Introducing Steve Radell

[SteveRadell]

Hello from Los Angeles California, USA.

I have been collecting worldwide stamps and enjoying them since 1976. I narrowed which countries by 1980.
I have always collected Australia and the states, but didn't have too many of the states until really starting to acquire material in 1998.
I started building an interest in Tasmania when acquiring a pound of 1980's Australia on paper - and noticed several had Tasmania town cancels. That seemed unusual to me so I deferred soaking until I had learned more, which took a few years.

I also like platypus as an unusual animal, and Australia was a place my father wished to visit and was his dying words.

I started by looking at Tasmania with google earth, closer and closer to determine biggest than smaller towns. Then a dealer friend of mine provided me with a printed list of the 1986 Lancaster towns (pictorials) late 2009, and then the flood began. The box wasn't much more than Hobart and Launceston, but I had found a passion.

I found an Australian dealer and a major collector at a show in Jan 2010 to learn the types, general values etc. and picked up a half dozen decent cancels including 4 'R' rateds. A year later I have reached half (and many dupes), thanks to mainly Aussies on ebay. My best now is a King River (RRR - any exact population #?). I have submitted an article to the APS, it may take another year to get to print.

In the meantime, I need to learn the types beyond Lancaster (Hobart, Launceston, Strahan, Zeehan, loose ship etc.) so I am happy to find this group. I have only been as close as Hawaii to Australia, but I hope maybe someday I will get to visit.

I grew up in Henrietta, New York - so I would like to get a Henrietta Tasmania pictorial cancel, perhaps someone can help.

Thank you,

Steve Radell

PS - sometimes I'm not brief. I also avidly collect Tannu Tuva, which in many albums has Tasmania on the back.

[admin]

Hi Steve,
great to have you as a member of the TPS bulletin Board.
If you haven't found it, you might like to check the Tas Philatelic Society Web site for reference material about Tasmania http://www.tps.org.au
If you look at the resource page you will find some useful stuff.
We have also recently published an Index for the TPS Journal, The Courier here; http://www.tps.org.au/PDFs/Cumulative%2 ... ourier.pdf
I should also mention that the latest Courier, special edition # 50, has recently been published - 48 pages in colour. I should be putting something on our website shortly about the latest Courier, plus an article from No50 .
You'll find there are people here who can answer most questions so please feel free to ask or contribute.
You may even find its worth joining the TPS - for $30 per year you get two copies of the Journal plus access to the Member's site which has more articles and the census of CDS on Pictorial, at least 2/3 of the 3R and 4R strikes are so far listed.
You also asked about King River. It seems it was too small to be counted in the Australian Census of 1911, which means it probably had a population of less than 100 people - thats about all I can find having been through the Tasmanian archives a couple of years ago .
Hope you enjoy the bulletin Board.

Pete