exploring the olfactory with scratchand-sniff stamps by Christina Tang-Bernas
by Nora Bryson and Nora DeGeorge
an interview with Deborah Diana, mixed media artist by Susanna Mills
The Gallery featuring Dani Leviss
20 The Topical Collector: Paleontology by Susan Jones
StampEd is published quarterly by the American Philatelic Society, Inc., 100 Match Factory Place, Bellefonte, PA 16823.
Opinions expressed in articles in this magazine are those of the writers and are not necessarily endorsed by the society and/or the magazine. StampEd cannot be responsible for the accuracy of any information printed herein.
SENIOR EDITOR Jeff Stage, ext. 221 • jstage@stamps.org
DIGITAL EDITOR Nora Bryson, ext. 256 • norab@stamps.org
52 How an Idea Becomes a Stamp a brief introduction to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee by Nora Bryson
51 No Bad Questions by Ken Martin
58 Stamp Trek: Poland by Thomas Bieniosek
60 APS Today
GRAPHIC COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST Chad Cowder, ext. 223 • ccowder@stamps.org
ADVERTISING SALES Steve Schwanz Fox Associates, Inc. 800-440-0231 x114 adinfo.theamericanphilatelist@foxrep.com
What can you DIY?
By Susanna Mills, Editor-in-Chief of APS Publications
keep having a very similar conversation in the StampEd editorial office. Someone (usually Nora Bryson) says, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do [fill in the blank with a sick idea],” and I usually respond, “Yeah, but I’m not sure how we could.” This issue is dedicated to saying yes to the idea and figuring out how to do that cool thing.
A stamp of Osoa designed by Nora Bryson for the Dungeons & Dragons oneshot session written by the StampEd editorial team. Read more on page 24.
“Wouldn’t it be cool if we designed our own fantasy “stamp” labels, and perforated them with a sewing machine?” “What if we sent in our own stamp ideas to the USPS?” “What if we made up our own Dungeons & Dragons game for stamp collectors?”
As it turns out, it’s not only totally possible to do all of these things and more, but they are fulfilling and exciting projects. They are also affordable on a budget, and can be suited to your own particular interests. It’s your hobby –you can do it your way!
Also in this issue, we hear from folks who are designing their own first day covers and cachets, hunting down affordable postal stationery and stamps for projects, making art with stamps, designing philatelic exhibits, making videos about their collections, and so much more.
Plus, Check out our StampEd "I Spy" game on page 22 and play along at home!
The stamp collecting world is your oyster! We are excited to hear from you about the DIY stamp collecting projects you’ve tried out, whether inspired by this issue, or of your own creation. Reach out at StampEd@stamps.org.
A fantasy label (or cinderella) for the land of Oz, designed by Nora Bryson and Nora DeGeorge. Read more on page 2.
Send us your ideas and feedback at StampEd@stamps.org.
We Made Our Own Stamps –and So Can You!
Dipping a toe into the fantastical world of philatelic cinderellas
By Nora Bryson and Nora DeGeorge
The selvage text of the sheet was inspired by the 1c Restoration of Fort Dearborn sheet of 25.
The perfs seen here are only for effect; in the printed version, we lowered the opacity almost to zero so we had a barely visible guide for our sewing machine perforations.
The plate number of this sheet is L. Frank Baum’s birthday in homage to the author.
We weren’t sure who might claim the role of Postmaster General of Oz, but the Guardian of the Gates has an air of authority that made us feel like he’d be a good fit.
The three designs show a progression of time through The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, from Dorothy’s arrival in Oz to flying monkey travel to the Wizard’s departure.
Generally speaking, you shouldn’t make your own stamps. That’s called counterfeiting, and is, in fact, frowned upon in most jurisdictions.1
But if you, like us, count graphic design, philately, and fine genre fiction among your passions, you might be interested in the world of cinderellas. Cinderella stamps, allegedly so-called because they’re treated as inferior to their real postage stamp relatives, are labels that resemble postage stamps, but are not created by a postal authority and are not valid for use in the mail.
Cinderellas can range from an ultra-niche sheet of labels for wedding invitations to a decades-old institution like Christmas Seals. They can also be a delightful glimpse into a world of fantasy, like the stamps of the Ankh-Morpork, as created in the real world by the Discworld Emporium and inspired by Sir Terry Pratchett’s legendary Discworld novels, or the magnificent stamps of Wonderland, created
1 See StampEd issue 1 for more on the world’s current counterfeit woes.
DEEP DIVE
Are you a Cinderella?
Trying to come up with a simple yet comprehensive definition of cinderella stamps is enough to make most experts go “AGHHHH!” as there are many niche inclusions and exceptions to every rule. For example, revenue stamps, government-issued for taxation purposes, could be considered cinderellas. Local and railway stamps are sometimes considered cinderellas, and both had some valid postal uses (for example, for use in geographical locations not served by the postal service, such as Rattlesnake Island).
The Cinderella Stamp Club, based in Great Britain, has a comprehensive list of items that can be considered cinderellas: “local stamps, telegraph stamps, railway stamps, revenues/fiscals, forgeries, bogus and phantom issues. Christmas, Red Cross, TB and other charity seals, registration labels, advertisement and exhibition labels and many other items…” So, with that, we’ll leave the definitions to the experts and move along, possibly more confused than before.
This postcard from Nora D.’s collection features a Wonderland cinderella by Gerald King as well as an official Royal Mail stamp on a Royal Mail-issued postcard.
Our designs were also inspired by this beautiful cinderella souvenir sheet created by the American Topical Association in 2022, which is part of Nora D.’s collection.
Christmas Seals are charity labels to raise funds and awareness. They are most often associated with the Red Cross (in the early 1900s) and the American Lung Association (today).
OUR (LEGAL) ADVICE
Now might be a good time to talk legal stuff – if you plan on letting your cinderellas see the light of day, make sure you’re covered legally. One of the reasons we chose to make cinderellas for Oz is because The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its illustrations are in the public domain – but the Judy Garland film is not, so we had to be careful that our designs didn’t directly reference MGM’s intellectual property. And if you use a design program to make your cinderellas, make sure that you understand and adhere to the licensing agreements for any stock images you include.
of the many fine issues of Discworld cinderellas, from the collection of Editor-in-Chief Susanna Mills.
You can see glimpses of the final stamp designs forming in our moodboard –and a few other things we’d like to try in the future.
by Gerald M. King and documented in his book Alice Through the Pillar-box and What She Found There
In fact, it was King’s book that got us thinking about making our own cinderellas in the first place. Nora D. is a fan of all things Alice, and Nora B. loves a little project – so an idle conversation about the Wonderland stamps quickly turned into a planning session for making our own stamps for a fictional land.
Not wanting to infringe on King’s magnificent work, we needed a new world to focus our efforts on. Nora D. immediately suggested the Land of Oz, introduced by L. Frank Baum in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Like Wonderland, Oz is full of weird-yet-wonderful details that make a project like this one fun. The biggest problem we encountered during the process was picking just one idea to focus on, and we even cheated that a little bit.
Design Time
Cinderellas can be as fancy as you want them to be, and can be made with whatever you have to hand, whether that’s markers and scissors2 or advanced design programs and your own perforator. Neither of us are artists in the traditional sense, so we chose to lean into computer-based design.
2 Remember, they’re not “slapdash,” they’re “imperforate.”
Two of Nora D.’s original
Illustrator.
An early version of the Oz souvenir sheet incorporated illustrations from the book, but the bold colors didn’t really go with the stamps we’d created.
The final souvenir sheet keeps things simple to allow the stamps to shine.
The first step was to get our vision for the stamps nailed down. Taking inspiration from the fashion world, we put together a moodboard that helped us identify what elements we might want to include and let us play around with different concepts for the stamps. One of Nora D.’s early ideas was to do a flying monkey air mail stamp, and that idea stuck with us, eventually giving us a firm direction for the project: Air Mail Stamps of Oz. Rounding out the issue would be a tornado stamp to pay homage to Dorothy’s arrival in Oz and a hot
air balloon stamp in reference to the Wizard’s departure.
Nora D. took lead for the design of the stamps, heading over to our trusty Canva Pro account to start mapping everything out. The stamps were going to be part of a set, so she wanted them to be united visually but still have their own distinct style. She referenced both Art Nouveau and Art Deco in the designs; the styles are strongly associated with Oz in the public consciousness thanks to the illustrations of John Rea Neill and the art of the film,
spearheaded by legendary art director Cedric Gibbons.
Canva is a great tool, but it can only do so much. Once Nora D. was done with the designs, Nora B. downloaded them as .svg files so she could make a few edits in Adobe Illustrator. She added simple, low opacity backgrounds to each stamp to make them look more … stampy, nudged some design elements around, laid them out as a sheet (with a little help from Portland Stamp Company’s downloadable template), and added some referential text to the selvage.
We went back and forth for weeks, tweaking the designs in our spare time. Too light, wrong color, off-center. In a creative haze, Nora B. also designed a souvenir sheet and an Oz postcard.
Real-Life Stamps
While we considered sending our stamps off to Portland Stamp Company to be printed (and may still!), we wanted to take the stamp creation as far as we could without outside help. The
Nora B. hard at work – don’t forget to put the foot down when you’re sewing your stamps!
DID YOU KNOW?
Many modern cinderellas and labels are printed in the United States by Portland Stamp Company, including our own StampEd cinderellas, labels for the upcoming international stamp expo Boston 2026, and many others! Check out its website to see the creative souvenir sheets and labels that PSC has helped create.
We printed the design on 25% linen paper, cut it down to size, and then took a trip to see volunteers Leonard and Darlene Bloom in Building 5 of the American Philatelic Center. The Blooms knew about our plans to make cinderellas and had brought in a vintage Singer sewing machine to help us perforate the sheet. Sewing machines, while not recommended by experts, have been used to perforate both cinderellas and official postage stamps issued around the 3 Not you, counterfeiters.
RETURN TO OZ
world for over a century ( Colombia, for example, issued sewing machine-perforated stamps from 1900 to 1903).
Nora B. was sweating bullets at this stage, since we only had one sheet to work with and the last time she sewed anything it took her two hours to manage a simple hem. But it turns out when you don’t have to deal with a bobbin, sewing is easy! Adjust the tension to get the spacing right, practice your lines on a spare sheet of paper, and go slow, and you’ll end up with perfs that look almost like the real thing.
The next step was gumming the stamps. But we haven’t quite figured out the formula for our own adhesive yet. And with other duties and deadlines demanding our attention, our cinderella journey has sadly been put on hold – for now. While we still love postage stamps, there’s something special about making stamps yourself,3 and we can’t wait to return to the Land of Oz, and beyond.
Plenty of ideas were left on the drawing board when we were working on this project, and we hope to get back to them when time allows. Here are just a few of the plans we have for our return to Oz.
Emerald City Private Post & Special Delivery
Nora D.’s dad, himself a philatelist, gave us some great suggestions during the design process. We really loved his idea of a stamp for Emerald City Private Post, paying tribute to the private local posts that would take up the last leg of delivery in densely populated cities back in the day. He also had a cheekier suggestion: our own version of the U.S. Special Delivery stamp, with the Wicked Witch of the West acting as the bicycle courier.
A Machin Homage
When we were thinking about how we could include Princess Ozma, the rightful ruler of Oz, we were inspired by one of the most iconic definitives around – the British Machin series. With her Art Nouveau style headdress of poppies and flowing hair, Ozma has a distinct and noble profile that would translate well into the style.
Silver Slippers Express
Did you know that Dorothy’s slippers were originally silver, not ruby-colored? We think the public domain color would make a striking express stamp (maybe with silver foil accents), for when your mail has to be there in three clicks of the heels.
Destination Cancellations
And of course, what’s a fictional postal system without its cancellations? We’d love to design a few cancellations for different locations in Oz and beyond, like the Dominions of the Nome King, taking inspiration from Oz illustrations by W. W. Denslow and John Rea Neill.
SHEETS & S/S
SPECIAL SHEETS
Stamps Take Flight
An Interview with Deborah Diana, Mixed Media Artist By Susanna Mills
Afew months ago, Mark Shirey, a frequent flyer and volunteer at the American Philatelic Center, emailed me, “Have you met Deborah Diana yet?” Mark had met Deborah himself last year at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts (Arts Fest), when he noticed her artwork Air Male, a mixed media piece depicting an eagle, with spirals of stamps in the background. He and Deborah became friends, and he purchased the piece to donate to the American Philatelic Center. Her story is fascinating, Mark told me – be sure to meet her if you get the chance.
Luckily, Deborah Diana (who is based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania), was coming back to Arts Fest. We stopped by her booth one morning to meet her in person, and in the hour before the festival opened for the day, Deborah gave us a tour of her booth and pointed out the stamps incorporated into her mixed media artworks.
When did you start making art?
I was very young. I was raised by my grandmother … we didn't have very much, but she gave me a bucket of water and a paintbrush, and I would paint a brick wall in the sun just with the water, wait for it to evaporate, and then I would start all over again. And ever since then I've been painting. I was very tiny, but I knew at that moment that's what I wanted to be and do, even as a young child. And I've been doing it ever since. Can you tell us about your art style?
I'm considered mixed media. I'm a painter generally, but a lot of my stuff incorporates different things. I'll have leaves, buttons, flowers, and stamps, of course. I love my stamps. I do a lot of pieces on maps. Whatever the feeling I have when I'm working with the piece, I'll try to incorporate.
Can you show us an example, and tell us about your process?
My subject matter is birds. I like to have continuity, so that's why I just have one subject … because I have so many different things happening within the painting, [that] it would be too much [to expand beyond birds].
This one is on a Rand McNally map. I drew the bird on the map with pencil, and then I went in with acrylic paint, some chalk, different things. Whatever I felt like with the mood. And this one doesn't have anything else in it. Some of the other ones do, like leaves, buttons.
Deborah Diana shows off her power pose at Arts Fest.
Black Cap Map is a mixed media painting of a black-capped chickadee on a map of Delaware and Maryland.
I like to use buttons. I had to ask myself, "Why buttons?" And it came to me. It's because [buttons] pull and hold things together, and I like to use them in that regard.
I like working big. When I was in school, I liked to work really small and very detailed, and my instructors encouraged me to move outside of myself and work a little bit bigger. Don't be afraid … someone might not like it, and that's okay. So move outside of yourself. And I've done that ever since. I've been carrying around these large pieces of work all my life. I have to work big. It makes a statement, too.
Can you tell us about Air Male?
Air Male was a long process, but it's a good story. And with art, it's about the story. People love to hear what comes behind the piece of artwork and the inspiration behind it.
I found these stamps and thought, what can I do with them? I wanted to incorporate them into art. And at that time, my son had just gotten a job with the Postal Service and I was so thrilled as a mom that he got a good job. So I put the eagle in there because the eagle represents the mail – and he is now a mail man. I thought, “I'll have him fledging, him flying.”
I created the background with all the stamps that I had, until I ran out and had to find another
Igor, on a background sheet of Igor Stravinsky stamps.
Tangerine Dream, a triptych of a Baltimore oriole. Note the real reeds and leaves, buttons, and stamps.
source. But a lot of the stamps came from my background as a professional bodybuilder. I had a lot of fan mail and I used those stamps, and my husband had a periodical that was involved with bodybuilding, and we used those stamps too. So it's a history of me, my son, his journey into manhood and getting a job that will support him.
I'd love to hear more about your bodybuilding career. How did it start? Where did it take you?
Oh, the bodybuilding career was huge in my life. It started in 1978. I was one of the first female bodybuilders in the United States. I competed in the [international] Miss Olympia contest. I was Miss USA in 1981. That was a hundred years ago. But I traveled around the world and did seminars and competed with many women and it was a great catalyst to see different places and meet different people. I retired in 1983. What kind of seminars were you doing?
We would visit different countries … for instance, Japan asked me to come and do a guest presentation on stage while they were having a show. I would do that and then after-
Don't be afraid … someone might not like it, and that's okay.
wards I would do a seminar. People would want to understand how I trained and lifted, and my diet and all that stuff. They were interested and curious, wanting to help other women understand how to do this, because it was relatively new. No one knew about female bodybuilding when I first started. But when I was in Japan, instead of having them pay me, I said, "Take me around. I don't want to just fly in and fly out of your country. I want to get to know your country a little bit. I want to climb Mount Fuji," which I did. So it was a very good experience. I did that in several other countries too. It was a great experience.
My husband works with me … he was a photographer who I met through bodybuilding. Art is a show just like bodybuilding. You have to get ready for the show, you have to be prepared. You
Air Male is on display at the American Philatelic Center.
have to present yourself well, whether it would be with the body or with paintings.
And because I was an artist, I was using my body as the canvas. ‘Cause when I was in Italy, I got inspired by Michelangelo and saw those figures and I was done. I was like, "Yes, this is what I want to do."
Since Air Male, are stamps a medium that you like working with for your painting?
The reason why I like the stamps is because they are a tiny work of art. Hello, it's fabulous. And there are so many of them. They're not regarded – as far as I can see, through the general public – as a work of art. I regard it as a very special piece of art and someone's life that they put the energy into to create that one piece. And it's so small and it's on a big giant table or in someone's box down in the basement.
Just going through them is difficult. When I was making Air Male, the reason it took me so long was because every time I picked up a stamp, I got into the stamp … and I'm thinking, "Deb, just go with the color. Just stay with the color. Stop looking at the details in the stamp and where it's from." For some reason, that was really important to me to find out where the stamp was from and why that image was there. So that's why stamps are important to me. I like using them within art.
If I can use someone else's art within my art, hello. That's fabulous. It will just enhance it all the more and give it more detail. And the reason why I put them in there is because I want the viewer or the owner to bond with the piece. Get in there and look at the piece. Get inside, understand what went into it. When it was made, in both ways. What I did and what the person did [who made] the stamp.
Michelangelo’s David is one of the most stunning sculptures ever created, and was an inspiration for Deborah's bodybuilding career. In her time as a bodybuilder, Deborah considered her body as the canvas for her art. Photo of David courtesy of Jörg Bittner Unna (2016).
ADani Leviss Cachetmaker
cachetmaker and science editor from the New Jersey area, Dani Leviss grew up in a philatelic household, with her father the co-founder of Barry and Gerry Covers and the BGC cachet line. She was designing first day cover cachets and learning the ropes of the trade for as long as she can remember. Today, she and her family produce BGC Legacy in her father’s memory and continue the cachet-making story.
On her start in the hobby
I was born into philately because my dad, Gerry, started Barry and Gerry Covers with his business partner right after I was born. They were dealers, selling different cachet lines and covers. I went to my first Americover show when I was nine months old. I used to color or nap under the dealer table and now I'm making cachets and selling them. So that's how it started out.
As a kid, there were a couple of times that I played around on the computer and designed some stuff and showed it to him. And then he created covers out of it. I wasn't a cachetmaker then, I was just a kid having fun making pictures.
And then after he passed away in 2011, as a family – my mom [Donna], my brother and me – we wanted to keep the business going, both the big picture business as a dealer, but also the cachet line arm of it.
Gallery
All first day covers shown are courtesy of Barry and Gerry Covers.
Dani Leviss (right) with her mom, Donna.
My brother came up with the idea to rebrand the cachet line as BGC Legacy. It's still the same Barry and Gerry Covers cachet line, but the new branding marks the evolution of it.
On her cachet-making process
As an example [of my work], this cover was from the great American eclipse in 2017 and the total solar eclipse stamp release. I found a scan from an old newspaper online, this article about the 1918 eclipse… that referenced that “the next time something like this will happen will be 2017.” I took the masthead of that paper, that segment of the article, and the edges of the paper to design this cachet, because I thought it was so cool that, nearly 100 years prior, they were thinking about 2017 and then here we are, living in 2017.
We always put information on the back or front of our covers. That's something my dad would always do, collect more information about the topic, educate people.
The designs happen in all different kinds of ways. The through line for BGC Legacy is that it's very eclectic. So sometimes I'm drawing, I'm paint-
DEEP DIVE
First Day Cover FAQs
What is a first day cover?
A first day cover is, at a very basic level, an envelope with a postmark (a.k.a. a cancel) applied bearing the same date as the date the stamp on the envelope was issued. For example, a letter canceled on August 15, 2024 bearing one or more of the USPS Pinback Buttons stamps would be a Pinback Buttons FDC.
What is the difference between a cover and a cachet?
ing, I’ll play with text … Another one was my mom’s work for the 10-cent Pears stamp. She stamped the fruit with paint and made prints and then I scanned all the prints she made and played with them and layered them on the computer in funky color combinations. We collaborated on that.
A cover is an envelope with a postmark and/ or a canceled stamp on it. A cachet is any design applied to a cover, whether printed, stamped, drawn, painted, etc., typically on the left side of the envelope to allow space for the address, stamp(s), and cancel. Modern first day covers usually have cachets, but it’s not required, and a cover does not need to be a first day cover to have a cachet.
What does it mean to send a cover to be serviced?
“Servicing” a cover refers to putting a stamp on a cover and having it canceled by the post office. In the world of FDCs, this can happen in a variety of ways. Covers can be canceled at a stamp’s first day of issue ceremony (when the USPS holds an official ceremony
Now that we’ve defined a first day cover, let’s throw all other definitions out the door! This unique cover by JGMAC Cachets uses a stiff, starched fabric and embroidery, with actual buttons pinned to the front. The sky is the limit for your creativity.
to celebrate the issue of a stamp), at any post office on the first day of issue, or by sending your covers to the USPS Stamp Fulfillment Services department in Kansas City, Missouri.
Where can I learn more about FDCs?
If you’re interested in starting an FDC collection or want to know more about this type of philately, head on over to the American First Day Cover Society website – they have plenty of resources for the beginner collector, including a helpful glossary of philatelic terms.
We often will do multiple cachet designs for any particular stamp. For example, for the Elvis stamps, we did a bunch of different designs about different aspects of his career. I came up with this design riffing on classic movie posters.
On choosing a medium
It’s about what’s best in service of the cachet design. Sometimes playing with text is a better way to go than drawing something. If somebody said, you can only do covers in this one medium for the rest of your life, I wouldn't know what to do.
On her cinderella souvenir sheet design for StampEd
The concept of giving young people and people outside the hobby an entry point to this world was super appealing to me. We emailed and talked about the design and found our idea... And it also was related to what I was going through at the time ... [helping her workplace unionize].
It meant I was thinking about what it means to protest and the labor movements … Not that this design has to do with labor movements, but it has that kind of energy, of activism in a way. That was appealing, as in the idea of pushing back at the traditional views of philately... [Editor Susanna Mills] had pitched the idea of a certain type of homemade posters, and collage, and it snowballed from there.
I think the design I ended up with also speaks to the process of making art, the process of creating in general. I'm a firm believer that art is in the making, not the final product. So, I hope collectors can feel the making when they look at that souvenir sheet.
all three elements work together in the best way?” Not like, “Well, this has to be here, so this has to be there.”
Design factors that Dani considers
My mom and I will look at what stamps are coming out that year and either see what topics we're drawn to or what topics we think collectors might be interested in. That narrows things down.
The elements that go into an FDC are the cachet artwork, the stamp, the postmark… Generally, artwork goes on the left, and stamp and postmarks on the right. But we're not that restrictive about the stamp placement, that the stamp has to go in the top right corner and the postmark has to go right next to it. You probably saw in the Elvis FDC that the stamp was at the bottom and the postmark was next to it. We think of it as “how do
CULTURE WAVE
To design the cinderella souvenir sheet for StampEd donors, Dani used photocopied pages from The American Philatelist about the launch of StampEd, and the
I'll print out artist proofs to see how it's looking on the envelope. We'll print the informational text on the front or back and proof that. And then once everything is set, we’ll test it with a mock-up of the stamp and cancel.
Sometimes we print directly on #6 3/4 envelopes. Sometimes we print on nice white paper, and then I cut and fold the covers, the way my dad did. If I want a design to have a full bleed, then that has to be on a piece of paper, because you can't print to the edge on an envelope.
How to service the first day cover
We buy the stamps ourselves at our local post offices. So sometimes that might mean my mom is
watercolor letters of her credit line come from different column titles in the AP. She combined painting and drawing styles on paper, and then finalized the design and layout digitally.
Riot Grrrl artwork and punk posters were inspirations for Dani’s StampEd cinderella design. Riot Grrrl Convention poster (1992).
calling four different post offices to get enough stamps because only one post office might carry a particular issue or they only have two panes of it.
I place them on the covers myself and we have to mail them out to Stamp Fulfillment Services in Kansas City. They have a specific order form that you have to use, and there are different charges for some of the services, like the digital color postmarks. The first 50 traditional postmarks are free, but if it's over 50, you have to pay a certain fee per cancel. The digital color postmarks you always have to pay for, so we only do those occasionally. So, we send that package out to Kansas City and then they service it there and then mail it back.
On her favorite cachets
I often go back to some early ones I did. The Jimi Hendrix one and the Janis Joplin one, those are from 10 years ago, but they're still some of my best work. In terms of the artwork, the cachet itself, and how everything fit together as a first day cover.
The Janis Joplin one is designed like a concert poster. It is a little different, because the stamp and the postmark are in the center and a lot of the artwork is on the right, instead of the left. With FDCs like that, you can forget that it's a first day cover, it becomes an art piece in its own right. And that's what appeals to me about first day covers in general.
You don't have to be a philatelist to be interested in collecting first day covers. It's meeting people where they are. You can't expect people to know about first day covers, if you don't bring it to them. There are lots of other hobbies that have the collecting mindset, and they'd probably be interested in this other type of collecting but they just don’t know about it.
Her advice for people who want to try designing cachets
One thing you can do immediately is buy the uncacheted FDCs from the postal service and just draw on them or glue stuff on them. It comes already serviced, so you don't even have to send it out to get serviced. That's a little baby step. They sell uncacheted FDCs for every single stamp that comes out. So a person could buy five of these and just doodle on it.
Just try things and see what happens, show it to people and see what they think.
DID YOU KNOW?
First day covers don’t actually have to be serviced on the first day of issue of a stamp – in fact, the USPS allows cachetmakers and collectors up to 120 days after the issue of a stamp to secure their first-day-of-issue postmark. They manage this with the help of their Stamp Fulfillment Services department, which handles nearly every part of the philatelic business of the USPS. Specialists from the department (which is located in a large underground business park in Kansas City, Missouri) will carefully apply either a color digital or traditional postmark to covers submitted by the public, either gratis or for a nominal fee (depending on the type of postmark and the amount requested), then return the covers by mail.
You can find out more about how to request your own first-day-of-issue postmarks on the USPS website.
Two cover designs for Pinback Buttons. One is serviced with the Americover cancellation; the other with the Great American Stamp Show cancellation. Official USPS first day of issue cancels were also available at the show.
The Topical Collector
By Susan Jones
Paleontology is the study of prehistoric life on Earth, conducted by analyzing plant and animal fossils. Philately is the collection and study of postage stamps. When you combine the two you get paleophilately – the study and collection of stamps depicting prehistoric life. The American Topical Association’s checklist for “Dinosaurs – Prehistoric Animals & Fossils” has over 4,000 entries that make it a good starting point for collecting paleontology on stamps.
In 1951, India issued the first stamp to depict a prehistoric animal (Figure 1). It shows an artist’s reconstruction of Stegodon ganesa, an extinct relative of the modern elephant. Figure 2 shows a fossil ammonite on the second paleontology stamp issued by Algeria in 1952.
A paleontology collection can be organized in many ways. You can collect a single type of fossil, for example, such as trilobites. Trilobites are cute little predators, scavengers, and filter feeders that lived during the Paleozoic Era from 538 to 252 million years ago. Figure 3 shows a stamp from Tunisia with the trilobite Pseudophilipsia azzouzi
You can expand a topical collection beyond stamps to include a variety of philatelic items focused on images of your chosen subject. First day covers (FDCs) are common, but commercial covers present a collecting challenge. Figure 4 shows a commercial cover sent from Algeria to New Jersey with three of the Tunisian trilobite stamps.
Figure
Figure
A country collection could start with stamps depicting fossils that are found in the country issuing the stamps. Figure 5 illustrates unusual inhabitants of prehistoric Australia that appear on a set of six stamps issued in 2005 titled Creatures of the Slime. The stamps depict the earliest known large, complex, multi-cellular soft-bodied organisms known as the Ediacaran Fauna (635 to 538.8 million years ago). This is a welldesigned, scientifically accurate issue with a lot of eye appeal. Plus, Australia Post simulated the feel of the actual fossils by embossing their images on the bottom part of this large souvenir sheet.
Figure 6 is a miniature sheet issued in 2020. The six stamps depict the wide range of extinct animals that inhabited the hills of the Bakony region of Hungary during the Late Cretaceous. Row 1 includes a frog, iguanodontian dinosaurs, and a bird. Row 2 depicts a gar (fish), a side-necked turtle, and a crocodilian.
Instead of a single country’s prehistoric issues, you could collect United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites of paleontological importance.
In November 2016, the Post Authority of Brazil commemorated Araripe Geopark with a stamp issue. Since September 2006, the park has been recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site – the first geological park recognized in the Americas. The two stamps (Figure 7), designed using both photographic techniques and computer graphics, feature a fossilized dragonfly and a moth. The Geopark contains one of the largest deposits of fossils from the Lower Cretaceous in the world, including 20 different orders of fossilized insects.
OUR ADVICE
For additional philatelic and paleontologic information check out the website Paleophilatelie at https://www.paleophilatelie.eu/. The website, authored and administered by ATA member Michael Kogan, shows “images and provides information about thousands of philatelic items related to Paleontology and Paleoanthropology … [sorted] by country and date of issue … [with] hundreds of pages describing individual stamp issues.”
I spy a ruler, a perforation gauge; Three pairs of scissors, and a tiny paper crane. A stamp collector's finding game, inspired by "I Spy."
A butterfly that's on a stamp, tongs, and seven shells; A flag postmark, four mini books, and a shiny reindeer bell.
Dungeons & Dragons and Stamps
By Van Siegling
Designed by Chad Cowder, our own D&D-inspired cinderella stamps, printed for StampEd donors.
Iinterests, reading (science fiction, fantasy, and military history) and war gaming, also known as conflict simulation.
Back in the early '60s when I started playing wargames, there were two choices: board games (with written rules and cardboard counters representing the military units played on a map with a hexagon grid) or making up your own game using lead or plastic miniatures and rules of your own devising (my group became very good sharpshooters with rubber band guns). If you had no one living nearby who was willing to play, you could use the grid system to plot your unit moves and play by mail!
Please keep in mind this was not only before the development of apps and smartphones, but also before the development of computer games. In fact, there were not even home computers. No collectible card games, such as Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh! There were some family board games produced by Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers, but nothing like the wide variety of Eurogames (such as The Settlers of Catan) available now.
I eventually became involved in amateur game design. As a side venture, I also sold games, rules, and miniatures at science fiction conventions throughout the Midwest. If you wanted to communicate with someone about a game, you WROTE and MAILED a letter! (Long distance phone calls were very expensive.)
In a hand-written letter dated April 10, 1968, Gary Gygax (who you may know as one of the co-developers of Dungeons & Dragons), invited me to attend the first Lake Geneva Wargaming Convention and
display my game of Middle Earth. The map took up half a ping-pong table and was the first game to have a playable hidden movement system. My parents drove me to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where I slept on the couch in Gary’s living room. This gathering of gamers is now known as Gen Con One.
In early 1974, I sent a letter to Gygax inviting him to attend a game convention in central Ohio. In a reply letter from Gygax dated February 20, 1974, he wrote about two products his new company was producing, Cavaliers & Roundheads, and Dungeons & Dragons Dungeons & Dragons was a new type of game developed by Gary Gygax and David Arneson. In the fourth paragraph, he stated this about D&D:
D&D isn’t quite ready as of the writing, but I will guarantee that the reference sheets and lables [sic] for the box (all that’s yet being printed) will be ready….
The set contains three booklets (36 pp, 40 pp, & 36 pp, all reduced to small but legible type due to the length of the rules), just packed with illustrations, pull-outs of the most commonly used charts, and a sturdy box. Cost is $10.00 -- $6.00 wholesale. D&D is perhaps the best set of fantasy rules ever! (Arneson and I did ‘em, and I have to say they’re great, even at the risk of sounding like a braggart.) They are for campaign play, and a referee is required. However, no miniature figs’ are necessary, and our group plays almost
By Dragon Cards, a dual cancel
exclusively with paper and pencil. Currently we have over a dozen players in the game, and at some sessions we’ve had 20 people!!! They are an expansion of the CHAINMAIL fantasy section, but D&D goes a heck of a lot further. The fellows have to be limited to two games a week; otherwise they’d want to play all of the time (seriously!).
Please note, in the early days the person who ran a game was called the referee. Only later did that person earn the name Dungeon Master, or DM. Gygax states that miniatures are not needed to play. This is still true. However, it is much more visually appealing to play with painted figures on a tabletop.
After I submitted my order, I got an invoice erroneously dated March 5, 1972; with the date corrected to March 5, 1974 on the second page of the letter. Gygax wrote:
The rules will be shipped under separate cover within a day or two. They’d be posted immediately, but there is a slight delay with the printer, and the reference sheets for D&D aren’t quite ready.
Without access to the old Tactical Studies Rules company files (if they still exist), I believe we can confidently say that the first boxed sets of Dungeons & Dragons were assembled and shipped sometime in March 1974. So, if we are honoring the 50th anniversary of D&D this year, why the delay in issuing the D&D stamps until August? This goes back to 1968 and the first Gen Con, which was held in August. This year, Gen Con Indy was held in Indianapolis on August 1 through 4.
Over the intervening 50 years, Dungeons & Dragons has gone through many changes. It started out with three-character classes: fighter, cleric, and magic user. A thief class was added very quickly. Now, there are a multitude of classes to play. What was a small selection of mon
sters now takes up books of all the evil creatures for adventuring parties to fight and overcome.
On July 25, Great Britain honored Dungeons & Dragons by issuing eight stamps. All of them portray monsters. If your exploring party is lucky, you might not meet them in a campaign. They are:
Beholder. Also known as the sphere of many eyes, it is a deadly beast that doesn’t like anyone!
Displacer Beast: This creature can bend light so it is not located where you “see” it.
Gelatinous Cube: A trap animal for unwary adventurers to stumble into while exploring a dungeon.
Vecna: An undead skeleton with magical powers.
Red Dragon: These meat eaters love human and elven youths! And they breathe fire.
Mind Flayer: If you are unlucky, a mind flayer will bend you to its will.
Owlbear: Imagine an owl the size of a large bear…. with a nasty attitude!
Mimic: Another trap animal, a mimic “looks” like something normal, such as a treasure chest, until it attacks!
Four of these stamps pay the First Class rate and four pay the £2.50 rate.
On August 1, the United States Postal Service celebrated the 50th anniversary of D&D and its cultural impact with the issue of a set of D&D stamps, featuring illustrations from the games' books. There were two first day of issue ceremonies in Indianapolis, Indiana for the stamps. The primary location was at Gen Con, at the Lucas Oil Stadium, although you could also buy the stamps at the Indianapolis Main Post Office next door. The stamps are:
Bronze Dragon: These dragons have an alignment of lawful good, so they will often help a party of adventurers.
Tiamat: This chromatic dragon is a powerful 5-headed draconic goddess, one of the most evil creatures in D&D. Evil cultists have been known to worship this big nasty.
Maze: The maze is a common feature in dun
We’re All Nerds Here
When the StampEd team heard there were going to be Dungeons & Dragons stamps issued this year, we all had the same thought: how can we turn this into an opportunity to play D&D during work hours?
It didn’t quite work out that way in the end, but we did write a D&D one shot (a.k.a. a scenario that takes only one gaming session to play) with the assistance of our colleague and officemate, Corey Thibault-Cuhel, who happens to be a gaming entrepreneur when not wearing his APS videographer hat.
That one shot was played live on the floor of GASS 2024, with Myles Tate-Alsgaard, a pro DM from Connecticut’s own The Battle Standard, transporting two groups of players to Osoa, a magical land on the verge of an industrial revolution. As riders for the Wyvern Express, a courier company facing irrelevance thanks to the advent of artificer Durg Granitebane’s “engine,” players were tasked with preventing the loss of their contract to Granitebane by sabotaging his train and generally “raising hell.” Of course, it’s never that easy, but where there’s a will, and a wyvern, there’s a way.
Want to have your own adventure in Osoa? You can download our guide to the game, plus character sheets and the additional materials we prepared, at aps.buzz/WyvernExpressDownload. We even made some stamps for the occasion – we are a digital magazine for the next generation of stamp collectors, after all!
A Philatelythings first day cover for the new U.S. D&D issue is serviced with the first-day-of-issue cancellation while laying flat, then folded up into a 20-sided die shape.
Acererak: This powerful wizard became a lich, and later a demilich. He first appeared in the World of Greyhawk adventure. He can ruin your day!
Drow: The Drow are a race of dark elves that live underground. Most of them are evil, but there are exceptions. The Drow pictured is Drizzt De’Urden, who is friendly to parties comprising good and neutral members. He is the main character in a series of more than 30 books written by R.A. Salvatore in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
Red Dragon: Although the picture is different, this is the one repeat monster also shown on the British issues. Red Dragons breathe a cone of fire. An Adventurer Bathes in a Pan of Toxic Green Magic Blood to gain Magical Powers: Sometimes good things happen when you do something unusual. And sometimes not!
Death Knight Riding a Nightmare: Since he is leading a large evil cavalry unit, you might want to let him pass without drawing attention to your party.
Purple Worm: This is one of the original monsters that appears in early editions of D&D. I suspect this is a nod to the worms of Arrakis as
Many different countries have issued stamps with a fantasy theme. If someone wanted to make a collection or exhibit of the “Monsters in D&D” these two sets would fill many holes. There are also a few Zazzle stamps that claim to be D&D related.
The idea of what can be played as a tabletop roleplaying game has also exploded. No longer limited to medieval fantasy, you can find rules for virtually any era in history including the future and outer space. Most literary genres are also covered. And if you do not find what you are looking for, write your own! “House rules,” local interpretations of what is written, are very common, but do vary from group to group.
A good role player needs to have imagination and brains. To paraphrase game designer and writer Michael Stackpole, gamers are functioning mentally on three different levels while playing. One, "I am the mighty fighter planning to attack that monster." Two, "What do I need to roll to strike the dragon?" Three, "Whose turn is it to pay for the pizza?"
Yes, I still have more than one hobby, and I’m glad I do. I love it when I can combine two of them into the same project. Oh, and I still have that third hobby, reading. Have you seen my exhibit on Harry Potter recently?
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Designed by Walter Douglas George.
Designed by Colorano Silk Covers.
Untangling the
Philatelic Web Untangling the Philatelic Web
Your friendly neighborhood librarian shares the best websites for stamp collecting research
By Natalie Mitchell
ASthe library manager at the Vincent Graves Greene Philatelic Research Foundation in Toronto, I work in a library filled with amazing reference books, published exhibits, and archival materials galore! While these physical resources are amazing, not everyone is able to visit our library in-person to conduct their research. Librarians do their best to help those who cannot visit physically, but there are many stamp collectors who may feel uncertain about beginning to research their collection. One of the most daunting steps for many collectors is moving from “hobbyist” to “philatelist” or “postal historian” and having access to reliable digital resources is key to confidently moving forward in your collecting journey. For anyone who wants to dive deeper into the research side of their collections, I have compiled this guide of beginner-friendly resources that should get you started into the world of collection research. Do you have more specific questions regarding your collection or where to get started? Feel free to email me at library@greenefoundation.ca.
Collection databases
Colnect colnect.com/en/stamps
Colnect is one of the best online databases for researching your postage stamps. With tons of filtering options and image search capability, this site is userfriendly and is a great starting point if you don’t have access to a set of Scott Catalogs. The site is wiki-created, with contributing collectors updating the site constantly. You can even sign up to be a contributing collector and support other philatelists! It also has an app-version of its world stamp catalog (called World Stamps), which I find to be pretty useful for stamping on-the-go.
Postage Stamp Guide (Canada and U.S.) postagestampguide.com
Postage Stamp Guide is a great resource for studying Canadian stamps, and its U.S. section is under construction but growing by the day. What sets this apart from other databases I have used is its informative “About” section for each stamp listed. The site usually pulls this “About” info directly from USPS or Canada Post publications, so it is a reliable and handy quick reference.
OUR ADVICE
Colnect also offers the Stamp Identifier app, which has a free version as well as a paid option without ads. The app lets you scan stamps via your phone camera, then searches the Colnect database for results. It can be a bit tricky to use, but it’s fast and relatively accurate, making it a boon for beginner collectors.
Postage Stamp Guide offers key info for Canadian and American stamps – seen here is their entry for the USPS Chippendale Chair 4-cent stamp.
Colnect is a contributor-created stamp database that functions like a Wikipedia for stamps. Seen here is a basic entry for a Czech stamp featuring the Wikov 35 "Kapka," a prototype Czech car from the 1930s.
Stamp Market Index www.stampmarketindex.com
Perhaps you are interested in researching the value of your collection, or how stamp price trends have shifted over time; Stamp Market Index (SMI) is the perfect database for you! SMI pulls from two decades of eBay stamp sales and is the largest database of stamp prices realized ever made publicly available. While I don’t advise getting into stamp collecting “for the money,” understanding the market value of your collection can provide important insights and guide future collection decisions.
Digital archives
Internet Archive archive.org
If you have not had the pleasure of perusing the Internet Archive, prepare to get lost in the world’s most amazing digital library! If you are on the hunt for an obscure historical resource to enhance your collection research, try searching for it on the Internet Archive. Libraries, archives, and museums from around the world have uploaded their material onto this site for free and they’ve got everything from books to digitized films and audiotapes (ahem, check out the
Vincent Graves Greene page for fun Canadian philatelic publications from yesteryear). If you are interested in searching for old versions of philatelic websites that have gone defunct, you can search the URL on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
Your local library www.akronlibrary.org/ research/databases-by-title and www. torontopubliclibrary.ca/databases (for example)
If you are researching local postal history, I highly recommend looking through your local public library’s digital databases. Most public libraries have some sort of digital database access for their users, which may include fulltext newspaper, magazine and journal articles, or genealogical databases that can be useful in postal history research.
The Smithsonian National Postal Museum postalmuseum.si.edu/search-the-collection
The Smithsonian National Postal Museum is an amazing place to visit, but if you are unable to go in person, then its digital collections are a great surrogate. Enjoy high-res images of stamps, letters, covers, and postal history photos and artifacts! It also has a fabulous glossary, which will get you up-to-speed on all the philatelic lingo.
APRL Robert A. Mason Digital Library digital.stamplibrary.org
You knew it was coming: The APRL’s Robert A. Mason Digital Library. The American Philatelic Research Library’s digital collections include scanned copies of resources from the library collection, born-digital resources, and content contributed from other sources. These resources
Just one of the 102 titles available to read in full on the Vincent Graves Greene Internet Archive page.
Stamp Smarter, a groundbreaking and award-winning philatelic website created by the late Don Denman, features a library section with a vast number of philatelic resources for hobbyists of any level.
are available for free to everyone (no log-in necessary!), and it truly has something for every interest area.
Stamp Smarter has a very fun online library of articles, PDF downloads, videos, and tools that will get you started on nearly every philatelic topic. If you want to get a taste of a new topic or find a clear and simple overview of a philatelic principle, Stamp Smarter has you covered!
Digital tools
Philosateleia and FreeStampAlbum.com www.philosateleia.com and www.freestampalbum.com
Looking to up your album game? Check out Philosateleia for free U.S. album pages, or if you’re more interested in custom pages, use FreeStampAlbum.com to design and download pages of your own.
DeepL www.deepl.com/en/translator
Whether you use the app, website, or browser plugin, DeepL is one of the best quicktranslators I have used. The app allows you to translate from an image, meaning that you can take a quick snap of a stamp in your collection and translate all of its text. If you are researching using a catalog in a language you are unfamiliar with, you can take a photo of the page to translate in the moment
Postmark Reveal www.postmark-reveal.com
Postmark Reveal is a simple tool that makes deciphering postmarks way easier. Upload an image of the postmark you are trying to read and this site will run it through dozens of filters
that will alter the contrast of the image, making the postmark more legible.
Bonus!
From the Page fromthepage.com
This site is not the most obvious philatelic resource, but if you are getting into postal history and have a hard time reading cursive handwriting, this is a great practice tool. From the Page is a crowdsourcing platform used by archives and libraries where volunteers transcribe, index, and describe historic documents. I have been a volunteer transcriber with them for five years, and have transcribed U.S. Civil War letters, whaling ship logs, and letters from 1850s California. Not only are you helping archives and libraries enhance their collections and make them more accessible to researchers, but you also get better at reading different styles of handwriting that you may be less familiar with. Some of the letters may have visible stamps or postmarks, which is a great opportunity to flex your postal history knowledge and provide additional context that the library or archive will certainly appreciate!
The HSPL’s Digital Resources Hub www.greenefoundation.ca/digital-resources
What is an article without a little shameless self-promotion? Our library has created a Digital Hub for online philatelic resources. It is constantly growing, and was created to help direct philatelists to websites relevant to their interest areas. If you have any favorite websites that you want others to know about, send me an email and I’ll add them to the Hub!
Make It Stick
By Jessica Manack
Finding Supplies: Novel Ideas to Keep Your Stationery Stash Stocked
When you’re someone who sends a lot of mail, you can find yourself going through supplies – both stationery and postage – quickly. If you get creative, though, you’ll find that there are a lot of places to find stamps and stationery that wow your recipients, while also helping to keep this hobby affordable.
Stamp shows: A bounty of beauties and bargains
You likely already know about stamp shows in your area. If you don’t, though, here’s a quick overview: in addition to an exhibition, shows also host vendors offering a range of philatelic materials for sale. Some vendors sell rare and collectible stamps for those looking to fill gaps in their collections. Others will have a selection of unused vintage stamps for sale. The format will vary. Some vendors will offer full sheets, while others will offer assortments of a single value, such as packs of 100 5-cent stamps at face value. If you’re lucky, you will find vendors with a large amount of stock, looking to move it by offering it at a discount. It’s common to find unused older postage selling at 70% of face value, though I’ve also seen it as low as 50% of face. It’s possible to bargain with sellers, especially if you’re buying larger quantities. Some people use their local annual stamp show as a way to buy most of the postage they plan to use over the next year (while still keeping an eye out for the new issues).
Yes, rare and in-demand stamps will command higher prices. (I love the Frida Kahlo stamps, but so do a lot of people!) Buying stamps this way is a great chance to familiarize yourself with some of the interesting issues of the past. If you’re a postcard fan, you may also find vintage and postcards for sale at your local stamp show. However, search online for postcard shows. In the Pittsburgh area, we have at least one annual show specifically for postcards. You can also do a search for “vintage paper show” with your town or region name to see if there are any in your area. These shows sell
everything from postcards and greeting cards to antique advertisements.
Postal stationery: stationery and stamps in one convenient package
The USPS has regularly produced a series of prestamped envelopes, postcards, aerograms, and other formats, with postage already printed on the paper, since 1853. Great news – just like postage stamps, the value of these doesn’t expire. To use them, simply figure the rate of postage you need, and add additional postage to reach that figure.
Postal stationery can be bought new, either plain or personalized (which is helpful for big mailings). You can find these in various places – stamp shows and auction sites will often offer lots, or you can look in places like Craigslist. I once found a defunct business liquidating assets, including boxes of 500 #10 envelopes with postage attached, for far below the face value of the postage. Each box held 500 envelopes, each bearing a 32-cent stamp, for a total of $160 in postage, and I bought them for $20/ box. To use the envelopes, apply additional postage to match the current rate (and your savings are stretched when you’ve bought that postage below face value).
One of the top benefits of using postal stationery is that the designs are unique, and sure to surprise your contacts. From veterinary science, to tennis, to space exploration, you can match your mailing to its recipient’s interest.
Creative places to search
Many cities have creative reuse centers, which are a sort of thrift store where unneeded arts and crafts items are donated and sold. I have friends who have found unused postal stationery in the bulk bins of our local center. These places can also be a hotbed of other items to help make creative mail, like paper and envelopes, rubber stamps, rub-on letters, and more.
I have also found fine stationery in the bins at my local Goodwill Outlet, where items are sold cheaply by the pound. Many people today rely exclusively on digital communications, and no longer maintain a personal stash of social correspondence, so they choose to pass it on in this way.
Estate sales can be another place to find stashes of stamps, or even postal memorabilia. You can check listings in your area, where sale organizers often post descriptions of sales and even photos of lots, on their social media or
DID YOU KNOW
Yes, the heavily discounted Forever stamps offered in bulk on social media look like a great deal. But buyer beware – these are often counterfeits, and not only are they extremely common, but they are increasingly difficult to spot. Learn more by reading our previous article in StampEd’s first issue.
websites. I’ve also bought stamp lots at live auctions.
A tip: if the auction specializes in a certain type of item – tools, farm equipment, etc. – with just a lot or two of stamps, you may be in a fortunate position, with no competing bidders.
Sending mail is a passion for many. I find that there’s nothing better than a handwritten note to make a moment special. But the cost of sending mail regularly as a hobby can really start to add up – especially when price adjustments occur up to twice a year, or if you have friends and family overseas. Using these creative techniques, you’ll be able to stretch your postal pennies to keep sending as much mail as you want.
Out and About
By John Hotchner
Exhibiting: Yes You Can!
Astamp collection is a very personal thing. When you begin, the only person to see it will be yourself, and maybe a family member if you want to share the enthusiasm you feel. Hopefully, you will join a stamp club, and that is a great place to share your album and your new finds with other collectors who share your interests. It’s great to have an audience who can appreciate your efforts.
But what about showing your collection to a large group of complete strangers? That seems like a stretch! But there are collectors nationwide who do just that. They are called philatelic exhibitors, and you can be one of them, as I am.
Why would we do such a thing? There are several reasons, but let me first tell you that exhibiting is using your stamps (and sometimes covers with your favorite stamps) to create a philatelic story. Perhaps you have seen exhibits at shows you have attended. If not, take an opportunity to view the exhibits the next time you visit a show.
Take a look at how the exhibitor introduced the exhibit subject on the title page, how the stamps (and covers) shown in the exhibit are organized, how the exhibitor used brief descriptions to identify the material, and how they present the story from beginning to end.
With this experience, you are now equipped to come up with ideas for how you might do something similar. Settling on a subject is not difficult. Think “America in Space,” or “The story of the Liberty issue of 1954,” or “Triangle stamps in worldwide philately.” There are thousands of possibilities.
Let’s return to where we began: why exhibit? Some exhibitors enjoy the act of creating their story and seeing their accomplishment up in the exhibit frames. Some get a positive feeling out of seeing people at their frames admiring their work.
Other exhibitors, and I’m one of these, think of themselves as recruiters, using their exhibit to encourage others to become collectors, or to get people who are already collectors to join our particular collecting field.
Some exhibitors see their exhibit like writing an article in a philatelic newsletter or magazine. Not only are we sharing what we have learned and showing off our favorite stamps, we are also supporting our club and telling readers what we are interested in and what we are looking for. Many are the times that a viewer has contacted me to say that they have or know of items that would fit in my exhibit.
Finally, there are other exhibitors who enjoy the challenge of getting their exhibit from the Bronze to Gold medal level.
Whatever the motivation, actually creating an exhibit is surprisingly easy. Once you have surveyed the stamps and covers you have, and
have settled on a topic, there are a few steps that you will take to turn them into exhibit pages. Here is a typical progression:
1. Determine how long your exhibit will be. This will depend upon the exhibition you are going to enter. The competitive standard in the U.S. is a frame, which fits 16 pages, size 8.5"x11”; if you are starting at a stamp club level, you might begin with four or eight pages, and sometimes exhibits consist of just one page. The bigger the exhibition, the larger the exhibits can be (up to ten frames with 16 pages each), but virtually all – even national level exhibitions – have a one frame division that welcomes short exhibits. Oneframe exhibiting is a good place for new exhibitors to start.
2. Gather in one place all the stamps (and covers) that are candidates for your exhibit. Think about how you might arrange them to tell your story.
3. Put the material you have in a rough order of how your story might unfold. Use stock cards to place the stamps and covers the way they might fit on each page.
4. Next, print or type the descriptions you will use to identify your stamps and covers. Place those on your stock cards so that you have a mock-up of what a final page might look like.
5. At this point look at how your draft pages fit together in a sequence to tell your story. Rearrange the material and descriptions as needed. Add or drop material or text until you are happy with the pages.
6. Once you have your storyline established, and you know what will be in the exhibit, make your exhibit title page. It starts with the title you have chosen, states the purpose of the exhibit, and shows how the exhibit is organized.
7. As you work through steps 1-5, you will identify stamps you could add to the exhibit story if you had them. Every exhibitor has a want list, and the deeper you go into the story you are telling, the more you will want to add to it. Half the fun of exhibiting is finding material to add that makes the exhibit better.
DID YOU KNOW
The American Philatelic Research Library’s digital library is adding hundreds of exhibits to its collection over the next several months. Check out the exhibits, with topics from “70 Years of Flight” to “The Road to Apollo 11,” to “Woody Guthrie, his life and his songs” all available to read for free.
8. Transfer the text part of your drafts into a computer document. For the first time you do this, use a simple word processing program, and adjust the margins, as exhibit pages normally have smaller margins than letters or reports do. I normally use Microsoft Word. There are far more complicated programs with fancy capabilities that can work for you, but I think it is better to start with a program that helps you to get used to making pages with a minimum of effort.
9. Some people like to hand-write their pages, but remember that as your exhibit grows, and it likely will, making changes to pages will be easier if you are working on a computer document. Once you have completed a page, print it out and see how it looks with the stamps/covers on it. You may need to adjust spacing, or move material around, but you are getting close to having completed pages.
10. Once you are happy with a draft, ask a family member to read through the exhibit to make certain it is easy to follow and understand, and to catch any typos you might have missed.
11. Make any final corrections, and print out your page on thicker paper – I recommend 32lb bright white paper stock, which is available at most office supply stores.
12. Place your stamps and covers on your completed page using hinges, clear mounts, or clear photographic corners.
13. Put your completed pages in clear sheet protectors, and admire your work!
The larger the exhibition, the more likely it is that the exhibit will be judged by a panel of experienced collectors, using an easily understood point system. If you would like to learn more about judging criteria and how that process works, go to www.stamps.org, click on Events, and find Judging Information. There you will find the APS Manual of Philatelic Judging and Exhibiting; a gold mine of information on how exhibits are evaluated, with a detailed explanation of the points system.
The job of an exhibit judge goes beyond awarding medals. If you ask, they will explain why your exhibit got the medal it did, and will make suggestions as to how you can make the exhibit even better.
It is tempting to view the exhibit as your baby, and to take criticism of it personally. Although completely understandable, that is a mistake. The perfect exhibit has yet to be created. I’ve been exhibiting for 50 years and
The American Topical Association hosts a yearly program called “My One-Page Exhibit,” an invitation for exhibitors old and new to create a single-page exhibit of their philatelic interests. Membership in the ATA is not required to take part.
The Chinese Horsesof Lascaux
Fran Adams
By painting and etching on cave walls, our prehistoric ancestors captured their ice age perceptions of life. In doing so, they didn’t realize their visions would endure for more than 400 succeeding generations; it was the dawn of art.
Cave paintings were reported in remote caves in the south of France by unnamed sources in the late 1860s. Modem historians believe prehistoric cave art has shamanistic origins associated with rituals of hunting magic.
Lascaux is 19,000-13,000 years old and has more paintings than all other caves. Its crystalline mineral base brightens colors and acts like a modern beaded projection screen providing a sense of additional depth to the art making it seem alive and at times moving.
A procession of three shaggy ponies is located in a diverticule leading from the great ‘Hall of Bulls’. They are referred to as ‘Chinese Horses’ as the style resembles horses in Chinese paintings. Due to modern air pollution, the cave is now closed to visitors and climate controlled to protect it from the elements.
The Chinese Horses of Lascaux, a one page exhibit designed by Fran Adams. Fran told us that he enjoys the one page exhibit challenge, saying, “I learn about subjects I may know little about.”
I always value what the judges tell me, as it is easy to lose perspective on your own work. So, remember, it is the exhibit that receives the medal, and the exhibit that is being critiqued, not you. Your job is to set your ego aside, evaluate the advice the judges give you, and decide which recommendations are worth adopting.
You are not alone as you begin exhibiting. There is a support group of about 800 exhibitors, judges and show administrators called the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors. It has a quarterly journal, a mentor service, critique services, and a website (www.aape.org) that can be of great help. It includes an archive of successful exhibits that can be accessed as guidance on how a philatelic story can be developed, and other aspects of exhibit preparation. There is also an article titled “Getting started in philatelic exhibiting” that provides more information on the above themes. Member-
ship is only $25 per year ($26.50 for the first year). You can join through the website.
We looked above at reasons to exhibit. There are also many reasons not to exhibit. Most of them fall into the category of excuses: I don’t have time. I don’t have expensive stamps. Putting myself “out there” in an exhibit is a bit scary.
I would answer that we all have time for the things we want to do. It’s a matter of making the time to do them. The hardest thing about exhibiting is getting started. Once you do, your enthusiasm will take over and the steps outlined above will turn out to be enjoyable. And the more exhibiting you do, the easier it gets.
If you have questions that I can help to answer, feel free to contact me at jmhstamp@verizon.net.
It is a common misconception that exhibitors must be wealthy. What that ignores is the fact that knowledge and the way you tell your story in your exhibit (what exhibitors call “treatment”) accounts for many more points than the rarity of the stamps and covers you include. There have been many exhibits based on inexpensive stamps that have won high awards because the exhibitor uncovered and included new information about the stamps, or identified new varieties. So, while it is true that the fabled bottomless checkbook is an advantage to exhibitors in showing rarity, that is not enough to win high awards; nor does it stop those of us of more modest means from being successful exhibitors.
Cave art ponies appear to have short stiff manes, resembling Przewalski horses found in Mongolia.
Signed presentation proof with ponies
Postage meter device with revised 5 digit zip code after German re-unification (stalactites
Przewalski of Homo sapiens cro-magnon admiring Chinese Horses 4th pony to the right
Ponies amongst the aurochs
Things We Like and You Like
On Our Playlist
The Swedish pop band I’m From Barcelona had a 2008 song “Collection of Stamps.” Best lyric: “I'm telling everyone that I know that every stamp in my collection is a place we could go.” Thanks to Mark Shirey for the suggestion!
Kendra Gaylord (from Screentime) on the history of diners, what happened to affordable eating, IKEA, Celebrate the Century stamps, horses, and Gilmore Girls… yes, all in the same video.
Our neighbors at the Vincent Graves Greene Foundation have a new Tiktok account! Check out this video where they show you how to make your own homemade cover with scrap paper, scissors, and glue.
the FEED
In 2022, the USPS released their own board game: The Great American Mail Race. One reviewer called it family friendly and “dripping in theme.” Have you played this game?
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Stamp Issues Game Corner
This beautiful Isle of Man collection has gorgeous style – peep the gourd carving stamp! Perhaps a philatelic first?
This German stamp is for the largest heavy metal festival in the world AND has an epic magic theme. I’m sold!
Give Us a Holler
What do you collect? Send us a photo to share in StampEd! Tag @StampEdPub or email StampEd@stamps.org.
Kendra Gaylord
We first learned about Kendra Gaylord thanks to her funny and informative TikToks about stamps – but we soon learned that’s just one facet of her work. As the host of the Someone Lived Here podcast and a YouTuber with almost 100,000 followers, Kendra tours historic homes, connects history and pop culture, and reviews the architecture in horror films, among so many other things. We loved talking to Kendra about her channel and podcast, modern counterfeits, and her thoughts about the newest USPS releases.
When did you first become interested in stamps?
I have always thought the mail was incredibly cool. Everything about it: post offices, the process that makes mail delivery possible, stamps. One of the things I love about stamps is their utility. A small piece of art for (now) 73 cents that can send an envelope thousands of miles away. That’s a pretty cool sticker!
I usually describe myself as a stamp enthusiast, not a collector. Recently, I have been holding on to more stamps, but I really do believe that modern stamps’ power is their potential to go anywhere and that’s what I try and remind myself when I’m hoarding a stash. The StampEd team came across your stamp content on TikTok first, but your main focus with your podcast Someone Lived Here and
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Podcast: someonelivedhere.com
your YouTube channel is history and architecture – can you tell us about that aspect of your work, and how you came to study those topics?
I have always loved old houses and history, but I didn’t really know that I could do anything with that. But five years ago, I went to the Alice Austen house while my mom was visiting me in New York. It is a very horizontal white house with gingerbread trim, and inside I saw photos Alice took of her friends in their youth and later [photos of] her love, Gertrude Tate. As I was experiencing the space I just wanted the world to know about this woman. I had been to a lot of house tours and just felt like historic house museums weren’t getting the love they deserved. They are focused on preserving one person’s home and history. By doing that they open up a door for us all to better understand the past. To see history on a personal level. When I went from full-time to freelance from my job in marketing, I used that schedule flexibility to record and create the first season of the
podcast, Someone Lived Here. The first time I posted a TikTok, it was an attempt to tell people about that first Alice Austen episode, which had gotten a few hundred listens after a year of being out. That video did not do well. I watched more people’s videos and I liked how people could be both goofy and serious on the platform. I’d always had a thousand opinions about stamps and would occasionally post them as stories on Instagram. So I decided to do these little ranking videos, which were mostly just jokes about what I liked and hated about recent stamps. And over time people were coming to me to find out about new stamps. The best part is having a group of equally excited people in the comments to talk to.
Initially on YouTube, I was trying to really tell people specifically about stamps, but over time I have transitioned to talking about history, working in stamps when it is relevant. What I love about this set-up is that more people who probably don’t think about stamps are getting exposed to them. Your stamp content is almost exclusively about modern issues (which we love). Can you tell us a bit about why you chose to focus on modern stamps, especially when your work as a podcaster is so rooted in historic art and design?
I love useful things and I think Forever stamps are one of the most useful and valuable pieces of sticky paper that exist. My interest in stamps came from me just buying stamps at the post office. I remember designing my Christmas cards to match the 2016 Pickup Truck stamps and going very out of my way to get the 2013 Vintage Seed Packet stamps.
I am usually deciding on a stamp based on if I love the art. When I buy older stamps (I own probably fewer than 10 sheets), it’s that same reason. For me it’s not about rarity, it’s about how much I enjoy it.
My all-time favorite stamp set is the Post Office Murals stamps from 2019 because it really connects all my favorite things: post offices, art, and the New Deal.
Kendra shares her thoughts on stamps on TikTok, where she reviews stamps, offers advice on what stamps to use on mailings, and answers questions from her viewers.
Kendra's podcast, Someone Lived Here, is in its third season. Check it out on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
You’ve talked about the counterfeiting surge we’ve seen over the last several years on social media – and have had your stamp content stolen by social media accounts selling counterfeit stamps. Can you tell us about that?
For a while I was getting served videos on TikTok that were mine but had been uploaded by a newly created account that was selling counterfeit stamps. You can’t have links on your profile unless you have more than 10,000 followers, so I’m not sure how many sales were actually happening. I would report the videos and keep an eye on the pages to see how they were doing; usually their videos had less than 100 views each.
Most of my videos were stolen around 2022 – I don’t see many of my videos being stolen on TikTok anymore, because I think it might not be that successful. My dream is that platforms like Facebook, Google (search and email), and TikTok Shop would crack down on the counterfeit stamp advertising through their ad programs. If you could work with the USPS to design a stamp (or several stamps as part of the same issue), what would you choose as a subject, and what would it/they look like?
I have so many ideas for this so I will try to contain myself. I would love to create a sheet on historic houses. I know, shocking. They would be designed as a throwback to the 3-cent, green stamps of historic homes like Sagamore Hill and Gunston Hall, but with smaller homes of creative people. Anne Spencer House in Virginia, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Steepletop in New York, the Wanda Gág House in Minnesota. Maybe it’s writer themed with a title like “Where writers wrote.”
Do you have any advice for us (and traditional stamp collectors in general) on how to get younger generations interested in stamps? I think one thing that makes stamp collecting hard is it feels a little daunting to get into. There is a lot of educational material, but it all feels designed for experts. I am not sure there are that many on-ramps for people who might be interested in starting collecting today. Providing explainers of even the simplest elements of collecting and mail in general is to everyone’s benefit. There is currently a lot of collecting that has been popular online recently. Pokémon cards, Funko Pops, stickers. Clearly people are still into collecting. But I think the way people think of collections can really vary. For a sticker collection, some people might keep them in a protected case, while others have their collection stuck on their water bottle. I think welcoming in the many different ways of engaging with stamp collecting, whether it be formal or informal, will help the entire community.
Edna St. Vincent Millay’s house, Steepletop. Photo by Midnightdreary.
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Start from Scratch
Exploring the Olfactory with Scratch-and-Sniff Stamps
By Christina Tang-Bernas
ATthe top of your nasal passages behind your nose, there is a patch of neurons about the size of a postage stamp that contain hair-like projections called cilia. Lightweight, easy-to-evaporate, carbon-based organic molecules called esters float through the air all around us. These esters enter our nostrils and bind to the cilia, triggering the neuron and alerting the brain, which interprets this electrical impulse into our experience of scent. Our sense of smell affects our emotions and brings memories to the surface, and for many of us, the subjects depicted in postage stamp art do the same. Thus, it’s not surprising that scented stamps were created once the technology became available.
Bhutan was the first to produce scented stamps, introducing the technology with a set of six stamps. Issued on January 30, 1973, the stamps depicted a variety of roses and used a printing process that took more than a year to develop, with ink that incorporated the authentic scent of roses.
Many other scented stamps soon followed, and then stamps with scratch-and-sniff technology appeared on the scene. While the Australia Post had a scratch-and-sniff area on the booklet of the Gardens stamp issue that smelled of freshly mown grass in 2000, the earliest scratch-and-sniff stamps were issued by Switzerland on May 9, 2001, looking and smelling like a yummy bar of chocolate in time for the centennial celebration of the Association of Swiss Chocolate Manufacturers.
Popular scents of both scented and scratch-and-sniff stamps include chocolate (Belgium, Grenada, and Liberia), coffee (India, Colombia, and Brazil), and fruit (Germany, Iceland, and French Polynesia). Flowers, especially roses, are a particularly favored scent, with stamps issued by South Korea, Norway, and the Philippines, among others. China even released a stamp in 2007 that was supposed to both smell and taste like sweet and sour pork in honor of the Year of the Pig for the Lunar New Year. The American Topical Association has a checklist of scented stamps (List #1253) that currently lists 293 stamps (and counting!).
How Does Scratch-and-Sniff Work?
While working for 3M in the 1960s, Gale W. Matson was attempting to create a new method for making carbonless copy paper using a method called microencapsulation. These tiny capsules containing a colorless ink would coat a sheet of paper (the “original” document). When you wrote on the paper, it would break these capsules and release the ink. The ink would mix with a developer chemical on the next sheet of paper to change color and essentially copy your writing to this next paper (the “copied” document). The United States patent office granted Matson the patent on June 23, 1970, and the possibilities for using the same technology for scent were almost immediately considered.
Model of the ethylvanillin molecule, one of the earliest synthetic scent molecules.
A souvenir sheet featuring two of the 1973 scented stamps from Bhutan.
In fact, one of the earliest uses of scratch-andsniff technology can be found in the 1971 children’s book Little Bunny Follows His Nose by Katherine Howard, even though the first patent for a translucent fragrance-releasing version of microcapsules wasn’t issued until January 15, 1985.
To create the tiny capsules — as small as 20–30 microns in diameter — for scratch-andsniff products, a scented oil is blended together with water and a water-soluble polymer so quickly that it breaks into tiny droplets. Once the droplets are the right size, this solution is combined with a chemical that makes the polymer water insoluble. This makes the polymer separate from the water and form a shell around each individual droplet of oil, thereby “encapsulating” it. The microcapsules are then mixed with a water base and an adhesive, and this mixture is what is applied to the paper via various printing methods.
When the surface is scratched, these tiny capsules are broken, which releases the fragrant oil that we smell. Since only some capsules are broken each time it’s scratched, it’s possible that the scent in the unbroken capsules could last for years, making scratch-and-sniff stamps preferable over scented stamps that don't use this technology.
Frozen Treats (United States)
The first scratch-and-sniff stamps issued by the United States Postal Service were part of the Frozen Treats issue, released on June 20, 2018 — the day before the summer solstice. Featuring watercolor illustrations of colorful popsicles by Margaret Berg and designed by art director Antonio Alcalá and Leslie Badani, it had a sweet, sugary aroma when scratched. Alcalá said that “the stamp design came first, and they inspired us to try scratch and sniff.” Berg did not know that the stamps would eventually be scratchand-sniff but was “tasked with creating visu-
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ally inventive and appealing popsicles without a request for specific flavors.” The printer, Ashton Potter, used the flexographic printing process to print the vibrant design, including the scent overlay.
National Jamboree (Switzerland)
While Brazil released scented stamps smelling of burnt wood to raise awareness of the dangers of forest fires in 1999, the Swiss Post continued its line of scratch-and-sniff stamps with a 2022 issue that smelled of campfire to celebrate the National Jamboree. This special Swiss event only takes place every 14 years (or so) and saw 30,000 guides and scouts setting up camp together in Goms in Valais that summer. A competition was held for the design of this stamp, which was won by mova-Designteam, led by Marisa Zürcher, who also designed the brand identity for the National Jamboree.
Knowing that the stamp would have a campfire scent, the team wanted to evoke the "community, singing, and the bad smell of all the clothing when you come back from a scout camp … these memories [they] find crucial for the scouts as a youth organization." They decided on a more illustrative design, with the campfire as a focal point and then the other figures and details being observed on closer inspection. As Zürcher said, "Details with narrative content should not be too small or must be removed to prevent the image from becoming too busy." The final illustration then works "on two different layers with image and scent allowing the final piece to become a more associative and intriguing whole."
In fact, during the actual camp, campfires were forbidden because of the danger of forest fires; subsequently, a meme appeared that, when translated from Swiss German, reads “when you have to cook on gas and miss the scent of campfire,” with an image of someone
sniffing the National Jamboree postage stamp instead.
Baguette (France)
The most recent popular (mentioned in StampEd’s second issue) scratch-and-sniff stamp was released by La Poste on May 16, 2024, the day of Saint Honoré, the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs. Designed by Stéphane HumbertBasset and printed at Philaposte using the rotogravure method, it depicts the quintessential French baguette and gives off the scent of bread when scratched.
While Humbert-Basset knew that the stamp was going to be scratch-and-sniff, he wanted to make sure that the stamp could stand on its own if the scent disappeared — that “the creation must be totally independent of the perfume." His artistic approach is very playful, so the baguette design "is a little reminiscent of fashion drawings, with a slightly retro feel, lightness and savoir vivre."
Potential Concerns
While these scratch-and-sniff stamps can be delightful for many and highly sought after, there were some concerns raised by the American Lung Association that “the fragrances may pose a risk for many of the more than 26 million Americans living with asthma, including both postal workers and the public” by triggering their condition and that “fragrances used in workplaces have been linked to new onset asthma.” Avoidance of certain fragrances are the best way to prevent these attacks, but that can be difficult when receiving unexpected mail or while handling the item as a postal worker. However, James McKean, the senior public relations representative of the U.S. Postal Service, recently said that “the scent that was printed
Postage stamp meme, courtesy of Marisa Zürcher
National Jamboree cover, courtesy of Marisa Zürcher.
Sheet of National Jamboree stamps, courtesy of Marisa Zürcher.
and
on the Frozen Treats stamps and the process to select it has not been revealed to the public. However, the supplier of the materials has provided a written statement that the coatings and print varnish used for the scratch-and-sniff stamp feature “complies with all the safety requirements listed in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.”
For those who are more focused on collecting these stamps rather than sending or receiving them by mail, the focus would be more on how well they retain their value over time. This value is often based on the “grade” a stamp receives, or the condition of the stamp based on various criteria. Randy Shoemaker from the Philatelic Stamp Authentication and Grading said that the scent of the stamp is not taken into consideration during the grading process as “over time, there would be no scent [for scented stamps]; consequently, there would be no value in the scented part of the stamps.” However, he went on to say that “scratching the stamp could
and would potentially change the color, thus adding to or changing the Scott Catalog number, which is problematic” and that “the stamp itself would probably be damaged by the process of scratching.” Therefore, this seems to pose an issue: does one enjoy the reason for purchasing the stamps in the first place — the interactive, scented aspects — but potentially lessen their value in the process? Or keep them pristine but not get the full experience? Even better, purchase two panes or booklets!
Conclusion
Having designed many different postage stamps, what Humbert-Basset finds exciting is "to find a different solution every time, a technique, a treatment, a range of colors adapted to the subject," and the pleasure he takes in creating these designs are always rewarded: "The public guesses it and shares the pleasure with us." In the case of scratch-andsniff stamps, we are able to take pleasure from the stamp using multiple senses: the wonderful design, the evocative scent, and the texture of the stamp under our fingertips as we scratch it. And with the plethora of scratch-and-sniff stamps from all around the world, it’s possible to take a multisensory journey without leaving our own home. Perhaps future technology could combine scents with other senses or even combine multiple scents to evoke a more-complex feeling. It’s interesting to think about what combination of scents represent the places we love and the memories that we treasure.
READ MORE
American Topical Association. "ATA Checklist Topics." Accessed July 1, 2024.
“Lung Association Tried to Stop Scratch and Sniff Stamp Issue,” Linn's Stamp News (July 1, 2024).
“Scented Rose Issue – (Six Single Stamps),” Bhutan Postage Stamps. Accessed July 1, 2024.
“Scratch and Sniff,” How Products are Made. Accessed July 1, 2024.
Stage, Jeff. "Sniffable Stamps," The American Philatelist 132, no. 8 (August 2018): 807–808.
Packaging
first day of issue of Baguette stamps (Courtesy of Stéphane Humbert-Basset).
Sheet of Baguette stamps, courtesy of Stéphane Humbert-Basset.
By Ken Martin
Why do some stamps not have perforations on the edges?
Most countries issue stamps in a number of different formats for the convenience of the public. The most traditional format is in a pane or sheet. The first postage stamps were printed without any ready-made method of separation. To be used, stamps had to be cut or torn from sheets or panes. By the mid1850s, perforations were introduced to make stamps easier to separate. Still, in most cases, the stamps along the outer edges of the pane had straight edges on one or (in the case of the stamps in the corners) two adjacent sides.
1n 1895, Luxembourg became the first country to issue postage stamps in booklets, which usually consisted of two or more small panes. A stamp booklet could be more easily carried in a wallet or purse. As with early stamps printed in sheet format, the outer edge of most booklet stamps is straight rather than perforated. In the early 1900s, vending machine companies requested that the post office issue stamps without any perforations and the companies privately perforated them to work with their equipment.
Today, the USPS manufactures coils of stamps for use both by the public and for bulk mailings, for which equipment can be used to automatically affix the stamps to envelopes more efficiently than in other formats. Most coils have straight edges (no perforations) on two sides opposite each other (top and bottom
Two examples of stamps issued in coils. The 1956 3-cent Statue of Liberty stamp (left) is perforated, while the 2022 4-cent Blueberries stamp is die cut; both feature straight edges on top and bottom.
or left and right). Imperforate stamps, or stamps that have straight edges on all sides, have also been issued specifically for sale to collectors.
Technically, most current United States selfadhesive stamps are die cut rather than perforated. Die cutting allows for easily separation without requiring removal of paper or chad.
My stamp is a slightly different color than what’s listed in the catalog. Does that mean it’s rare?
In most cases, no. Minor variations in color from the printing process are common. They could be a result of heavy or light inking of the printing plate or even a change in the composition of ink.
Environmental exposure can also affect stamp color. Many early U.S. stamps are sulfuretted (sometimes called sulfurized), meaning they have changed color after exposure to sulfur in the air and other substances. Collectors most often see orange and yellow stamps that have turned brown, but any ink color can be darkened by exposure. Sunlight also frequently causes the color of stamps to fade and sometimes even makes it appear that a color is missing, which might be mistaken for a rare printing error.
Finally, use of chemicals to try to remove or hide a cancellation often results in an alteration of the original color of a stamp.
Have questions about stamps or collecting that you want to ask us? Send them to StampEd@stamps.org, subject line "No Bad Questions."
The Mexican 5-centavo stamp on the left has been exposed to sulfur and the design is largely brown in color. The nonsulfurized 5-centavo stamp on the right is still a vibrant orange, similar to how it would have looked when originally issued in 1903. Stamp images courtesy of Tom Bieniosek.
A brief introduction to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee
By Nora Bryson
Would you believe me if I told you that there’s a secret organization that meets four times a year to decide the fate of all modern U.S. stamp collectors, nay, all Americans who send mail? I hope not, because that’s a gross overstatement.
And yet…
The Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee (usually referred to by its acronym, CSAC) isn’t really a secret. They have a page on the USPS website and everything, and their activities are more or less described by their name – they’re a committee that advises USPS about stamps.
The first CSAC was comprised of six members from philatelic and artistic backgrounds and one liaison from the United States Information Agency, a now-defunct diplomacy agency of the federal government. The committee and several representatives of the USPOD are pictured here in an article from the June 1957 issue of The American Philatelist.
Yet, it seems like most of the U.S. doesn’t know that the committee exists, or that it reviews tens of thousands of stamp ideas from the public every year. And if they don’t know that, they probably also don’t know that CSAC’s recommendations to the Postmaster General, more often than not, decide what stamps get issued in the U.S.
See what I mean about deciding our fate? But if you’ve enjoyed any stamp since the late 1950s, you can probably thank CSAC.
Established in 1957 under Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield, CSAC was not the first advisory committee assembled to improve the quality of U.S. stamps. In the 1940s, artists in New York, unhappy with the current state of the stamp program, came together to submit designs to the U.S. Post Office Department. Some of these suggestions were eventually produced (in heavily altered form), though the vast majority of stamps were still designed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. A few years later, Summerfield was named Postmaster General by President Eisenhower and attempted to organize a committee of artists to consult on stamp design, but his efforts at the time were in vain. It wasn’t until L. Rohe Walter, special assistant to the Postmaster General, arrived on the scene that an advisory committee finally stuck – CSAC held its first meeting on April 30, 1957, and has been with us ever since.
These days, CSAC is comprised of between 10 and 15 members, appointed by the Postmaster General, who come from various backgrounds that help them make the tough decisions about what stamps to recommend. Some, like APS President Cheryl Ganz, are philatelists, and bring a knowledge of past issues and what collectors are looking for to the table; others, like Gail Anderson, are artists, and lend their design expertise to the committee and the artists
CSAC is credited with improving the art of stamps and advancing the cause of color printing by the Post Office. Seen here is an excerpt from an article from The American Philatelist, listing the stamps approved by the committee for the year following its formation, with examples of the stamps issued.
completing final stamp designs; still others, like recent appointee Trish Jackson, are marketers, and give context for what issues are most likely to appeal nationwide. The committee is focused on creating a balanced program of around 30 stamps a year that represents a wide variety of national interests, from important historical events to advances in science and technology to enduring cultural icons.
Once CSAC has come to a consensus on the stamps submitted for their review, their formal recommendations are passed on to the Postmaster General, who makes the final decision on what stamps will be issued. From there, the USPS Stamp Development team takes over, but CSAC members are involved in the design pro-
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They're Good Dogs, Bront
cess of the approved stamps and work closely with the chosen artists.
Making Your Stamp A Reality
So, say you have an awesome idea for a stamp. While it’s far from a sure thing that your stamp will make it to a post office near you any time soon, actually getting the idea in front of CSAC is relatively simple. The committee stresses that each submission that meets their criteria is considered at one of their quarterly meetings, so all you have to do to make sure your idea is seen is follow the rules.
Spoiler alert: There are a lot of rules. Though CSAC meetings are confidential, their criteria for stamp consideration is publicly
Military Working Dogs (a set of four stamps issued in 2019) could be attributed to one man’s dedicated, years-long campaign. Dave Keeton, of Battle Creek, Michigan, is a Vietnam Army veteran who was partnered with a German shepherd, King, for 18 months while in active service. Impressed by the working dogs that worked as scouts, mine detectors, and rescue team members, Keeton advocated for a commemorative stamp from 2006 until the stamps’ issue in 2019, working together with veterans associations and encouraging the public to join his campaign. His dream was realized at the APS Stamp Show in 2019, where he spoke at the first day of issue ceremony for the four stamps.
Members of CSAC pose with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy at a quarterly meeting in 2024. From left to right: Dr. Cheryl R. Ganz, Dr. Spencer Crew, Dr. Kevin Butterfield, Roger R. Ream, PMG DeJoy, Graham Beck, Alicia Cheng, Mike Harrity, Trish Jackson, Gail Anderson, Ivan Cash, Peter Argentine, and Dr. Joseph L. Kelley, Chair.
available via the USPS website. You can head over there to read the full rules, but here are the basics.
If you want to suggest a stamp to CSAC, you’ll have to plan way in advance – the organization officially requires submissions to be sent in three or more years in advance of the theoretical stamp issue date. Ganz tells us that realistically, you should be planning four to five years in advance for specific anniversaries, so start looking at events happening in late 2028 through 2029 if you want to submit an idea in the next few months.
Postage stamps must primarily feature American or American-related subjects, specifically representing significant contributions to society, history, culture, or environment – so while Alex Trebek was born in Canada, as a naturalized American citizen who had a huge impact on American culture via Jeopardy!, the stamp released in his honor this year fits the bill.
The Trebek stamp also brings up another key factor: living people cannot be honored on U.S. stamps, and as of 2018 must have died three years before any proposals for stamps will be considered (Trebek passed away in 2020). American presidents are an exception to this rule, automatically qualifying for a memorial stamp following their deaths.
The six active-duty branches of the U.S. military (Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, and Space Force, including Reserve/ Guard components) are also eligible for commemorative stamps, apparently without restriction; their related service academies, however, are only eligible for consideration on anniversaries in multiples of 50 years.
Anniversaries of national events, like statehood anniversaries, important legislation,
DID YOU KNOW
Some U.S. stamps do depict a living person, despite a 1866 statute that "no portrait or likeness of any living person... shall be placed upon any of the bonds, securities, notes, fractional or postal currency of the United States." Philatelist and author John Hotchner keeps a running list of over 75 examples. In some cases, living people have been models for the figures on stamps, or fictional characters played by living actors have been depicted on stamps.
Submitting My Own Stamp Ideas
Doing all this research got me thinking, so I put together a list of stamps I’d like to see on my mail in the not-so-distant future. Some are a bit niche and don’t fit all the guidelines, but others I think stand a chance of making it through the CSAC process – so I’m going to submit my three favorites to the committee.
I Spy series by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick
I think I Spy stamps would be an absolute slam dunk –these picture riddle books have enthralled American children for decades, encouraging reluctant readers and helping create unplugged family time. Plus, who wouldn’t want to see a beautifully photographed jumble of objects on their mail? For this issue, I’m picturing a pane of 20 stamps, which together create one of Wick’s classic tableaus, with the selvage of the sheet featuring a rhyming list of objects to seek out.
Celebrating America’s Rail Trails
This one has everything: the great outdoors, good clean fun, and the potential for some really lovely designs. I’m thinking four or five different designs featuring key rail trails in the U.S. (including the Elroy-Sparta State Trail, which was the first official American rail trail) in a classic WPA poster style. Throw in a different style of bike for each trail and you’ve got it made.
Sandwiches of the U.S.
As a proud member of the Gastronomy on Stamps Study Unit, I would be remiss if I didn’t suggest a cuisine-related topic, and what incapsulates the American culinary experience better than sandwiches? This series could highlight any number of sandwiches, whether classic national dishes like the PB & J, grilled cheese, and club sandwich, or region-specific mainstays like Pennsylvania’s Philly cheesesteak, Kentucky’s hot brown, and Nebraska’s runza. And if they were scratch and sniff, well, I wouldn’t turn my nose up at that.
IDEAS
A few of my stamp ideas didn't make the short-list of options that I'll be sending to CSAC to consider.
50th Anniversary of Star Wars
I want this, but also everyone wants this. It’s a sure-fire winner for the USPS and I can’t imagine it won’t happen considering that Lucasfilm and Disney have been willing to loan out the IP on other less prestigious occasions (a stamp sheet in 2007 celebrated the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, and a 2021 set celebrated the droids of the Star Wars universe). Advocating for a done deal seems a little silly, so into the reject pile it goes.
50th anniversary of the album Rumours by Fleetwood Mac
Rumours is an iconic album that has seen a resurgence of popularity in recent years, thanks in large part to younger generations discovering the music of Fleetwood Mac via social media. I would love love love to see this album, which was recorded in California by the half-American band, celebrated with a stamp. Unfortunately, since the art so famously features images of living people (namely vocalist Stevie Nicks and drummer Mick Fleetwood), it likely wouldn’t be eligible for the USPS stamp program.
50th Anniversary of Chuck E. Cheese
The longest long shot of the list. The idea of Charles Entertainment Cheese stamps tickled me at first, but the longer I think about it the more I regret having the thought at all. Perhaps instead USPS might consider a more generic arcade-themed issue for all of us '90s kids. I’m thinking tokens, cabinet joysticks, the “insert coin to play” button, pizza slices, and soda cups – and how about some zany carpet patterns for the selvage?
50th anniversary of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launches
This one seems almost as likely to happen as a Star Wars issue, and I very much hope it does, but I’m sure someone at NASA is putting in their own submission. Imagine a shimmering golden record arriving on your mail! Please, CSAC, please!
Voyager 1 has never appeared on a U.S. stamp, although Voyager 2 appears on three, all from a 1991 set depicting space exploration of the planets (including, at the time, Pluto).
The 30-year anniversary of Star Wars warranted a beautiful celebratory set, so surely we’ll see a 50th commemoration, right? (Right?)
or peace treaties can also be commemorated every 50 years. That’s why the First Continental Congress is being commemorated with a stamp this year – it first met on September 5, 1774, 250 years ago.
Just because a topic is American, though, doesn’t mean it’s sure to be selected for a stamp – the subject has to have made a “positive” contribution to the nation. That means “negative occurrences and disasters” are not on the table – unless you can come up with a different angle. Take, for example, the Heroes of 2001 issue featuring Thomas Franklin’s photograph of three firefighters raising the American flag over Ground Zero. While the semipostal stamp was clearly tied to the events of September 11, it did not explicitly commemorate the attacks and therefore adhered to the criteria.
Finally, the USPS acknowledges through the criteria (and CSAC reminds us often) that only so many stamps are issued per year, so while all submissions are considered, the accepted suggestions have to have themes with national appeal and significance. That means locations smaller than a state, non-profits, associations, and similar topics are unlikely to qualify for stamphood (though they have in the past), and stamps commemorating organizations or individuals whose principal achievements are religious in nature are prohibited. Instead, CSAC and USPS suggests applying for commemorative postmarks, which can be requested for local events or commemorations.
Once you’ve checked your stamp suggestion against the 11 criteria to make sure it could be reasonably approved, it’s time to write your letter. That’s right: CSAC only accepts submissions via the good old U.S. mail. No email, phone calls, website petitions, or personal appeals, please (but you can use a computer to type up your submission). Ganz recommends limiting the proposal to one concise paragraph with no artwork. The paragraph should make a strong case for why the subject has national appeal and represents the best of America.
If you’re planning to submit multiple stamp ideas, make sure that you only include one topic per letter – there are apparently no restrictions on how many suggestions can be submitted at a time, but each has to be mailed separately.
Then you’ve just got one step left – pop that bad boy in the mail! I can’t say whether a snazzy stamp selection on the envelope might help your chances (it almost certainly won’t), but it never hurts to put your best foot forward, and also, it’s fun!
Address all submissions to:
This 2010 stamp of Mother Teresa seems to conflict with several CSAC criteria: the Catholic nun was born in Albania, worked in India, and founded the Missionaries of Charity congregation before being canonized as a saint (in 2016) – achievements that are inarguably religious in nature. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Reagan in 1985, and was made an honorary citizen of the United States but calling her an American subject seems like a stretch.
The Heroes of 2001 semipostal, issued in 2002, raised money for the families of rescue workers who were killed or critically injured during the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
Once your submission goes in the mail, it’s out of your hands. Assuming it meets the criteria, your anonymized stamp suggestion will be put before CSAC at its next quarterly meeting, and officially, no amount of lobbying, even from government officials or celebrities, will help your cause. As CSAC points out, with as many submissions as it receives in a year, and the limited number of slots in the stamp schedule, plenty of perfectly wonderful ideas are passed over – if your suggestion is rejected, you’ll have to wait three years before you try again with that idea. On the other hand, if your suggestion is recommended and approved for issuance as a stamp, you won’t receive official credit or compensation, but you’ll probably get a warm fuzzy feeling. And really, isn’t that what stamps are all about?
GET SOCIAL
What stamp ideas do you have? Let us know what you think should be commemorated in the next few years at StampEd@stamps.org.
PSTAMP TREK
oland issued its first stamp in 1860, when it was ruled by the tsar of Russia. The stamp is modeled after the first Russian stamp, is inscribed in both Polish and Russian, and paid the postage for a one-ounce letter within Poland or to Russia. The tsar ended the use of this stamp in 1865, in response to an unsuccessful Polish insurrection. Although these stamps are over 160 years old, they cannot be considered scarce, since over 5 million were printed during the five years of usage.
From 1865 until the end of World War I, postal services in Poland were provided by the empires occupying Poland: Russia, Germany, and AustriaHungary. Collectors look for stamps with Polish postmarks from these empires.
Collecting Poland
During World War I, German forces occupied the Polish areas formerly ruled by Russia. The Germans overprinted German stamps with “Russisch Polen” (Russian Poland) for these Polish areas. These were replaced by German stamps overprinted “Gen. - Gouv. Warschau” (General Government Warsaw). These overprinted stamps are easily found, and give the collector a taste of World War I history.
By Thomas Bieniosek
To read the full article and learn more about Polish stamps, check out www.StampEd.pub.
Poland’s first stamps as an independent nation were created in 1918 by overprinting stamps originally designed for the local post in Warsaw. This issue was followed by the stamps issued by the German General Government occupation regime, overprinted with a second overprint reading “Poczta Polska” (Polish Post). These stamps are also easily found, and provide the collector a souvenir of the Second Polish Republic.
Similar to Germany and other countries of central Europe, Poland suffered extreme inflation in 1923. Stamp denominations reached as high as 2 million marks.
At the start of World War II, Germany annexed much of Poland that it had previously only occupied, and left the remainder of the country under another General Government regime. Many of the stamps issued in this period mocked Polish culture; for example, by describing Copernicus as a German astronomer.
Near the end of World War II in 1944, the Polish government established in territory occupied by the Russians, issued a set of three stamps honoring Polish national heroes. The stamps featured Romuald Traugutt, who led the unsuccessful insurrection against the Russians in 1863; Tadeusz Kościuszko, who, after helping the United States in the Revolutionary War, led an unsuccessful insurrection against the Russians in 1794; and General
Jan Dąbrowski, who fought with Kościuszko in the insurrection of 1794 and composed the Polish national anthem. These stamps are quite scarce, with a very strong demand from collectors, because within a week, the set was replaced by stamps printed in Moscow.
Besides the stamps with overtly political themes, Poland issued many stamps with high artistic merit and quality. The renowned Czesław Słania started his career engraving stamps for the Polish post office in this period. A 1958 stamp showing a four-horse stagecoach was even printed on silk! These stamps would be an asset to any collection.
In 1979, the newly elected pope, John Paul II (born Karol Wojtyła in Wadowice, Second Polish Republic, and now venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church), made an official visit to Poland, an event recognized by the communist government with a stamp. How many other stamps are there showing a saint which were issued while the saint was still alive? Historians suggest that the enthusiasm generated by this visit may have started the process which led to the end of communism, not only in Poland, but eventually in Russia and its satellite countries.
In 1980, inspired in part by the pope’s visit, Lech Wałęsa founded the Solidarity trade union, independent from communist control. The communist regime reacted by imposing martial law in 1981, which in turn led to a massive increase in the number of Solidarity members. Solidarity printed labels, ostensibly for a clandestine post, which are now much sought after collectors’ items.
Besides telling the fascinating story of Poland’s history, the stamps of Poland also describe the geography and nature of Poland. Using stamps, a collector can travel from the Masurian lakes of northeast Poland to a coal mine 1,000 feet underground in Silesia in the southwest. Poland is home to Europe’s only herd of native bison, and the nation has taken great pains to restore historic buildings like the Royal Palace in Warsaw and Wawel Castle in Kraków. Stamps display various aspects of Polish culture, such as the celebrations of Christmas, Easter, and Dyngus Day.
OUR ADVICE
For more information about the philately of Poland, contact the Polonus Polish Philatelic Society, www.polonus. org. Collectors seeking stamps of Poland are encouraged to check out the APS StampStore, or request circuit books from the APS circuit sales division.
By Nora Bryson
Stamp Shopping Extravaganza
Have you been looking for a place to shop for stamps but aren’t sure where to start? Want to make sure you’re buying from someone who knows a Scott #594 from a #596? Is your regular dealer no longer offering international shipping? Why not check out APS StampStore on HipStamp?
With StampStore, you can shop the collections of current APS members, who sell on consignment through the official APS HipStamp store. You’ll find everything from the most classic classics to modern souvenir sheets among the nearly 200,000 items available for sale, from just about every country in the world. StampStore also sells sets of stamps and covers, so no matter how you collect, there’s something interesting waiting for you.
I searched “dogs” in APS StampStore and got 138 results. Nice! My official review: lots of nice sled dog representation, plenty of purebred dogs, not enough absolutely grizzled mutts.
Shopping on StampStore is simple, and a lot like your favorite online stores. If you don’t already have a HipStamp account, you’ll get the most out of your shopping experience if you make one before you visit StampStore – it’s easy and free to sign up. Once you’re set up and logged in, visit www.stampstore.org from your desktop or mobile device and start browsing!
If you’re looking for stamps from a specific country, issued in a certain time period, or more, you can filter your results on StampStore using the tools on the left side of the page, and you can sort your results by price, date listed, and popularity using the drop-down Sort menu on the top
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The American Philatelic Society is the largest non-profit organization for stamp collectors in the world. Founded in 1886, the APS serves collectors, educators, postal historians, and the general public by providing a wide variety of programs and services.
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Editor-in-Chief, Susanna Mills • Senior Editor, Jeff Stage Digital Editor, Nora Bryson • Graphic Communications Specialist, Chad Cowder Publisher, American Philatelic Society
A philatelic feast for the eyes, inspired by the I Spy series. Designed by the StampEd team and photographed by Corey Thibault-Cuhel.
