Foil on Stamps on Foil and on Other Unusual Materials

It is a great pleasure to participate in this tribute to Professor Edgar Heilbronner. He is a good friend for whom I have the highest regard for both his professional accomplishments and his personal qualities. We first met casually when I had a sabbatical year at the ETH in Zurich during 1957 – 58 and he was on the faculty. Much later we found that we shared the hobby of collecting stamps related to chemistry. That led to several joint publications on the subject, culminating in co-authorship of the book A Philatelic Ramble through Chemistry (Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta/Wiley-VCH, 1998). I have been greatly impressed by his character, personality, breadth of knowledge, and achievements. His familiarity with American colloquialisms is amazing, and his sense of humor is delightful. I have been retired for 20 years and do not have any scientific research to report. The most appropriate thing I can write on is some aspect of chemical philately. It is hoped that the reader will enjoy the following bit of atypically light reading for Helvetica Chimica Acta.