Airmails and Ducks
Like everyone else, I collected stamps as a kid. I went through a phase where I collected United Nations, British Colonies, and Israel (with tabs). Eventually I sold all those and concentrated on Federal Duck Stamps and U.S. Airmails. My father was an avid duck hunter. For some reason, he never signed his stamps, which is a violation. At the end of each season, he gave his stamps to my uncle Dick, who was a collector. When I expressed interest in starting a duck collection, I became the recipient of my father's annual stamps. In 1973, Dick was kind enough to give me all the stamps he had – I was on my way. At that time Macy's, in New York City, had a stamp department. I bought several stamps from them. I bought RW1 and RW2 (see below) from Russ Bell in California. By 1979 I was caught up enough to continue my collection from the Federal Duck Stamp Office and the U.S.P.S. At some point, my son will be the 3rd generation of duck collectors in the family. The Jeanette C. Rudy Duck Stamp collection can be seen by clicking here.
My interest in U.S. Airmails began in 1975, when a co-worker introduced me to a friend of hers who was selling his U.S. stamp collection. I bought all his airmails. I also bought a lot of airmails from the now-defunct American Airpost Company. A ton of other dealers helped me round out my collection. Pictured above is C3, the first U.S. airmail stamp, issued on May 15th, 1918. I also got hooked on souvenir cards when collecting them was "the thing to do". When I became interested in baseball cards in 1980, my interest in stamps began to wane, although I have kept up with any new issues that come out.
I sold all my airmail stamps and Souvenir Cards on October 6, 2008.
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RW1 |
RW2 |
A.N.A. 1972 |