The Detroit News

Stefan Karidian, 75, has 27 books of stamps from Armenia. “My collection
hinges on the history of this country,” he says.

Stamps tell Armenian tales

By Sarah Frame / The Detroit News

BIRMINGHAM – Stefan Karidian can trace his family’s history by looking
through his stamp collection. He has 27 books of stamps, postcards
and envelopes from Armenia, the country his parents emigrated from.

“Armenian stamps are my specialty,” said Karidian, 75, of West
Bloomfield Township. “My collection hinges on the history of this
country. I have stamps that relate to Armenian churches, artists,
and also stamps and postcards that commemorate the mass genocide of
the Armenian people. My dad survived that and then came here.”

Collectors like Karidian commonly see their own lives in their stamps,
said Michael Schreiber, editor of Linn’s Stamp News, the world’s
largest weekly stamp newspaper.

“You can make of it (stamp collecting) anything you want,” Schreiber
said. “You can collect on any topic, any country.”

Collectors from all over the Midwest will attend the Metropex 2004,
a stamp exposition sponsored by the Oakland County Stamp Club planned
for June 12 and 13.

The show will feature more than 20 dealers and will be at the
Birmingham Masonic Temple.

Dodie Spatz, 66, of Bloomfield Township recalls that her interest in
stamps began when her father went to work in the Venezuelan oil fields.

“My dad would send letters to my mother with these pretty stamps
on them, and I began to save them,” Spatz said. “Now I have quite
a collection, and it’s gotten bigger since I joined the Birmingham
Stamp Club.”

You can reach Sarah Frame at (313) 222-2103 or sframe@detnews.com.