Collecting Stamps

My father initiated my stamp collection when I was in grade 1 or 2. It was modest to be sure, until we met Dr. Pierce in Alberta. Dr. Pierce was a tremendous collector with lots and lots of doubles to which he gave us full access. Our collection grew quickly and broadly during my grades 4-7. It was later fostered by a friend of ours who works in a Swiss bank as the mail guy. Christian would send us envelopes full of stamps for the collection. As my interest waned in philately and was redirected to hockey cards, girls, and girls, my collection lay in boxes as it moved across the country from house to house.

My son, Blaise, is in grade 1 now. This spring I started tearing out the odd stamp from letters received (many fewer than when I was growing up!) and Blaise and I began to collect. The process involves soaking the stamps in warm water to separate them from the envelope paper, drying them, pressing them, sorting them, and finally mounting them in albums.

During our trip to New Brunswick, I rediscovered my collection as it sits at my father's house. I found some of Christian's envelopes full of stamps, ready to collect and brought them back to Alberta.

Blaise is learning a lot about countries, how to handle and soak stamps, how to discern good and fair quality stamps. He's also very patient as we haven't actually mounted any stamps as we're only about half way through soaking and sorting through them.

So, the call is out - if you have any stamps you don't want... Blaise could use them for his collection!