Friday, March 20, 2009

Philatelic Friday: Stamps from Space

Whew, this week sure flew by quickly- it's already Philatelic Friday! I thought it might be fun to build a theme around Space. To avoid any confusion, these are not stamps that I own. For your viewing pleasure,I scoured the Internet for stamps with a space-related motif. But first, how about a few fun trivia facts about stamps. Did you know that the first United States stamps were issued in 1847? One was of Benjamin Franklin at five cents and the other of George Washington at ten cents. Those two men have appeared on more stamps than any other Americans.
Someone wrote to me asking if I knew why we we don't allow stamps of living people on our official stamps but other countries do have living people on them. Here in the US, we wait 10 years after a person's death to consider them for a stamp. The US Postal Service's view is that a true assessment of a person can be made only after waiting a decade. The exception is for former Presidents, who are honored with a stamp on the first birthday after their death. OK so here are the rest of the space related stamps for today's post:

above: United States, first man on the moon

above: Australia, with a sci-fi theme

above: United States, the Enterprise ship from Star Trek

above: United States, Yoda from Star Wars

above: United States, anniversary of the first moon landing

above: the former Soviet Union
Well before I wrap up today's edition of Philatelic Friday, I thought I'd leave another bit of trivia.
Before there were stamps, the person receiving a letter had to pay the delivery costs to the postal carrier. In those days it was expensive to deliver mail, so people would simply refuse to accept a letter if it was too expensive for them. The post office couldn't afford the cost to accept, carry, deliver mail, only to have it refused and then return it to the sender again. Then the post office got smart and required postage to be pre-paid. Interesting huh? Well that's what I know. Happy Friday all.
-Rick Rockhill
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10 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 20, 2009 at 5:51 AM

    Yoda on a stamp just makes me giggle!

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  2. kenjuMarch 20, 2009 at 7:15 AM

    Yeah, me too, I love Yoda. My son can mimic his voice so well I think it's really him....LOL

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  3. Desert SongbirdMarch 20, 2009 at 8:03 AM

    Am I revealing my age when I say I remember that first man on the moon stamp?

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  4. KathyAMarch 20, 2009 at 8:13 AM

    I didn't know that about letters being COD!

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  5. OliviaMarch 20, 2009 at 8:18 AM

    The sci fi Aussie one is so weird and yet warmly visually appealing.

    And what is it about the perfection of Soviet poster graphics? Referring to the last one.

    Moon landing stamps must be invaluable.

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  6. AnonymousMarch 20, 2009 at 11:23 AM

    oh I'm starting to really like philatelic friday, this is a great feature.

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  7. RhodesterMarch 20, 2009 at 1:02 PM

    I can hear the phone ringing now..

    **briiiinggg**

    Rockhill - "Hello?"

    Big Boss - "Rockhill! what are you DOING?"

    Rockhill - "I'm busily scouring the internet for a picture of a stamp with Yoda on it. Or Captain Kirk, but Yoda would be better."

    Big Boss - "Well, they're low on dog food in Slovenia! What do you have to say about that?"

    Rockhill - "May the force be with you?"

    Big Boss - "Fired, you are!"

    Rockhill - "Rhodester, how did you get this number?"

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  8. graceMarch 20, 2009 at 8:06 PM

    great post Rick. My dad was a huge stamp collector, had all the books and years all catalogued.

    Hope your friday went well. :)

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  9. SheilaMarch 21, 2009 at 6:09 AM

    I love to buy the special stamps at the post office. Nice post.

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  10. cddstampsApril 10, 2009 at 3:01 PM

    Hi Again.. very good piece. and don't forget that 2009 is International Astronomy Year. plenty of amazing new issues to use for article..

    everyone interested in space eh!!

    Best wishes.. Michael (Sydney Australia)

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Thank you kindly.