Alfred wrote
> Robin Wilson's column in the Math. Intelligencer has earned him the
> respect of many, myself included. In fact, my interest in mathematical
> philately began with his material.
My interest began with the French stamp that celebrated the 300th
anniversary of
the Discourse of Descartes. The stamp was issued with the title written as
DISCOURS SUR LA ME'THODE,
but the actual title is
DISCOURS DE LA ME'THODE
POUR BIEN CONDUIRE SA RAISON ET CHERCHER LA VE'RITE' DANS LES SCIENCES.
Then the stamp was reissued with SUR changed to DE.
I would dearly love to have either or both of those stamps, or at least I
would love to download them from the internet.
I also admired the cleverness and fineness of the history of maths book of
Victor Katz being illustrated with stamps. I say *cleverness* because I
assume that this avoided the necessity of paying for illustrations of
illustrious mathematicians, but am I right about that?
Best wishes from icy Annapolis,
Sam Kutler