2021 year in review and looking ahead

This post may be a few days late, but I’ve been thinking about 2021 and although it probably wasn’t my most active year in stamp collecting or where Philosateleia is concerned, there were definitely some highlights:

• I continued zeroing in on what I’ve adopted as my specialty: solo uses of the 14¢ American Indian stamp. These are not common at all, but I was able to acquire no fewer than five —four commercial, one philatelic—for my collection. I’m still a long way off from having enough examples to put together even a single-frame exhibit, but maybe one day.
• With a narrower focus, I also spent some time clearing out material that no longer falls within the scope of my collection. Unrelated covers and duplicates that I don’t need? Some of those have ended up as Philosateleian Post Horn giveaways, while I’ve listed others on eBay or in my own online shop. There’s still much to do, but it feels good to clear some things away.
• Philosateleian Post issued its 40th different local post stamp last January and is up to 42 as of the beginning of this year. I never seem to get tired of “playing postmaster”!
• I also wrote my 500th blog post last year. I’m not the most frequent of posters, but I’ve been at this for a while now, and the posts add up over time.

As for this year? A couple of things I’d like to do include:

• Processing more of the pile of unsorted landscape stamps I’ve accumulated into my collection. I created a few landscape album pages in 2021, but not nearly as many as I would have liked. Hopefully I’ll be able to make more progress on that project this year.
• Continuing to expand The Philosateleian U.S. Stamp Album with additional pages for fiscal stamps. I don’t think there’s anywhere close to the same amount of demand for revenue stamp album pages as there is for postage stamp album pages, but I like to give you as many options as possible.

Published 2022-01-03