Historic Headsville Post Office to Open

The historic Headsvillle, West Virginia post office will open on Monday at the American Philatelic Center (APC) in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

On loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington D.C., the 1860-1914 rural post office will offer 21st century postal service to APC staff, visitors and local residents.

According to an APC press release, "For thirty-five years, the 540-square-foot board-and-batten structure served as an exhibition and working U.S. Post Office at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., showcasing its dual role as a country store and rural mail center. Its interior was featured on a 1972 stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Mail Order Industry."

The APC is the headquarters of both the American Philatelic Society, serving more than 42,000 stamp collectors in more than 110 countries, and the American Philatelic Research Library, the largest member-supported library of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.

Shown above is the entrance to the Headsville post office and general store.

For additional information, including more details about the Headsville Post Office Project, call the American Philatelic Center at 814-933-3803.

Gin flavored stamps

Harry Stewart New (1858 – 1937) was a U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1917 until 1923. He then served as the Postmaster General from 1923 to 1929 under Presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover.

During his term as postmaster general, New proposed two influential ideas - the honoring of distinguished Americans with stamps, and flavored glue on the back of stamps.

Postmaster New, a secret "wet" in Hoover's Prohibition "dry" administration, even commissioned a gin-flavored stamp that never made it to production according to Wikipedia.

The Office of the Postmaster General was created in 1789. For a complete list of all the Postmasters General of the United States, click here.

It’s for fun - not the money

Longtime stamp collector Martin Dekeyzer explained in an article that appeared in the St. Thomas (Ontario, Canada) Times-Journal that one of the biggest myths newcomers face about stamp collecting is if you collect stamps long enough you'll amass incredible wealth.

Dekeyzer was interviewed at the St. Thomas Stamp Club's annual show and pointed out, “A lot of people have a misconception. They think in the beginning the stamps they buy are worth nothing and later, they will be worth thousands.”

The truth is, Dekeyzer said, most stamps produced by postal authorities around the world are for common use -- moving mail to wherever it’s addressed. In his opinion they're worth collecting - for fun - but don't expect to get rich.

Shown above, Dekeyzer, who has been collecting since 1944, looks at panels of covers he has collected over the years at the show.

To read the entire article, click here.

Candidate provides stamps to voters

A "brouhaha" has reportedly erupted in the race for a Florida state House seat after one of the candidates mailed postage stamps to voters according to United Press International.

The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported Friday that Democratic Party officials are accusing Republican candidate Sean Campbell of violating a state election law by mailing stamps to voters. Campbell reportedly urged voters to use the free stamps to mail in their absentee ballots for Tuesday's election.

Mailing stamps "is in no way a violation," said Katie Gordon, press secretary for the Republican Party of Florida. She pointed to a state law that indicates that providing "an item of nominal value which is used as a political advertisement" is allowed.

"We think a 41-cent postage stamp is of nominal value, and it was attached to a political ad and therefore is exempt," she said.

Steve Schale, a spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party, disagreed.

"How is this different from walking door-to-door and giving people two quarters to vote for you?" Schale was quoted as saying. "Is that OK?"

Oldest Post Office in the World Up for Sale

The world's oldest post office is up for sale with offers of over £230,000 according to an article on the The Scotsman website.

Long accepted as the oldest in Britain, the Sanquhar,Dumfriesshire, post office has been operating continuously since 1712. Its nearest rival opened eight years later in Stockholm.

Ken Thompson, who has owned and operated the post office for the last 17 years says, "This house was originally a place where coaches halted and fresh horses were available and it was set up to receive mail...and was nothing like we imagine a post office today. Nor was it the first of its kind but it's the oldest one to have survived. We have stayed the course, we have been here from the beginning."

For more on the oldest post office in the world, click here.

Postcards give 3 by 5 window on the past

The Connecticut Post ran a nice piece about local postcard collector Russell Panecki.

According to the article, most of Panecki's cards feature photos of railroads in the early 20th century, including shots of the interiors of trains.

Panecki is quoted as saying, "Railroads used to issue their own postcards. Towns would commission to have pictures taken of a new firehouse. Some of them may appear hokey to us, but having a postcard made added to [a town's] weight."

Shown above is an example from Panecki's collection showing a train station.

To read the entire article, click here.

To learn about the history of postcards in the United States, click here.

African Americans in America’s Postal Service

The National Postal Museum is observing Black History Month with an online history of African Americans in the Postal Service.

The article, written by Deanna Boyd and Kendra Chen, begins with an accounting of the use of slaves to transport mail in antebellum America. The article continues by tracing the relationship between African Americans and the Postal Service through the beginning of the 21st century.

Along the way are accounts of the Postal Service’s first African-American Postmaster (Minnie Cox, Indianola, MS), and the first African-American letter carrier (John Curry, Washington, DC).

To read the entire article, click here.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings honored on US commemorative

The United States has issued a 41-cent stamp honoring author, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

According to a USPS press release, "Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings joins her friends Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston and a host of other literary immortals as the latest inductee into the U.S. Postal Service’s Literary Arts commemorative stamp series."

Her best known work, The Yearling, is about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn. It won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie.

The Postal Service’s Literary Arts series was introduced in 1979 with the issuance of the John Steinbeck stamp. Other inductees, in chronological order, include: Edith Wharton, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Ernest He mingway, Marianne Moore, William Saroyan, Dorothy Parker, James Thurber, Tennessee Williams, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thornton Wilder, Stephen Vincent Benét, Ayn Rand, Thomas Wolfe, Ogden Nash, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Robert Penn Warren, Katherine Anne Porter and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Shown above, from left, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park Manager Valerie Rivers, Florida State Parks Department Policy Coordinator Dana Bryan, USPS General Counsel Mary Anne Gibbons, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society Founding Member Phil May, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings confidante and protégé “Jake” Glisson, and USPS Stamp Services Manager David Failor.

For more on Marjorie K. Rawlings (1896-1953) and the dedication ceremony at her Cross Creek, FL, Home, click here.

Huge 'Penny Red' collection given to APS

The American Philatelic Society (APS) has announced it has received a donation of 32,000 Penny Reds.

An APS press release indicates, "The gift included 111 complete reconstructions of the original 12- by 20-subject plates that were used to print the 240-stamp sheets, as well as 23 additional plate reconstructions that are largely complete."

With an estimated value of $400,000, the collection belonged to Dr. Edward D. Martin of Arlington, Virginia.

According to Wikipedia, "The Penny Red, issued in 1841, succeeded the Penny Black and continued as the main type of postage stamp in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until 1879, with only minor changes to the design during that time. The colour was changed from black to red because of difficulty in seeing a cancellation mark on the Penny Black; a black cancel was readily visible on a Penny Red."

Shown above, Mercer Bristow, Director of the American Philatelic Expertizing Service and curator of the APS Reference Collection, displays a complete reconstruction of a 240-stamp plate used to print Great Britain’s Penny Red stamps of 1864 in one of two hand-made albums which were given to the APS.

For more on this story, click here.

BTW - If you are considering making a donation of philatelic material to the American Philatelic Society or American Philatelic Research Library, contact Ken Martin at 814-933-3817.

German inflation stamps exhibit

We're all seen those multi-million German Marks stamps from the 1920s and wondered how was that possible. Well now there's a virtual philatelic exhibit that explains what happened.

The exhibit When Money Buys Little is posted on the Exponet website which hosts a number of interesting and fun exhibits from around the world.

According to exhibitor Jerry Jensen, "Following World War I, the world's investment and business community lost faith in Germany's ability to pay war reparations debts. Lacking resources, German money lost its value..." and the rest is philatelic history.

Shown above, the first page of the exhibit with part of a 1923 envelope franked with 2,100,000,000,000 Marks postage.

To view the exhibit, click here.

Reporter researchs philately and Oregon stamp club

Columnist Capi Lynn of the Salem, Oregon Statesman Journal did a little research in honor of Presidents Day, and the 75th anniversary of the Salem Stamp Society on the collection and study of postage stamps, postmarks and stamped envelopes.

One of the things Lynn discovered was that George Washington has appeared on more U.S. postal stamps than anyone.

Washington's image graces a record 242 and counting, according to the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum.

Lynn also came to learn that attention to detail is a prerequisite for a serious stamp collector.

Dick Boyle, long-time member of the Salem Stamp Society, also points out in the article, that it "helps to be obsessive and like to organize things."

Shown above is the 1932 set of 12 stamps marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington (February 22, 1732).

To read the entire piece, click here.

Not your father's stamp collection anymore

The Niagara Falls Review of Niagara Falls,Ontario,Canada reports new postage stamps are colorful and appeal to youth but collectors miss old-time 'workmanship.'

Reporter Corey Larocque writes, "Postage stamps are becoming more about Superman, Cinderella and Jurassic Park dinosaurs than about the Queen, old steam locomotives and battleships..."

According to collectors attending the Niagara Philatelic Society’s annual exhibition commemorative issues like the superheroes series, Star Wars or Disney movie series catch the eye, but they look more like photographs than engravings that were common until the 1960s.

Shown above Paul Moore and his father Bob examine some of their finds at the Niagara Philatelic Society stamp show Saturday in Niagara Falls, Canada.

To read the entire article, click here.

German Postal Chief Resigns

UK's Independent reports, Deutsche Post's chief executive, Klaus Zumwinkel (shown here) has been forced to resign amid a "potentially devastating tax evasion scandal in which hundreds of wealthy Germans were suspected of illegally transferring up to 4 billion Euros into secret bank accounts in Leichtenstein."

Reporter Tony Paterson, writes, "Mr Zumwinkel, 64, who had led the partially state-run corporation for 18 years, was obliged to step down after state prosecutors announced that they suspected him of dodging some 1 million Euros in taxes over 20 years."

The German government, which owns 31% of Deutsche Post, said in a statement that it "saluted" Mr Zumwinkel's decision to quit adding, unusually, that it believed that he himself considered the tax fraud allegations to be true.

For more on this story, click here.

Hall of Fame writer, Harvey Karlen, 1918 -2008

Well known Chicago philatelist, Harvey Karlen,Ph.D.,89, passed away of natural causes on Feb. 9 according to the Chicago Tribune.

He was 11 days short of his 90th birthday.

Tribune reporter Trevor Jensen writes, "Dr. Karlen's philatelic interests extended well beyond stamps. He also collected and studied postmarks, the growth of branch post offices in the city and suburbs, the content of letters and the evolution of mail delivery systems."

Among Karlen's books were "Chicago's Mail: An Anthology of Postal History Articles Focusing Upon the Community's Growth, Its Interests and Its Attitudes" and the playfully titled "Chicago's Crabgrass Communities: A History of the Independent Suburbs and Their Post Offices That Became Part of Chicago." He was inducted into the APS Writer's Unit "Hall of Fame" in 2004.

Al Kugel, member of the Collectors Club of Chicago, the city's top philatelic organization, is quoted as saying, "He not only collected stamps, he educated people about them, studied them and tried to show people what was interesting about them."

A professor of Political Science for 41 years in New York and at Chicago City College, Karlen is recognized as a pioneer in teaching college courses on open circuit television.

To read his entire obituary, click here.

Stamp being proposed for Carl Sagan

The Ithaca Journal reports supporters of the late Carl Sagan announced plans this past week to petition the U.S. post office to create a postage stamp commemorating the former Ithacan.

Ann Druyan, Sagan's widow, is quoted in the article as saying, “Carl was an avid stamp collector as a boy, and we treasure the albums he made then. They're filled with his handwritten notes in the margins — perhaps the earliest evidence of his passion for the diversity of earth's cultures. So this particular tribute to Carl would have held special significance for him, as it does for me.”

Several possible stamp designs (one of which is shown above) have been commissioned and are pictured on the Ithaca Journal website.

Sagan passed away in 1996.

To read the entire article, click here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

With its annual issues of stamps for St. Valentine's Day, Norway Post has helped to encourage a fine tradition: writing love letters.

Text messages and e-mails may be the modern form of communication, but people still write letters, particularly for St. Valentine's Day. There's nothing to beat a hand-written love letter which has been franked with a romantic stamp such as the one shown here released late last month by Norway.

For more about St. Valentine and how Valentine's Day came to be, click here.

Lincoln commemorative envelope and postmarks

The Post Office in Hodgenville, KY — the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln — is participating in a two-year national celebration commemorating the 200th birthday of the nation’s 16th president.

Employees will sell commemorative envelopes with special postmarks in honor of Lincoln — who was appointed New Salem, IL, Postmaster in 1833.

The job paid only about $50 a year, but it took little of his time and gave him the chance to read all the incoming newspapers free. He read every issue and was particularly interested in the political news.

Customers can order the envelopes by mail beginning today until March 12, 2008. They should include a return address, phone number, the quantity desired and a check or money order payable to “Postmaster.”

Orders go to: Lincoln Bicentennial, C/O Postmaster, Hodgenville Post Office, 102 S. Walters Avenue, Hodgenville, KY 42748-9998. The envelopes cost — appropriately — $5, the denomination of the bill that honors Lincoln. Each includes the Forever Stamp with the words “Forever Immortalized” across the top.

Special postmarks also are available by mail until March 12, 2008. Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope inside another envelope and mail to the address listed above. For more information, contact the Hodgenville Post Office at 270-358-3404.

Shown above, Abraham Lincoln delivering mail and special commemorative envelope.

Postage rates to go up in May

The cost of a first-class stamp will rise to 42 cents starting May 12.

The Associated Press reports the price of the Forever stamp will go up at the same time, meaning those stamps can still be purchased for 41 cents but will remain good for first-class postage after the rate increase takes effect.

The post office has sold 5 billion Forever stamps since they were introduced last April and plans to have an additional 5 billion in stock to meet the expected demand before the May price change, the agency said.

The charge for other services, such as advertising mail, periodicals, packages special services will also change. Changes in the price for Priority Mail and Express Mail will be announced later, the agency said.

Postage rates last went up in May, 2007, with a first-class stamping jumping 2 cents to the current 41-cent rate.

To read the entire article, click here.

Waterfalls on Stamps

Round-Up reader K.Ramesh Kumar writes to let us know about his new website - Waterfalls Stamps.

He is interested in having collectors send him (via e-mail) any photos, articles or information related to the topic. He can be reached at stamplisting@yahoo.com.

Currently on the site is what appears to be a fairly comprehensive checklist of stamps featuring waterfalls.

Shown above is a 2003 sheetlet featuring "Waterfalls of India."

To visit the site, click here.

"Spoon" Cancel

The name "spoon" is a reference to the distinctive shape of this duplex cancellation.

This is the name given to a distinctive experimental duplex cancellation issued to 29larger towns and cities in England and to Wrexham in Wales. The portions of the handstamp are merged and the post office number cuts into the dated portion of the cancel to the left.

The first ‘Spoon’ was issued to Hull on December 21, 1853 and they remained in use until 1860. Five main types exist.

An example from Liverpool, September 1855, is shown above.

For more on cancellations, click here.

New USPS "Power of the Letter" Website

USPS and Home Box Office (HBO) are jointly promoting the upcoming cable network’s miniseries, John Adams, and National Card and Letter Writing Month with a new website.

The HBO production is based on the book John Adams, by Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough. The best-selling biography of the founding father centers on the letters Adams and his wife, Abigail, wrote each other during their courtship and 54-year marriage.

The USPS campaign includes a national cancellation featuring an Adams quote, “Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.” Postal receipts from point-of-service terminals and Automated Postal Centers will include the Adams quote and the website. Standees and window clings will appear in nearly 12,000 Post Offices around the country promoting the website and the miniseries.

HBO will premiere its seven-part miniseries with two episodes on Sunday evening, March 16. Episodes 3-7 will air the subsequent five Sundays, with the series ending on April 20.

To visit the new website, click here.

APS Offers 'Washington-Franklin' On-the-Road Seminar

The American Philatelic Society (APS) will conduct its first On-the-Road Seminar of 2008 — an intensive course offered in conjunction with a World Series of Philately stamp show, Westpex 2008, April 25–27 in San Francisco.

Veteran APS instructor Dennis Gilson will present a condensed, two-day version of his popular Summer Seminar course on “The Washington-Franklin Issues”. This course is not just for the expert collector, but for anyone who has collected or wants to collect these important early 20th-century U.S. issues.

Information on this course and other educational opportunities being sponsored by the APS this spring and fall, click here.

Janet Klug and Cheryl Edgecomb to hold Stamp Camp in the Cayman Islands

Cayman Net News Online reports Butterfield Bank (Cayman) Limited has teamed up with the Cayman Islands Postal Service to sponsor a Stamp Camp, which will be a collaborative education program in April for children aged 8 to 14.

The idea behind the camp is to equip Cayman Islands’ teachers in both the private and public sectors with basic knowledge about the art of stamp collecting, including the proper care of stamps and the use of stamp tools. The teachers will be taught how to use hands-on activities to work with children, including creative storytelling using stamps.

According to the write-up,"The afternoon sessions will focus on the Islands’ collectors as the overseas instructors will show collectors how to exhibit stamps. The other part of the Stamp Camp will be the launch of several pilot programs in schools in which children will learn the art of stamp collecting."

The overseas instructors for the camp are Janet Klug and Cheryl Edgecomb.

Ms. Klug was President of the American Philatelic Society and Vice Chairman of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Postal Museum Council of Philatelists. She is also an avid collector who concentrates on military postal history and specialised collections of Australia and the South Pacific.

Ms. Edgecomb is a founding member and current CEO and Executive Director of Stamp Camp USA and serves as Youth Exhibiting Chairman for the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors.

Shown above are Butterfield Bank’s Marketing Coordinator Monique Bush and Postmaster GeneralSheena Glasgow with a sponsorship check for $9,000 for Stamp Camp.

To read the entire article, click here.

Students learn to look at stamps in a whole new light

Owen Sound Sun Times of Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, reports members of a local stamp club know all about the enjoyment and learning opportunities their hobby brings to them and have started a series of visits to local schools to share their hobby with interested students.

During their first half-hour visit with a group of 10 students, club members not only spoke about their hobby, they also helped the students get started on their own collections by giving them albums, packages of cancelled stamps, first-day covers and other stamp collecting materials.

One of the members told the students, "Stamp collecting can be a lot of fun. Once people know you are collecting, you'll be surprised how many stamps come your way. You get to collect, trade, buy and sell. There are always interesting stories to hear - and tell - about stamps and lots of interesting people to meet as well."

To read the enire article, click here.

For some other ideas about using stamps in the classroom, click here.

Chinese New Year Presents Challenge To Stamp Designers

The Hartford Courant reports on their website that stamp designers are finding clever ways to create designs picturing attractive-looking rats for the Chinese New Year.

Reporter David A. Kent writes, "Some people argue that 'rat' is too strict an interpretation of the Asian tradition of naming years for animals, and that this can also be considered the Year of the Mouse."

A miniature sheet from Taiwan, shown here, illustrates this approach by picturing two mice wearing wedding gowns under a bright red curtain.

New Zealand, which has a considerable Asian population, continues the theme. Its stamps focus on "pocket pets," pets so small that they can be carried in a pocket.

Slovenia, in central Europe, has a pair of "Mice in Love" on its Valentine Day stamp this year, combining traditional celebrations from two cultures.

To read the entire article, click here.

Sweden's Treskilling Yellow

Amey Stone on the Luxist.com website calls Sweden's Treskilling Yellow stamp (shown here) "the most expensive item in the world by weight and volume."

Probably the only one of its kind, it has a current value of more than $2 million -or $87 billion per kilogram.

According to Stone here's what makes it so valuable: Back in Sweden in 1855, when the currency was known as the skilling, the 3 skilling stamp ('treskilling') was printed in green. An 8 skilling stamp was printed in yellow. But due to a printing error, a few 3 skilling stamps were printed in yellow. No one knows how many.

Stone goes on to write, "Three years later, Sweden changed its currency and it wasn't until 1886 that a 14-year-old school boy discovered the stamp among his grandmother's possessions and sold it to a dealer for the then-lofty price of 7 kronor. The stamp traded hands several times over the next decade, fetching ever higher prices and inspiring collectors to search for more Treskilling Yellows. But no other was ever found."

By the 1990s the stamp price crossed $1 million for the first time and was setting records every time it changed hands. The last sale was in 1996 when it sold for 2,875,000 Swiss Francs ($2.6 million US) to collectors who remain anonymous. According to the book, The Treskilling Yellow, the stamp is insured for $15 million.

To learn more, click here.

Rockwell Kent

The Washington Post reports that in Russell Banks' new novel, The Reserve, "he focuses on a man who moves confidently among the haves and the have-nots: Jordan Groves, a left-wing artist who sells his pictures to wealthy collectors, seduces their wives, and pals around with their servants. He's loosely based on Rockwell Kent, the celebrated illustrator and labor advocate who donated a number of his works to the Soviet Union, ran afoul of Sen. McCarthy and eventually appeared on a U.S. postage stamp."

One of Kent's illustrations (shown above) appeared as part of the 2001 American Ilustrators sheet. His was the only black and white illustration included.

Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was a versatile wood engraver, lithographer, book illustrator, painter and muralist. He designed a striking edition of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and wrote and illustrated accounts of his rugged travels in Alaska, Greenland, and South America.

According to Wikipedia, "In 1938 the U.S. Post Office asked him to paint a mural in their headquarters in Washington, DC; Kent included (in Inuit dialect and in tiny letters) an antigovernment statement in the painting, which caused some consternation."

To learn more about Kent, click here.

To learn more about other illustrators that were also featured, click here.

Local dog makes good

The UK's Ballymena Times reports that Royal Mail teamed up with a local farmer and his sheepdog as part of a set of new stamps being released next week.

The Working Dogs issue is devoted to highly trained working dogs and celebrates two important events taking place in 2008; The Year of the Assistance Dog, and the centenary of the police dogs in the UK.

The stamps have also been chosen by Royal Mail to represent 2008's Europa stamp theme of 'The Letter'. Collecting letters and sometimes posting in pillar-boxes are some of the tasks carried out by the Assistance Dog featured on the 1st Class stamp.

Barbara Roulston, Head of External Relations at Royal Mail is quoted as saying, "It's easy to forget that there's a 'secret army' of thousands of hardworking dogs who make a real difference to many lives."

The photos were taken by animal photographer Tim Flach.

For more dogs on stamps, click here.

The Library History Buff

Round-Up reader Larry T. Nix brought to our attention an interesting and unusual topical website - The Library History Buff. The site is dedicated to the appreciation, enjoyment, and preservation of library history.

According to Nix, the Library History Buff website is divided into three broad categories. The "Library History" category includes Web pages with information about library history. The "Librariana" category includes Web pages with information about the collecting of library memorabilia and artifacts. The "Postal Librariana" category includes Web pages with information about the collecting of postal artifacts related to libraries.

There is also a listing of stamps that feature libraries, librarians, archivists and other related people or things.

Shown above is an interesting 2007 first day cover with two library stamps. The contains both and is signed by Betty Stone, president of the American Library Association and Daniel Boorstin, Librarian of Congress.

Click here to visit The Library History Buff website.