Stamp Collecting

ARI

A receipt that Charles Sures prepared for Ayn Rand, 1973 Charles, at the U.S. Post Office ceremony introducing the Ayn Rand stamp, you gave a short speech about stamp collecting with Miss Rand. Did she get you interested in stamps and collecting?

CHARLES

Actually, she revived my interest in stamps with the article she wrote for the Minkus Stamp Journal in 1971—“Why I Like Stamp Collecting.”¹ It got me into collecting stamps again, instead of just accumulating them.

ARI

How do you mean?

CHARLES

Until I read that article, I had the mistaken notion that stamp collecting was a nonintellectual endeavor for children. I had a stamp collection when I was a child, but over the years I drifted away from organized collecting habits. I stopped putting stamps into albums. I had a box in which I put the stamps I liked personally, that’s all. Then I read the article and my return to collecting began. She explained the many ways in which that hobby was a legitimate intellectual and enjoyable pursuit for an adult. It liberated me, and opened up a world of pleasure.

ARI

How did you get involved with stamp collecting with Miss Rand?

CHARLES

It was gradual. My intent was to collect the dozen or so of her favorite stamps that were illustrated in the article, and to do no more than that. But once I had collected her page of stamps, I was completely in thrall. When I told her what I had done, she was delighted and encouraged me to continue. Soon after that, we became fellow collectors, in earnest.

ARI

What did this involve?

CHARLES

One project involved a collection I had purchased at an estate sale—twenty stamp albums, each album of a different country, about 20,000 stamps in all. I got it at a very good price. Actually, I didn’t get it for myself. I bought it so she and I could have some fun with it. She collected worldwide, I only collected American, so it suited her interests.

ARI

Did she buy them from you?

CHARLES

Individual stamps, yes, but not whole albums. Our agreement was that I would deliver a few albums to her, she would select the stamps she needed, and I would then take back these albums and replace them with a few more. This went on for about a year and a half. She was scrupulous about keeping records and paying me for the stamps she bought. She carefully marked which stamps she had taken, or made a list. I kept a running account of what she owed me and would bill her from time to time.

ARI

How did you arrive at the price?

CHARLES

We agreed on two cents a stamp, as a general rule, based on what I had paid for the collection. But if we thought that the value of a particular stamp was significantly higher, she used the catalog value as a guide to decide upon a price higher than two cents.

It was a real bargain, the way I figured it. I broke even on the investment except for the million bucks worth of pleasure I got from our discussions and negotiations, and from knowing that I helped her acquire about fifteen hundred stamps for her collection.

ARI

How large was her collection?

CHARLES

By 1974 she had about 45,000 stamps, all of which she knew from memory. She was phenomenal in that regard. She knew exactly what she owned, and she never mistakenly bought a duplicate. She kept an exact count of her collection, and whenever I asked she had a figure at hand. The last count was something more than 52,000 stamps. It was a worldwide collection, but she would not, and did not, collect stamps from communist countries.

ARI

Was her collection distinguished in any particular way?

CHARLES

Yes and no. It was not unique, but it was vast. In terms of size, it was out of the ordinary. And it was so well kept it was a pleasure to casually leaf through it. But it was not particularly valuable, which resulted from her approach to stamp collecting.

ARI

What was that?

CHARLES

She did not collect for investment, as some philatelists do. They insist on the best quality and they search for rare stamps, all with the expectation that the value of the collection will increase. Ayn collected for keeps and never intended to sell. She was not a stickler for perfect quality in stamps, but they had to be more than merely presentable. They had to be good-looking and above-average quality—not faded or torn. She acquired both unused and used stamps, but she preferred the unused ones.

When she first started filling up albums, she attached the stamps to an album page with special hinges that required physically gluing the stamps to the page. Later, she used mounts which held the stamps securely in place without gluing. This practice preserved the mint condition of unused stamps. Like all dedicated stamp collectors, she was concerned with preserving and presenting her collection in the best, most attractive way possible. She was very proud of it. If she had added many new stamps to an album, or if she had completed a page, she brought it out to show me. She never tired of going through an album and commenting on particular stamps. Her enthusiasm never waned.

ARI

Besides the twenty albums, did you help her acquire other stamps?

CHARLES

Sure. I attended more stamp shows than she did, and before I went to one, I would check in with her to see if there was anything she wanted. She would give me a list of stamps she needed and the price range for each one. I made a number of purchases for her over the years and kept up the accounting. There were times when I purchased a stamp she didn’t have and which a good collection should have, but which was expensive. I would tell her that if she didn’t want it, I would keep it in my collection. I meant it, even though the stamp was a duplicate of one I owned. But she always bought it.

ARI

Did you give her any stamps as gifts?

CHARLES

Yes, but at her insistence we agreed that I could not spend more than two dollars on a stamp gift for her. As a general rule, Ayn did not like to receive gifts from admirers, and it was her policy to return a gift if she had not met the person or knew that person only casually. She said that accepting a gift created an implied obligation upon her to reciprocate, and she thought it an “enormous”—one of her favorite adjectives—presumption, especially if she had not met the person sending the gift.

ARI

So accepting two-dollar stamp gifts from you was an exception?

CHARLES

A very happy exception. And it was one way of reciprocating for the times I stayed overnight at the O’Connors’ when in town for a stamp show or other business.

ARI

We’ll have to talk about those overnighters. But, first, tell me about Miss Rand and the stamp shows.

CHARLES

There were two large shows in New York City, one in the spring and one in the fall, and we tried to make it to at least one of them, and some years we went to both. Over the years, Ayn and Frank did not initiate many phone calls. Mary Ann and I did most of the calling. But she never failed to call about the date of a stamp show and make arrangements to go if she could.

They were all-day affairs and could be tiring. There were hundreds of booths and tables for the dealers, and thousands of people attended. But she was a trooper; she had the stamina. She said she found that just being there was energizing.

She approached a stamp show in a very business-like way. She always came prepared with a list of what she needed. Also, she had a stamp budget. On the way to a show, she would declare a budget limit—usually around three hundred dollars. But if she found a stamp that exceeded her budget, she would pause, look at me, and ask, “Should I?” I always said, “Yes,” whereupon she treated herself to it with a kind of resigned sigh of pleasure—as if she were succumbing to the irresistible. Like all collectors, she went over budget. But I can’t recall any stamp purchase over four hundred dollars.

When we entered a show, we were given name tags to wear, and she always wrote “Ayn Rand” on hers, not “Ayn O’Connor.” She was proud of being a stamp collector and wanted to go as the author of her article on stamp collecting.

ARI

Was her name recognized?

CHARLES

In all the stamp shows we went to, it was recognized only once. But she didn’t mind. She said that it meant that people there were concerned with stamps, not with celebrities, and that’s the way it should be. She liked the atmosphere of camaraderie and good will at these shows.

ARI

How do you mean?

CHARLES

People there were motivated by a value they held in common—the love of stamps. She said you could see it in so many forms: dealers had their wares neatly arranged, a few dealers remembered her from previous years and were happy to see her again. She saw people studying stamps intently. They were people with a purpose, she said. There was only one occasion when the good will was lacking.

ARI

What was that?

CHARLES

At one show, she was examining an attractive stamp at a dealer’s booth. When he saw that she was interested in it, he brought out several examples to show her. When she indicated that she was not in the market for the stamp at that time, he got impatient and brusque in manner. Ayn was silent for a few seconds and then she looked up and quietly asked, “Have I offended you?” The dealer was embarrassed and apologized and became a gentleman again. His behavior was an exception to the pleasant atmosphere, but it was jarring. This incident led to a discussion with Ayn that I found touching.

ARI

Tell me about it.

CHARLES

A few hours later, Ayn and I were having hamburgers and coffee. I noticed a slight frown in her expression, and I asked if anything was troubling her. She acknowledged that she felt a little depressed, and I asked why. She said she was not sure at the moment. I asked if it was caused by the rudeness of the dealer, and she said she didn’t think so. Then she expressed appreciation for my trying to help. She said she appreciated it because I wasn’t treating her as if she were from the stratosphere, that I didn’t back away from the situation on account of her being who she was. Then she asked me if it troubled me to see her get down over something. I assured her that it didn’t. And she added that it was a change from her usual role, where she was the one bolstering someone else’s spirits.

ARI

Did she ever say what was troubling her?

CHARLES

No, and I never inquired. She never raised the subject again, and that meant that she didn’t want to talk about it. I felt free to discuss anything with her except matters which I considered were entirely private to her or were entirely private to me. Ayn respected privacy. She didn’t probe into areas of your private life, and she expected you to keep out of hers.

ARI

Did that incident undercut her pleasure in stamps that day?

CHARLES

No. At every stamp show, we both made purchases—of stamps, or souvenir sheets, or supplies. And the first thing she wanted to do when we got home that day was to unpack her purchases and show them to Frank. She was happy.

ARI

Did Mr. O’Connor ever go to the stamp shows? Or Mary Ann?

CHARLES

No. They weren’t interested the way Ayn and I were. I shared Ayn’s attitude, that stamp shows were for dedicated enthusiasts, not onlookers. So Frank and Mary Ann weren’t invited.

ARI

What did they do while you were gone?

CHARLES

If Mary Ann was in town with me, she and Frank would spend the day doing what they enjoyed. They liked to stroll around New York and window shop, or go to a department store and browse through the home decorating department. But after a show, the four of us would have dinner together. Ayn always wanted a report from Frank about what he did that day.

On many occasions, when Ayn and I were leaving for the day, Frank would say, “They’re off stampeding again!”

ARI

You once wrote to Miss Rand in response to her inquiry about the possibility that some stamps she bought might be counterfeit. What was the outcome of this?

CHARLES

Ayn had a set of U.S. stamps known as the Kansas-Nebraska overprints. Counterfeiters found it easy to print the name of the state on the plain original issues to make them appear as the specially authorized over-print stamps. Experts can tell the genuine from the false, and Ayn wanted this assurance; they ruled her stamps genuine.

ARI

Did Miss Rand ever give you a gift of stamps?

CHARLES

We didn’t exchange gifts, except for small hostess gifts that Mary Ann and I would take over. But she did select two stamps that our friends, including Ayn and Frank, gave me for my fiftieth birthday. Mary Ann gave me a party in New York at Joan and Allan’s apartment. All our friends chipped in, and Mary Ann asked Ayn to select the stamps. Ayn knew what my collection lacked, and purchased two rare stamps in perfect condition from Jacques Minkus, the famous stamp dealer.

She was delightful that evening. During the party, she asked me to sit on the couch near her. She then announced to all present that she had gone over my latest accounting for stamps and found that I had made a ten-dollar error in her favor. She produced a ten dollar bill and, waving it with a flourish, made this light-hearted comment, “It’s a good thing I’m honest.” And I love the greeting she wrote on the group birthday card.

ARI

Which is?

CHARLES

“Happy Stampeding!”

Reprinted in Peter Schwartz (ed.), The Ayn Rand Column, Second Renaissance Books, 1998 ↩