Download or read book The One Cent Magenta written by James Barron and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2017-05-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it was issued in 1856, it cost a penny. When it was sold at Sotheby’s in 2014, the tiny square of faded red paper known as the one-cent magenta cost nearly $US9.5 million, making it the world’s most valuable object by weight. Printed in what was then British Guiana, one-cent magentas were provisional stamps intended for local newspapers. Most were later thrown out, but one survived. Discovered by a young boy in 1873, the stamp has since been through the hands of nine fanatical owners including an Australian-born engineer, a convicted murderer, and a fabulously wealthy Frenchman who hid it from view (not even King George V of England could get a peek). The One-Cent Magenta weaves a fascinating tale of obsession to own the world’s most fragile treasure, and the extraordinary characters who have loved and lost it.
Download or read book The One Cent Magenta written by James Barron and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inside look at the obsessive, secretive, and often bizarre world of high-profile stamp collecting, told through the journey of the world’s most sought-after stamp. When it was issued in 1856, it cost a penny. In 2014, this tiny square of faded red paper sold at Sotheby’s for nearly $9.5 million, the largest amount ever paid for a postage stamp at auction. Through the stories of the eccentric characters who have bought, owned, and sold the one-cent magenta in the years in between, James Barron delivers a fascinating tale of global history and immense wealth, and of the human desire to collect. One-cent magentas were provisional stamps, printed quickly in what was then British Guiana when a shipment of official stamps from London did not arrive. They were intended for periodicals, and most were thrown out with the newspapers. But one stamp survived. The singular one-cent magenta has had only nine owners since a twelve-year-old boy discovered it in 1873 as he sorted through papers in his uncle’s house. He soon sold it for what would be $17 today. (That’s been called the worst stamp deal in history.) Among later owners was a fabulously wealthy Frenchman who hid the stamp from almost everyone (even King George V of England couldn’t get a peek); a businessman who traveled with the stamp in a briefcase he handcuffed to his wrist; and John E. du Pont, an heir to the chemical fortune, who died while serving a thirty-year sentence for the murder of Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz. Recommended for fans of Nicholas A. Basbanes, Susan Orlean, and Simon Winchester, The One-Cent Magenta explores the intersection of obsessive pursuits and great affluence and asks why we want most what is most rare.
Download or read book Every Stamp Tells a Story written by Cheryl Ganz and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every stamp and piece of mail tells a story. In fact, each often tells multiple stories, ranging from concept to art design to production to usage, often with tales of politics, history, technology, biography, genealogy, economics, geography, disaster, and triumph. The lens of philately offers a fresh and engaging story of American history, culture, and identity, and it can also help deepen the understanding of world cultures. The William H. Gross Stamp Gallery, opened at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in September 2013, has many such stories to tell. Chief philately curator Cheryl R. Ganz guides readers through some of the gallery's nearly 20,000 objects that together illustrate the history of our nation's postal operations and postage stamps.
Download or read book An Unbroken Agony written by Randall Robinson and published by Basic Civitas Books. This book was released on 2008-05-06 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On February 29, 2004, the first democratically elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was forced to leave his country. The president was kidnapped, along with his Haitian-American wife, by American soldiers and flown to the isolated Central African Republic. In An Unbroken Agony, best-selling author and social justice advocate Randall Robinson chronicles his own cross-Atlantic journey to rescue the Haitian president from captivity in Africa while also connecting the fate of Aristide’s presidency to the Haitian people’s century-long quest for self-determination.
Download or read book The Philatelic World written by and published by . This book was released on 1884 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The One cent Magenta written by James Barron and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inside look at the obsessive, secretive, and often bizarre world of high-profile stamp collecting, told through the journey of the world's most sought-after stamp. When it was issued in 1856, it cost a penny. In 2014, this tiny square of faded red paper sold at Sotheby's for nearly $9.5 million, the largest amount ever paid for a postage stamp at auction. Through the stories of the eccentric characters who have bought, owned, and sold the one-cent magenta in the years in between, James Barron delivers a fascinating tale of global history and immense wealth, and of the human desire to collect. One-cent magentas were provisional stamps, printed quickly in what was then British Guiana when a shipment of official stamps from London did not arrive. They were intended for periodicals, and most were thrown out with the newspapers. But one stamp survived. The singular one-cent magenta has had only nine owners since a twelve-year-old boy discovered it in 1873 as he sorted through papers in his uncle's house. He soon sold it for what would be $17 today. (That's been called the worst stamp deal in history.) Among later owners was a fabulously wealthy Frenchman who hid the stamp from almost everyone (even King George V of England couldn't get a peek); a businessman who traveled with the stamp in a briefcase he handcuffed to his wrist; and John E. du Pont, an heir to the chemical fortune, who died while serving a thirty-year sentence for the murder of Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz. Recommended for fans of Nicholas A. Basbanes, Susan Orlean, and Simon Winchester, The One-Cent Magenta explores the intersection of obsessive pursuits and great affluence and asks why we want most what is most rare.
Download or read book Proustian Uncertainties written by Saul Friedländer and published by Other Press, LLC. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named a Times Literary Supplement Best Book of the Year A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian revisits Marcel Proust’s masterpiece in this essay on literature and memory, exploring the question of identity—that of the novel’s narrator and Proust’s own. This engaging reexamination of In Search of Lost Time considers how the narrator defines himself, how this compares to what we know of Proust himself, and what the significance is of these various points of commonality and divergence. We know, for example, that the author did not hide his homosexuality, but the narrator did. Why the difference? We know that the narrator tried to marginalize his part-Jewish background. Does this reflect the author’s position, and how does the narrator handle what he tries, but does not manage, to dismiss? These are major questions raised by the text and reflected in the text, to which the author’s life doesn’t give obvious answers. The narrator’s reflections on time, on death, on memory, and on love are as many paths leading to the image of self that he projects. In Proustian Uncertainties, Saul Friedländer draws on his personal experience from a life spent investigating the ties between history and memory to offer a fresh perspective on the seminal work.
Download or read book Broken Glass written by Alex Beam and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of the intimate relationship that gave birth to the Farnsworth House, a masterpiece of twentieth-century architecture—and disintegrated into a bitter feud over love, money, gender, and the very nature of art. “An intimate portrait . . . alive with architectural intrigue.”—Architect Magazine In 1945, Edith Farnsworth asked the German architect Mies van der Rohe, already renowned for his avant-garde buildings, to design a weekend home for her outside of Chicago. Edith was a woman ahead of her time—unmarried, she was a distinguished medical researcher, as well as an accomplished violinist, translator, and poet. The two quickly began spending weekends together, talking philosophy, Catholic mysticism, and, of course, architecture over wine-soaked picnic lunches. Their personal and professional collaboration would produce the Farnsworth House, one of the most important works of architecture of all time, a blindingly original structure made up almost entirely of glass and steel. But the minimalist marvel, built in 1951, was plagued by cost overruns and a sudden chilling of the two friends’ mutual affection. Though the building became world famous, Edith found it impossible to live in, because of its constant leaks, flooding, and complete lack of privacy. Alienated and aggrieved, she lent her name to a public campaign against Mies, cheered on by Frank Lloyd Wright. Mies, in turn, sued her for unpaid monies. The ensuing lengthy trial heard evidence of purported incompetence by an acclaimed architect, and allegations of psychological cruelty and emotional trauma. A commercial dispute litigated in a rural Illinois courthouse became a trial of modernist art and architecture itself. Interweaving personal drama and cultural history, Alex Beam presents a stylish, enthralling narrative tapestry, illuminating the fascinating history behind one of the twentieth century’s most beautiful and significant architectural projects.
Download or read book Blue Mauritius written by Helen Morgan and published by Atlantic Books Ltd. This book was released on 2015-06-04 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In September 1847 coloured squares of paper were stuck to envelopes and used to send out admission cards to a fancy-dress ball on the tropical island of Mauritius. No-one at the party would have guessed that the envelopes bearing these stamps would one day be worth more than a million dollars. When a two pence 'Blue Mauritius' surfaced on the fledgling French stamp-collecting market in 1865 it gained instant celebrity. Then in 1903, when a perfect specimen, discovered in a childhood album, was bought at auction by the Prince of Wales, the Blue Mauritius gained super-star status. Even now, the stamps of 'Post Office Mauritius' remain synonymous with fame, wealth and mystery. Helen Morgan tells the fascinating story of the most coveted scraps of paper in existence, from Mauritius' Port Louis to Bordeaux, India and Great Britain, Switzerland and Japan, into the fantasies and imagination of stamp collectors everywhere.
Download or read book Well Spent written by Mr.Gerd Schwartz and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on the Fund’s analytical and capacity development work, including Public Investment Management Assessments (PIMAs) carried out in more than 60 countries, the new book Well Spent: How Strong Infrastructure Governance Can End Waste in Public Investment will address how countries can attain quality infrastructure outcomes through better infrastructure governance—an issue becoming increasingly important in the context of the Great Lockdown and its economic consequences. It covers critical issues such as infrastructure investment and Sustainable Development Goals, controlling corruption, managing fiscal risks, integrating planning and budgeting, and identifying best practices in project appraisal and selection. It also covers emerging areas in infrastructure governance, such as maintaining and managing public infrastructure assets and building resilience against climate change.
Download or read book British and Commonwealth Revenue Stamps written by Martin P Nicholson and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-03-19 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I have been a stamp collector for over 40 years, a postal historian and a philatelist for about 15 of those years and a specialist collector of revenue stamps and documents for the last 5 years. I've been a member of some the most friendly and well-run groups you could ever imagine – the State Revenue Society and the American Philatelic Society are both examples of best practice – and I even flirted briefly with philatelic exhibiting.Despite having served such a lengthy apprenticeship I still don't have an answer to a really basic question: "Why are postage stamps catalogued, collected and researched with so much more energy and enthusiasm than revenue stamps?"There are many countries where there doesn't seems to be a reliable and up-to-date catalogue of revenue stamps – certainly not one accessible to a virtual monoglot such as myself. I think it comes down to what I call “critical mass”. Without enough revenue stamp collectors it is hard for dealers to establish a viable business but without dealers generating catalogues and generally raising the profile of this branch of the hobby I suspect that prospective revenue stamp collectors tend to wander off into the sunset searching for easier pickings.The Revenue Society has defined revenue stamps as " ...stamps, whether impressed, adhesive or otherwise, issued by or on behalf of International, National or Local Governments, their Licensees or Agents, and indicate that a tax, duty or fee has been paid or prepaid or that permission has been granted."This small study is intended to bring to the attention of the collecting public the sheer diversity of revenue stamps.
Download or read book 100 Greatest American Stamps written by Janet Klug and published by Whitman Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Moneystamps written by Richard Lehmann and published by . This book was released on 2020-01-11 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides convincing facts and arguments as to why stamps truly are the ultimate safe-haven asset and then gives you actionable information on individual stamps to get started. The term moneystamps is used to differentiate the ten percent of stamps which have true investment potential from the ninety percent which are of interest only to postage stamp collectors. Stamps' ability to serve a diversity of needs combined with their fixed supply quantities gives them a broad appeal, stability and ever rising value. In securities' evaluation, financial metrics have been developed to help make rational choices.
Download or read book The One Cent Magenta written by James Barron and published by . This book was released on 2017-05 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it was issued in 1856, it cost a penny. When it was sold at Sotheby's in 2014, the tiny square of faded red paper known as the one-cent magenta cost nearly $US9.5 million, making it the world's most valuable object by weight. Printed in what was then British Guiana, one-cent magentas were provisional stamps intended for local newspapers. Most were later thrown out, but one survived. Discovered by a young boy in 1873, the stamp has since been through the hands of nine fanatical owners including an Australian-born engineer, a convicted murderer, and a fabulously wealthy Frenchman who hid it from view (not even King George V of England could get a peek). The One-Cent Magenta weaves a fascinating tale of obsession to own the world's most fragile treasure, and the extraordinary characters who have loved and lost it.
Download or read book The Postage Stamps and Postal History of British Guiana written by William Augustus Townsend and published by . This book was released on 1970 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Guyana / Demerara / Georgetown / airmail service B1927- / inland post / postal rates B1850- / post offices.
Download or read book The Queen s Stamps written by Nicholas Courtney and published by Methuen Pub Limited. This book was released on 2014-12-01 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first and definitive history of the finest stamp collection in the world, now in paperback with a new index and epilogue This elegant book is the definitive account of one of the world's most important and extensive stamp collections, and the monarchs and keepers who have contributed to it. Inaugurated by Queen Victoria, and enlarged by five successive British monarchs, the main body of the Collection came into being under George V, whose passionate and shrewd acquisition of many other private collections has ensured the unique and comprehensive character of his own. This is a story told through the stamps themselves, many of the most famous of which are produced here in full color, as well as through astonishing anecdotes featuring the kings, queens, and courtiers who brought them together. This informative, surprising, highly illustrated volume is written to appeal to the general reader with an interest in Royal history, as well as to the specialist enthusiast.
Download or read book Stanley Gibbons Catalogue written by STANLEY GIBBONS and published by . This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
