Conquerors 2009 “There are many underhanded ways of making your conker harder. The best is to pass it through a pig." World Conker Champion – Charlie Bray. The World Conker Championships are on this weekend. All the action from last year. previously [1] [2] In other news, a cure for bleeding canker has been found, with a welcome side effect, leaf miners don't like having garlic breath.
posted by tellurian on Oct 8, 2009 - 19 comments

Even as Snail Mail fades away, people still collect Stamps. Some are valuable. Others are just **stupid**. (You could say the "inverted jenny" is both.)
**this link is the reason for the post
posted by wendell on Jul 27, 2009 - 50 comments

Dan's Topical Stamps
posted by anastasiav on Jun 3, 2009 - 11 comments

The US Postal Service announces a series of Simpsons stamps to be released on May 7. [more inside]
posted by 1f2frfbf on Apr 10, 2009 - 62 comments

When it went to war with Israel in 1967, the Egyptian Government blockaded the Suez Canal. A number of ships, with their crews, were stranded in the Great Bitter Lake for the eight years it was closed. Here are their stamps.
posted by Fiasco da Gama on Jan 13, 2009 - 18 comments

What happens if you post a letter using coins instead of stamps?
posted by divabat on Nov 12, 2008 - 49 comments

It's the law: "No person who has attained the age of sixteen years shall take any migratory waterfowl unless at the time of such taking he carries on his person an unexpired Federal migratory-bird hunting and conservation stamp". The Federal Duck Stamp turned 75 this year. [more inside]
posted by Deathalicious on Aug 20, 2008 - 12 comments

European Stamps claims to have pictures of nearly 80% of all postage stamps issued in Europe. But if you're searching for an image of what is perhaps the world's most valuable stamp, often referred to as 'Philately's Greatest Error', you'd best look elsewhere. Like here, specifically.
posted by Effigy2000 on Sep 16, 2007 - 9 comments

How come we can't get these? On Feb 9th there are two sets of Beatles stamps being released in the UK. Jealous? I am.
posted by mannythedog on Jan 26, 2007 - 34 comments

Many people want to legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana and other drugs, however, few know that many U.S. states are content simply to tax. In fact, even the federal government wants a share (middle of p. 89 of the PDF), and used tax stamps in early prohibition, but only the states have recently issued issued cool stamps (be sure to click "exhibit"). The point, of course, is not to actually tax the drugs, but to penalize the drug dealers for tax evasion as well as drug sales. They have brought in some money, though. A few interesting state government pages: Conecticut, Nebraska, North Carolina and their tax return form, and Kansas.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim on Jan 15, 2007 - 30 comments

Arago: People, Postage & the Post is the online database of the National Postal Museum. It has lots and lots of lovely things. Some examples are a high quality scan of an 18th Century envelope, a sampling of comic strips featuring mail carriers, a collection of stamps on the theme of map projection and a Swedish post horn.
posted by Kattullus on Jan 11, 2007 - 10 comments

Pork flavored stamp. In celebration of the Year of the Pig, China is releasing a stamp that smells (when scratched) and tastes (when licked) of sweet-and-sour pork. I thought this was a pretty innovative idea for a stamp. But it's not new. A few more examples (scroll down to "scratch-and-sniff").
posted by ObscureReferenceMan on Jan 11, 2007 - 25 comments

The Sheep Market -- 10,000 sheep drawn by online workers. Or, if you prefer to be out of step.
posted by OmieWise on May 24, 2006 - 31 comments

39¢ Heroes. On January 8, the price of a First Class US Postage Stamp will creep up another two cents. But fear not, True Believers, because 20 of those new stamps will feature costumed crusaders from DC Comics "including Superman, Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, Batman, Green Arrow and many more." (Newsarama has more on the story, including the featured cover images for each hero.)
posted by grabbingsand on Nov 30, 2005 - 33 comments

Still going: jazz pianist Oscar Peterson celebrated his 80th birthday on Monday, with a rare treat. The veteran jazz musician is the first living Canadian to be honored with a commemorative postage stamp.
posted by Smart Dalek on Aug 17, 2005 - 12 comments

Postage stamps with a side of race baiting. The Mexican postal service released a series of five stamps today featuring a 1940's era cartoon of a fat lipped jug eared negro child, known for his hapless adventures, and his Aunt Jemima (classic edition, not modern sassy Jemima) mother.
posted by jonson on Jun 29, 2005 - 28 comments

How Marvel convinced us to cut up our comics “The program destroyed the value of countless Marvel comics of this era, and missing value stamps are the bane of serious Bronze Age collectors.”
¶ I was ten years old and I collected all 100 Series A Marvel Value Stamps, so I totally grooved on this remarkably comprehensive site. Ironically, the coolest artifacts are the empty collector’s books, which show off the artwork best, in glorius black & white & red, without the crappy colour printing of the era.
posted by KS on Jun 7, 2005 - 5 comments

The US Postal Service has issued a series of postage stamps honoring great American scientists including: Josiah Willard Gibbs, thermodynamicist best known for the Gibbs Phase Rule; Barbara McClintock, geneticist who showed genes could transpose within chromosomes; John von Neumann, mathematician who made significant contributions in game theory and computer science; and Richard Feynman, infamous physicist best remembered for his work on quantum electrodynamics, the Manhattan Project, Feynman Diagrams, and his testimony at the Space Shuttle Challenger hearings.
posted by chicken nuglet on May 27, 2005 - 15 comments

Collect Britain 'presents 90,000 images and sounds from the British Library, chosen to evoke places in the UK and beyond.' Dialects, gardens, sketches, stamps, and all kinds of stuff.
posted by plep on Mar 4, 2005 - 4 comments

Like most people who love mythical creatures (cryptozoology), I also collect stamps (philately). At last, someone has combined these twin fetishes in one easily displayed fashion. My favorites include the Loch Ness Monster and his ancient cousin the Kraken, especially these two which feature a guest appearance by Mickey Mouse.
posted by jonson on Dec 29, 2004 - 23 comments

Dear MEFI, I just love Alphabetilately, and I think you will too! Yours sincerely, taz.
posted by taz on Sep 17, 2004 - 19 comments

Bill Gates proposes an end to free email
If the U.S. Postal Service delivered mail for free, our mailboxes would surely runneth over with more credit-card offers, sweepstakes entries, and supermarket fliers. That's why we get so much junk e-mail: It's essentially free to send. So Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates, among others, is now suggesting that we start buying "stamps" for e-mail.
posted by wsg on Mar 5, 2004 - 46 comments

Chinese Philately: stamps and cancellations of Imperial China.
posted by hama7 on Nov 27, 2003 - 3 comments

The stamps of Michael Hernandez de Luna and Michael Thompson have been called provocative, tongue-in-cheek, mischievous, beautiful, and/or tasteless. All have made their way through the US postal system. Work alert: I see naked people.
posted by iconomy on Jun 19, 2003 - 14 comments

Comic Strip Classics Stamps. (via Dublog).
Related :- A nice collection of exhibits at the National Postal Museum, part of the Smithsonian (such as this exhibit of Cuban stamps and this one on FDR's stamp collecting); the Bath Postal Museum of British postal history; stamps of Greenland; stamps of Tibet.
posted by plep on May 23, 2003 - 2 comments

Theme Birds on Stamps listed by country, and more.
posted by hama7 on May 20, 2003 - 7 comments

Fatherland or Motherland.I was wondering why people say Motherland for Russia and Fatherland for Germany.I googled and didn't find an answer but did find an artistamp exhibit that artistically tried to answer the question.1,2,3,4.And at the same site found a collection of other cool artistamps.1,2,3,4. And also found a neat gallery of cigarette packages from around the world.But my question still remains to be answered.(Oh,who cares,Motherland is where the vodka is.)
posted by JohnR on May 5, 2003 - 19 comments

The Colorful Past of US Tax Finished your return? Then spend a few minutes contemplating historical revenue stamps for a wide variety of consumer goods (my favorite stamp scans are for beer, matches, medicine bottles, and motor vehicles). A separate page offers the history of the subset of proprietary die or "match and medicine" stamps, and provides scans of stamps for canned fruit, playing cards, and perfume. Finish up with a look at "taxpaids" like cotton, oleomargarine, and ale.
posted by clever sheep on Apr 15, 2003 - 5 comments

If you're of a certain age, you will easily recognize the sign. Warhol made art out of them. Many families whiled away lazy rainy days licking them. Despite being one of the most dominant forces in cosumer's lives during the middle of the 20th century, the 80s saw them fade away, and eventually disappeared entirely just this year. Since 1999, though, they've been back, albeit in virtual form. You might even still be able to redeem your old stamps! Let's fondly remember the most successful implementation of the granddaddy of all today's shopping 'reward' programs...S&H Green Stamps!
posted by WolfDaddy on Apr 14, 2003 - 7 comments

The Postage Stamps of Donald Evans (scroll down a paragraph or two) A rich and complex internal world expressed through postage stamp art.
'When Donald Evans (born Morristown, New Jersey USA in 1945) was a boy, he drifted from his hobby of collecting postage stamps to creating his own postage stamps of countries he made up in his imagination ... He left behind an astonishing planet seen through its nations' postage stamps, thousands of them, all drawn to postage-stamp size, with all the familiar periphery of postage stamps hand-done ... '
posted by plep on Oct 28, 2002 - 18 comments

New York company designs and produces 65% [bottom of page] of the worlds stamps. Their job includes making and promoting tacky "topicals" that will earn a few bucks for countries cashing in on the desire for collectibles. But thank god really because now we can enjoy Baywatch and David Copperfield stamps as well as the country of Mordovia's view on Clinton's impeachment plus many more. Here's the story of how Seattle writer Charles Johnson ended up on a stamp in Ghana.
posted by meech on Oct 7, 2002 - 16 comments