Galerie

My Proudest Moment in Philately, Bill Ruh.

>> I thought that the first issue of Danzig postage due stamps were a real challenge to find on cover, not having any examples, and I was very happy that it cost only $30. It was from a New York dealer I already knew, Dave Schwartz of "The Clearing House For Stamps"; he and his wife Ruth were wonderful people, but they are gone now. There were blue crayon markings on the cover, which I knew were notations for what was due, but I could not make any sense as to why the amount was so high. I had no clue about the most prominent marking, the boxed "Aus dem Briefkasten" handstamp.

The GPS convention brought all of the most knowledgeable German area collectors together in one place, and one of the best things about the convention was the GPS “Hospitality Suite", which brought them all together into one room with snacks and drinks until well after midnight. It seemed that everybody at the GPS convention had brought things with them to find out about as they showed them to everybody else, and you could learn an amazing amount about German stamps ( and a lot of other things ) if you could just keep your eyes and ears pointed in every direction at once.

There was a German named Walther Brantz who had a big mane of white hair, one leg, a dueling scar on his cheek, and an absolutely stupendous German stamp collection. In attendance with him was his curator for that stamp collection, a much respected man named Joachim Pidun. Also present was Bud Hennig, who I knew slightly from when the "Chicago Gang" would come to New York City stamp shows, and who was the world’s foremost Danzig collector as well as the most popular man in the room.
After trying to follow as many conversations as I could, I noticed that the crowd had finally given Bud a moment of peace. I said hello, and, before anyone else could interrupt, asked him if he could explain the "story" of the Danzig postage due cover I had just bought at the show. The "story" was not obvious, and as he considered what it might be, he passed the cover for comment to a few of the others who had gathered around us.
After a while Pidun came by and asked what we were all looking at. He took the cover and said something like, "This might mean that." Bud said, "No, that probably meant this, and if it didn't, how do you explain whatever?" ( This is obviously paraphrased, but I did not keep notes. ) There were other comments and ideas, but soon it was just Bud and Pidun passing the cover back and forth in the clearing at the center of the circle formed by everybody else in the room as they listened to the philatelic debate. Their analysis went on for a good twenty minutes, and it included referrals to the Michel catalog and rate tables that were offered to them by the crowd. At the end they agreed on what all the markings meant, and Bud explained it to all.

As he handed it back to me Bud said, with a smile, that "it was a very good Danzig cover", but that "it was in the wrong collection". He meant that it should have been in his own collection, and that is very high praise indeed! His comments, with the open analysis of my cover by two great experts in a room full of many other experts that preceded it, make up my proudest philatelic moment! The illustrated cover is the one, and it is special.

The cover was sent from Danzig 5 on 24 November 1922 to the Police headquarters in Danzig-Langfuhr, a suburb of the city of Danzig. From 15 November to 15 December 1922 the rate for a local letter of up to 20 grams was 2 marks, and the fee for registration was 8 marks. Only two one mark stamps were applied by the sender after he typed "Einschreiben" (Registered) on the cover along with the destination, but for >>

Danzig Report Nr. 149 - 2010, page 13.