Sorting Stamps

Last weekend, my sister gifted me with several bags of postage stamps she had won in an online auction (thanks, Janine!!!).  

Once all the bags were emptied into one container, it added up to be a shoe box full!

I have spent a couple of hours sorting through them while watching TV this week.  By far, the greatest number of them are from Germany and I would say Canada and Portugal are tied for second and third place.  There are also a handful of stamps from the U.S, England and France and one or two from various other countries around the world.

There are several Canadian stamps I have never even seen before, most of them dating from the late 1980's (I know this because I looked up Canadian postage rates and found this great source. I can still remember the outcry in late 1981 when the cost of a stamp almost doubled from 17 cents to 30 cents!!)  My favourite so far is this postage stamp of Toronto. Unfortunately the postmark is masking most of the stamp but you can still tell it is a view of the downtown skyline and a little bit of the lakefront.  The 43 cent denomination dates it between 1993 and 1995.

Not sure what I'll do with all these stamps once I get them sorted.  Each one is a small work of art and now I have dozens of certain ones and only one or two of others.  Some will definitely make it into my art journals.  Stay tuned!

Day 94/100 - #100dayproject