Monday, July 25, 2005

Maryland collector swapped food for paintings during WWII

As a World War II soldier supervising Nazi prisoners of war in Belgium, Frank Shepherd, 84, traded his Army rations for portraits, landscapes and still lifes made by hungry German soldiers.

A combat engineer with the 10th Armored Division, Shepard owns more than a dozen of the paintings, traded for cigarettes and candy bars according to an article that appeared in the online editon of the Baltimore-Sun.

Today he's swapping stamps around the world. He keeps the names and addresses of his contacts on index cards that fill a filing cabinet in his basement. The contacts regularly send him stamps from their countries, and he returns the favor.

To read the entire article, click here.

  • Want to swap some stamps with collectors around the world? Click here for the Stamp Swap Club.
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posted by Don Schilling at 8:02 AM