this go around. I hope the weekend treated you kindly, and wish you a great week ahead! Thanks for stopping by!
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Created at 2023-01-22 22:36 PST
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