The Black Vault

Yeah pretty cool.

American Stamps and coinage use to be a standard of the strength of our country,and the subject matter used to be a serious and well deserved honor. Now just about anything ends up on stamps.

The hand engraved stamps are a lost art, we no longer make stamps that are a strong symbol of America. The printing methods are no longer what they were when our stamps had quality. They were engraved and contained many varieties and color variations, types, and some had secret marks in the engraving. The presses were different styles, and varieties included different perferations or some were issued without perferations, different kinds of papers, etc. Most are peel and stick like labels now, and the subject matter has gone to Novelties. They are popped out with modern printing and are just junk now.

Because of the old types of methods, collectors had to jusdge the grade of a stamp which was mainly how a design ended up centered in relation to the perferations. Some were known to be way off center, depending how the sheet fed into the press. perfectly centered stamps were a premium price vs. a design that was clearly off center. Todays presses and lazer alignments, I'm sure off centered stamps are a thing of the past. From a collectors standpoint, no 2 were ever alike, and upgrading to a better copy was always part of collecting and trading. Now everything is produced nearly exact and without variety, which was part of the hand made quality of our older stamps.

I attented a class one time about modern manufacturing, and sorry I never spoke up. the idea the the quartz crystal made japanese watchmaking something that kept perfect time, didn;t have all those moving parts, and was cheaper, therefore a much better way. They compared it to a fine made swiss watch. I thought and kept quiet, that this is the price for sacraficing another lost art in this world. we no longer need watchmakers, all we need is someone tp operate a machine that is automated to build the quartz crystals 100 time faster. Our stamps have gone the same way. We no longer have engravers, and hand operated printing processes to make what used to be an art.

Thus is the effect of progression. For better or for worse...

I can't think of a single reason why it is better. We have lost so many arts in this country, and one of them is right under your fingertips right now. The keyboard and computer have replaced the trpewrter. They were once a mechanical wonder, now replaced totally ith solid state circuit boards and microswitches. The typewriter, adding machine, and cash register have all been replaced the same way. Is it better, you decide? The world of mechanical things is going going gone with the invention of the printed circuit boards and that technology evolving into smaller and smaller technology.

At one time, families took pride in buying a family enclyclopedia for the kids to have, now who need it, they have the internet. I'm surprized the local libraries havn't gone extinct for the same reason. I prey we never reach a point of never printing hand held books over putting them on a chip to stick in the computer.

Along with the lost arts of our generation, is the trend downward in achieving and education. We becoming dumber and less capable, as proven by our American auto makers going bankrupt, outsoursing everything out of this country, and a shameful educational level compared to other countries. The average Japanese high school student is calculas level, while ours is barly beginning Algebra. Industrial Arts and fine arts programs are being dropped, but we still have a football team.

Well I agree to a point Greeney, but I don't think all of those things are a result of progression of technology. For every art lost, another emerges.

Take 3D art nowadays, that is such an indepth and personal art that I feel that it's worth it that we lose the art of collecting stamps or something similar.

It's all in the eye of the beholder.

What normal appears on your stamps then? Over here it’s simple, the queens head and then the background colour changes depending on the price of the stamp.

Computer graphics are replacing many arts in photgraphy and film. Just ask any real phtographer, who is experienced in commercial work, that the digital camera and computer enhancing have altered that business. What is the answer, abandon a craft that tool a lifetime to create, and trade it for a computer program that you can operate?

Lasher, US stamps have many fields to collect, from the everyday definiative postage, to airmail, and commerative stamps. There are also many real specialized area that include older parcel post stamps, revenues, tax stamps, Newspaper stamps, duck hunting stamps. People collect mint condition, never used stamps, where the condition of the gum is important and if it was never "hinged", meaning a attachment glue to hold the stamp in an album. People also collect stamps only for the cancellation marks which are also known and cataloged rarity.

I strayed onto a perspective of collecting, but the fact is, our symbol of strength as a county is something our stamps and money should show.

Well Greeney, in the field of 3d art. (Unlike photoshop style programs) which I am interested in, Cameras are still very important. Simply because the textures we use to make things look real have to be from real things if they are going to look convincing.

But I wasn't talking about photography programs, that's a field in itself, but similar to 3d art you need real, skilled photographers in order for it to work to it's max.

The truth of the matter is that technology evoles and so people need to evolve with it. I did the same thing in the mid 80's, when the welding world evoled into the computer world. I went back to school to learn about robotics and worked the next 20 years programing and preforming robotic welding that otherwise was done manually or with outdated automatic processes. It truely made things that were impossible the old ways, a new area to be involved in. Thankfully the art of hand welding has not become extinct as a result. When arts are totally lost, thats is when its too great of a price to pay in my opinion. But you can't stop progress you have to move with progress, or be left behind in the professional world.