Frederick Highland's 'StampWhys' series made its first appearance in Linn's Stamp News in 1999. Since then the monthly offering has grown to a collection of over seventy five articles.
This is the first installment of StampWhys, the first six published.
The series is both playful and educational --not that they are mutually exclusive! Philatelic StampWhys quizzes are designed to illustrate some aspect of the stamp collecting hobby. Topical StampWhys, on the other hand, challenge the reader to identify an odd or unusual and often humorous stamp image.
See how you fare with this set of quizzes. Others will be put up on this site in the coming months. As always, Frederick Highland invites your questions or comments. When you are done with these, proceed to StampWhys Volume II.
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We travel back to 1200 BC China and the Shang dynasty to identify this object as:
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Issued in 1953, this Egyptian stamp displays three bars masking the features of the man in the vignette. What is the term for this type of overprint?
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In 1983, Czechoslovakia issued this stamp to honor:
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A postal authority known as the "General Gouvernement" issued stamps for a
period earlier this century. Are there any clues on this stamp that hint at the
country which issued postage under this designation?
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During the 1980's the Haitian government supposedly issued a number of postage stamps reproducing the famous American bird paintings of John James Audubon.
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After a number of these items appeared on the philatelic market, the
Haitian government repudiated the items as not being valid postage stamps. Such
items as the Haitian Audubons are most accurately classified as:
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Is half a stamp better than none? It is, when it qualifies as a:
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(c) 1998-2008 Frederick Highland