Hello!

As Roy mentioned below, I will be the guest blogger here at Machin Mania. I'm honored that Roy asked me, and I will try to keep to the high standards he has set.

Although Roy described some of my endeavors, I thought I should introduce myself to you. As Roy noted, I was born and live in the United States, currently in California. I've been fortunate to have been able to visit the U.K. several times, including Stamp World London 90 and The Stamp Show 2000.

I've been collecting British stamps for about 30 years. I used to have several other collections, but I've not worked on them seriously for some time, preferring to concentrate on GB. My specialty is the Machins, of course, but I collect the stamps of all reigns. I was one of the original members of the Great Britain Collectors Club, founded in 1979, and currently I am secretary-treasurer, webmaster, and columnist.

I wrote a monthly column about Great Britain philately for Linn's Stamp News for 10 years, in partnership with my good friend David Alderfer. I retired from writing the column in 2002, but David still writes it. We compiled several years of our columns and added some new content into a book titled Introduction to the Stamps of Great Britain. It is still available from Amos Press at www.amosadvantage.com (click on the link or go to the home page and search for 'rosenblum'.) I'm telling you this because I'm proud of the book, not in an effort to make money, since I don't get any royalties from it.

Roy has mentioned my web site, GBStamps.com. It includes a section that I call Machin Mania and another section that is the home of the Great Britain Collectors Club.

I do like to hear from my readers. If you have a suggestion for a topic, or a Machin-related question, please leave a comment here and I'll respond as best I can. If you disagree with something I have said, please let me know (politely!). And if you agree, please let me know as well.

--Larry