Andrew Turngren

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Austria Featured

State of the Collection - July 2024

Almost a year.  Almost a year since my last article.  I've been busy!  Should I feel guilty?  I don't think so, it is my pet fun project after all.  Life has been very busy and my stamps are now splitting time with collecting records and CDs,

Austria

Using a Microscope to Identify Austria's National Costume Series

Wow...3 months have flown by.  No articles for 3 months...I've been busy.  Part of the delay however was that I discovered after beginning this article that it was going to be a completely different article than I had originally intended...you'll see why below.

Collection

Research Swap with Mike at Feature Philately

Mike at the Feature Philately YouTube channel reached out to me and suggested doing a research swap.   He is a specialist in Bulgarian items, so he sent me a large packet of Bulgarian material, and I sent him some interesting Austrian stuff.  He will be releasing a video on his

Uncategorized

Come Join Philately's Corner of the Fediverse

As a few of you might have noticed, I haven't updated the Turngren Philately Twitter account in a while, and that's because I've been spending a lot of time on Mastodon. I'll probably be locking or deleting the Twitter account soon. Twitter

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Looking for Help - Unidentified Postmark or Overprint

Here's an interesting pair of stamps that I found while sorting through some unfiled Austrian stuff. My first thought was "that's an interesting color for a cancel," but upon closer examination this isn't something I've ever seen. After closer inspection,

Canada

A Wonderful Packet from Foxridge Philately

Once again, life has gotten in the way — and it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. I didn’t want to let this one wait any longer. Jeff at Fox Ridge Philately sent me a wonderful packet of goodies! I’ve gone through and identified almost all

Tools

The [Mostly] Foolproof Guide to Soaking [Most] Stamps

There are plenty of instructions online for soaking stamps — and it doesn’t take a lot of research or any kind of special products to sort them. Some people use newsprint for drying and pressing, others use a range of plenty of other methods. My goal is not to write

Austria

Austrian Cover Featuring Reich Obliteration Series (Stampex Purchase)

The above cover is the first post-war obliterated Reich stamp cover I’ve ever purchased (I did get another at Stampex as well). This series of stamps were issued immediately after WWII — the postal authority used the existing stock of Reich stamps and obliterated Hitler’s face (as well as

News

London Stampex 2022 and the Postal Museum

I just got back from London — and what a whirlwind it was. I was able to time a trip with my wife to coincide with Stampex, and thankfully she was willing to spend the better part of a day by herself in London.  I arrived at the Business Design Centre

Bosnia

Forgery? Reprint? Other? The Bosnian Oddity

I have been going through and cataloguing my Bosnia-Herzegovina material lately. This mostly isn’t material that I’ve gone out of my way to get, but rather stuff that would be in the back of other Austria collections that I’ve broken down. I think there’s a single

Collection

State of the Collection - September 2022

It’s already been 5 months!  Time flies, and it keeps getting faster.  I’ve been busy with life in general, but I’ve also been busy with my stamps.  I’ll round out the highlights below. Worldwide Material Probably the biggest accomplishment over the last several months was finally

News

CHARPEX! Also, How to Lose Customers as a Dealer

CHARPEX was this weekend! I enjoyed roaming around and visiting the dealers, several of which I bought from.  All but one were exceptionally nice and helpful (more on that below), and it’s always fun to view material in person as opposed to on a computer screen. I will, of

Collection

The Intriguing Covers of Hideaki Nakano

Hideaki Nakano is (was? — keep reading to see why that’s a question) a cachet cover artist that has done some really interesting and different covers.  I’ve been struggling to find more detailed information on him via a few cursory searches, but I will continue to search…I’ve

Austria

An Austrian FDC That Doesn't Make Sense

I received some unexpected advertising and an order form from the folks at  Active Intermedia (the folks who publish the wonderful Austria Netto Katalog) and it arrived on the below cover — which is puzzling. On the back, there is some more information in three languages: But back to the front.

Canada

Muddy Waters? This Stamp Lacks the Blue(s)

There are 4 distinct shades of the Map imperfs — lavender, grey, pale blue and deep blue; 600 pairs are thought to exist. The so-called muddy water variety is a colour changeling caused by oxidation and is NOT a printing variety. This is a note in the Unitrade Canada specialized catalog

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Woe Be Unto the Scott Catalog

The more I deal with catalogs (especially specialized catalogs) from other countries, the more I get frustrated with the Scott Catalog.  I think my biggest source of frustration are the pictures, or lack thereof. I understand that there’s not room to print a picture of every single type of

Tools

Using a Watermark Detector

My Experience with the Stanley Gibbons Spectrum Watermark Detector For someone who isn’t a big fan of dealing with watermarks, this detector — while imperfect — is a nice tool to have on hand. I got this about a year ago, and it is my go-to when I’m dealing with

Austria

Austrian Parcel Post Receipts - Istanbul or Constantinople?

These are some of my favorite pieces.  These vary in date, but display several stamps from late in the Franz Joseph reign.  All three are to Istanbul, but it is curious that some of them have both “Istanbul” and “Constantinople” written on them.  I’m not sure exactly when the

Collection

State of the Collection - April 2022

So I have a ton of work on my hands.  I’ve been scooping up material that I find interesting as well as bulk items that I feel like I’m getting a good deal on…  I should really set a moratorium on new purchases until everything I have is

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My Family in Philately

I never knew my grandfather was a stamp collector. Ok, so maybe that isn’t totally accurate. I vaguely remember him giving me a bunch of stamps and some tongs as a young kid…but I had no interest. I was too busy playing DOOM and playing around with Windows

News

Site Launch

This is a new experience for me. But I thought it might be worthwhile.  This will be (hopefully) a documentation of my journey with stamps, and — hopefully — will be useful to others. I am not an expert.  I am not trying to use this site to make money.  I am