Stamps

For many months I've been gradually selling, bit-by-bit, my Dad's old stamp collection on ebay. I'm not making lots of money out of it but I feel better knowing that buyers are getting pleasure from their purchases and Dad's efforts have not just been thrown away. Last week was Australia's turn but now I'm preparing New Zealand although I'm not sure when I'll be ready to list. The old stamps at the back are actually from my own old collection. In the late 1950s I used to visit an old man in Ramsbottom's Callender Street who gave me lots of old stamps from a fantastic collection (he also gave me dozens of the old "penny reds) and I am sure that is where these must have come from. I was able to reciprocate to a small extent as in November 1957 Britain started to produce on an experimental basis stamps with graphite lines as an introduction to automatic sorting. They were only on sale in Southampton. Phosphor bands came about two years later. I went to Southampton as a student in 1959 and was able to obtain these graphite-lined stamps over the post office counter and send them to him and my Dad.