stamp crazies

Mail has been carried by foot runners, bullock carts, camels and horses. Reindeers have been used in Scandinavia and Russia, dogs in Alaska and cats in Belgium. In 1879 Liege, Belgium employed 37 cats to carry bundles of letters to villages. This service however did not last long!

Sierra Leone and Tonga have issued strange looking free form stamps. They are in the shape of parrots, bananas, maps athletes, water melons etc. Gibraltar has issued a stamp in 1969 shaped like the famous rock. Bhutan as issued strange stamps. Some are scented and others have a gramophone record playing the national anthem. The first 3-D stamp was issued by Italy in 1956. Viewed through special glasses with read and green lenses the image of the world map appears in 3-D. 

These Mail Order Cat 
Food Have made my day!

Mail have been stolen from the day the mails have started. Important mail had the picture of gallows printed on them to warn illiterate thieves of what would happen if the mail was stolen. Stealing mail carried a death sentence. Some of the greatest robberies, however, have been the robberies of Railway Mail.

On the 8th of August 1963 the biggest robbery of all time took place. The Royal Mail train on its way to London was robbed of two and a half million pounds. From that day it was known as The Great Train Robbery. 

This Dog Food Gum 
is a marvel ! 

It is said that the adhesive on that stamps in Israel is Kosher.

The US Stamp glue is vegetarian. and consuming it by licking the stamp add only 1/10 of a calorie. A real fat free vegetarian gum!

Timbromania is an inordinate passion for postage stamps (from French timbre for postage stamp). 

Early form of stamp collecting was to thread the stamps to make as long a "snake" as possible. Longer the snake better the collection. 

My stamps !! 
hmm.. Timbromaniac ..

Someday!

In the remote island on St Kilda, Scotland, letters were placed in hollowed out driftwood attached to an inflated sheep's bladder. These were set adrift in the north Atlantic, where current, wind and luck carried mail to shore on the mainland. A similar method has been used in the Pacific Island of Niuafo'ou, Tonga, where mail was carried in sealed tin cans to waiting ships giving rise to the colourful "Tin Can Mail" markings on the letters. 

An area of the Sun's surface the size of a postage stamp shines with the power of 1,500,000 candles.

When truckers in the U.S. talk about "green stamps," they are discussing speeding tickets.

You can print stamps on your computer and use them as postage. It saves a walk to the post office.

I could not decide on which hobby, first I thought I would collect stamps, then I thought I would collect bugs.

Well ...

Now I collect stamped bugs!