Can investing and collecting go hand-in-hand? Yes -- especially if you are collecting coins, stock certificates, bank notes, or other rare items of value. Larry Schutts, an expert in investment-related collectibles, will review items of interest from his collection and answer your questions here each week.
When I was in grade school, much of the money I made delivering the morning paper went into my stamp collection. I specialized in U.S. issues.... and what do you know? All those things I was learning about in history class were right there on the stamps, from Columbus and the Capitol Building to the U.S. Presidents and the Pony Express. I was particularly fond of the early air mail issues, because of the old flying machines and emblems they depicted. Many of them were too expensive for me then, but I bought them all about five years ago and thought it might be worthwhile to look at the value of the group as an investment vehicle.
First, some pictures. The set I'm talking about consists of the first fifteen stamps issued by the U.S. postal system specifically for the purpose of funding transport by air.
These are listed as C1 through C15, in the industry standard Scott Catalogue. C1-C3 feature a picture of the Curtiss Jenny and were used for service on a Washington-Philadelphia-New York run that began operation in 1918. The initial rate was 24 cents per ounce, requiring use of the red and blue C3. Over the next few months, that 
rate was cut to 16 cents and then to 6 cents, allowing for use of the green C2 and then the orange C1. Stamps C4-C6 were issued for transport through three cross-country postal zones established in 1924. The rate was 8 cents per ounce for each zone. The C4 carries a picture of an airplane radiator and propeller. The C5 illustrates the Air Service emblem. The C6 shows a DeHavilland biplane.
With the introduction of U.S. postage stamps in 1847 came the requirement that postmasters deface them in a way that would prevent further use. Through most of the rest of the century, regulations about how to accomplish this were rather lax and that led to a wide variety of cancellation styles. The simplest of these were strokes and characters applied by pen, but most local postal officials were more inventive. They carved number, letter, geometric and pictorial displays into the ends of cork bottle stoppers, dipped them into ink and applied "fancy cancels" to their stamps. Later in the period, commercially prepared devices made of wood, rubber and metal became available, but the tendency to use elaborate designs continued and that generated nearly fifty years worth of intriguing postal "art" work.
Clear, well-centered fancy cancel strikes are in constant demand by an active collector base and that gives many types solid investment potential. The "Kicking Mule" of C.A. Klinkner & Company experienced limited west coast use in the 1880s-90, but is highly sought after today. The example pictured is a particularly handsome specimen that cost $160 last year. Last month, it sold for $200. The stylized "Maple Leaf" of Waterbury, Connecticut postmaster John Hill is a relatively rare piece from the 1870s that fetched $50 recently. Last year, it was going for $35. Price points associated with individual pieces also depend on such issues as overall "eye appeal", but well-struck examples of scarcer cancels routinely improve in value by 10% and more per year.
In a record-setting one-day stamp auction that 
Here I am in my early 30s, already complaining about how inexpensive things used to be. While my grandparents would tell me about their 10-cent movie dates or $10,000 homes, I recall the 22-cent stamp fairly vividly (apparently, when I was born, my birth announcements could have been sent for a dime a pop). In my memory, I've seen the price of sending first-class correspondence rise from under a quarter to, as of May 14, 41 cents. In fact, rates have been hiked 13 times in 32 years. 
Why do we have a weak dollar?
Holiday hiring slow for retailers
Closing Bell: What sell-off? (AIG, ABK, EPR, MBI, JAVA, ORCL, ERTS)
