The Stamp Collectors Corner

Ian Fleming was born On May 28, 1908. Fleming was a well known author who enjoyed international acclaim and success for writing the James Bond series of books. Ian Fleming spent his childhood living with his mother after his father was killed during WWI.  By the time WWII came about, Fleming was recruited into naval [...]

The year 2010 has been declared the “International Year of Biodiversity” by the United Nations.  The premise is that this year, life on Earth (all plants, animals and micro-organisms included), should be celebrated.  Some countries, such as the United Kingdom, have partnered with the United Nations to promote the understanding of biodiversity during 2010.  The [...]

Up until 1955, all television services in the United Kingdom were provided by the British Broadcasting Corporation, which was “state-owned”.  In 1955, a then “new” type of television service was introduced called “commercial television”.  Privately owned companies, with services funded by advertisements, began releasing their own television programs and forever changed the television viewing in [...]

Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouting in the United States) was founded by Lord Baden Powell, of England in 1910.  It was formed shortly after Boy Scouts as way for girls to gather together and learn a variety of skills and lessons about life.  It’s hard to believe that it has been 100 years since [...]

For most people, vinyl record albums are a thing of the past, especially thanks to the popularity of CD’s and MP3’s nowadays.  Apparently those once loved vinyl’s are not so forgotten when it comes to postage stamps though.  Great Britain has paid tribute to some super cool bands and the once popular musical vehicle…vinyl record [...]

The Isle of Man is a small island that is located between Ireland and Great Britain.  The Isle of Man’s postal service was originally part of the United Kingdom’s Royal Mail since 1879.  Eventually, England offered each of the Crown Dependencies a chance to run their own postal authorities.  In 1973, The Isle of Man [...]

Continuing from Wednesday… There was some debate in England as to whether the double-decker bus should be considered an “icon” or not.  I think that most people will agree, thanks to travel, television, pictures, and movies, that the double-decker bus definitely is because those big beautiful red buses are associated mostly with England. The sad [...]

Since its’ first appearance in the 1950’s, the Routemaster double-decker bus has been a huge hit with Londoners and tourists alike.  So popular in its design, double-deckers can also be found in other countries as well.  Many older Routemasters have resurfaced in countries like Canada, Sri Lanka and the US.  In other places, such as [...]

The holidays are here and with such, so are the Christmas inspired postage stamps.  Like in the United States, many countries around the world issue Christmas themed postage stamps each year.  It is widely believed that Canada issued the first Christmas postage stamps in 1898, although they were not terribly festive looking.  Those 2 cent [...]

Some mythical creatures are believed to originate from real creatures that were often described from traveler’s tales.  For good storytelling purposes, mythical creatures often took on the form of two actual creatures combined into one making a new hybrid creature.  Others were just ones that were made up and downplayed for good storytelling purposes.  Over [...]