Foreign Covers

The Blog

One-Page Exhibits

Some stamp societies invite collectors to submit one-page exhibits that are then displayed on their websites. These are noncompetitive...

Celebrating 50 Years of Airmail Service to Bermuda

Update: This post was published in First Days , July-August 2024, pp. 60-69. The layout by editor Martin Kent Miller is fantastic. The...

"First Air Mail to Arrive in New York from the East": Close But No Cigar

The cover shown in Figures 1 and 2 caught my attention when it was offered at auction in July 2023. I had heard of the recipient Edward...

Par Ballon Monte Letter from the Siege of Paris in 1870

On July 16, 1870, fearing the loss of its dominant position in continental Europe, France declared war on the North German Confederation...

Registered Cover to Germany from 1893

To streamline the complex maze of postal services for international mail, 22 countries met in 1874 to establish the General Postal Union,...

Dr. Gabriel L. Miesse’s Stampless Letter in German to Distant Relatives, 1845

In late 2022, I purchase a boxful of covers at a stamp auction. The covers were a fascinating lot dating from the mid-19th century to the...

Holes in Stamps That Are A-OK

Stamp collectors do not like stamps with imperfections, such as holes, but there is an exception and that is for stamps that purposefully...

A Lawyerly Spat from 1840 England

At the same time that Great Britain issued the first ever adhesive postage stamp (the Penny Black - see this post: A Naturalist, A Prize...

A Prize Agent, A Naturalist, and A Navy Captain: A Penny Black Story from 1840

This folded letter from 1840 Great Britain that I acquired in early 2022 for $250.00 was so interesting that I wrote a full-length that...