Jacques Minkus - The Man Who Brought Stamp Collecting to Main St. USA

Stamp Collecting Guide John Finch writes on the About.com website, "Another stamp dealer who jumped into philatelic publishing in the 1930s with both feet was Austrian Jacques Minkus, aka 'the man who brought stamp collecting to Main St. USA.' At its height, the Minkus philatelic empire included albums, a regularly issued stamp journal with no less a contributor than Ayn Rand, catalogs and -- as a "service" to collectors during WWII -- cacheted patriotic envelopes. Not to mention the core of his business: stamp sales from Gimbels Famous Stamp Department."

In a separate article, Finch pens, "Jacques Minkus, while he was a master at trumpeting the wonders of stamps and stamp collecting, was not one to blow his own horn. But he was not afraid to try to make the world a better place through his personal place in the world of philately. His promotion of Luxembourg stamps to raise funds for intellectuals who fled Nazi Germany is known. His production of patriotic envelopes during WWII is a milestone in his philatelic publishing career." 

According to Finch, "Jacques Minkus was a stamp dealer who knew how to promote stamp collecting like no other in his day. But he was not one to blow his own horn. Now, one of his family members blows it for him and reveals a stamp dealer who not only knew his way around a stamp list, but something like Shindler's list as well."

Shown above, Jacques Minkus.

To learn how Minkus saved a family from the Holocaust, click here.