Update and Upcoming New Series of Posts NEW ISSUES OF THE WORLD

Been away working on my Australia collection, have finished the data entry into Stamp Mate for the Commonwealth Issues from 1913 to 1966 and now working on page designs.

On a personal note, some not so good news.  A couple years back I was diagnosed with NASH (aka Non-Alcoholic Cirrhosis of the Liver), and for the past six months I have been on the transplant list for a new liver. Overall my health had been stable, and I was a bit "below" the critical level to be at the top of the transplant list.

Then last week went to my liver doctor for routine checkup. Had blood work done.  The next day get a call from the Doctor saying I need to have an MRI done that day (never a good sign).  Had the MRI, and the next day get the results back - they have found small tumors in my liver.  At this point they do not seem malignant, but their existence means I will now be more highly ranked for liver transplant. Doctors now saying the transplant will be in a few weeks, whereas before they were saying a few months.  I am now on Medical leave from work, and for now I am hanging in there pretty well, just waiting for "The Call" to get my liver transplant.  The good news is that liver transplants have a 97% success rate, and as I am still youngish (46) my doctor expects me to make a full recovery after transplant. But until transplant, I am still dealing with major health issues - a lot of joint pain and fatigue being the biggest complaints I have at the moment.

But fingers crossed all will be good and I will be able to attend the APS Stampshow 2018, being held here in Columbus OH in August!  Having never been to an APS Stampshow, I am definitely going to do all I can to attend one here in my own back yard.

For more information on Stampshow 2018, check the APS webpage for Stampshow 2018 Columbus OH


As for the new series I am launching on here.  I love new issue stamps. I think for the most part stamp design over the past few years has been very good for many nations.  And the fact that postal administrations are not issuing so many copies of each stamp (many large countries issue less than 250,000 of an issue!) means to me at least that the new issues of today actually will likely retain their value much better than what happened in the 1960s to 1980s, when huge print quantities means that stamps of that era very often trade in bulk under face value. So I will be doing monthly posts for many nations showing the stamp issues they have released over the previous month. This will start in Feb 2018, and hopefully you will enjoy the posts!

I will still also be working on the My Collection series of posts, but with Australia it will be a bit before I have any part of the collection ready to post.