For fans of The Philosateleian U.S. Stamp Album, I have some great news this morning: the Fall 2014 Supplement (190 KB, 4 files, 9 pages) is now available!
The USPS seems to have scheduled fewer new issues over the past three months than was the case earlier this year, which gives us collectors a bit of a breather. Still, with some updates to past series, there are several pages in this supplement that you’ll want to be sure to update.
Enjoy!
As the weekend draws to a close, I have a bit of a teaser for you, dear reader. Philosateleian Post will release its first ever diamond-shaped local post stamp this fall, most likely in October or early November.
The new stamp’s design has not yet been finalized, and I haven’t formally announced what’s being commemorated, but here’s a sneak peek at the frame:
You are, of course, welcome to speculate on what this all means. If you would like to receive a copy of the new stamp when it’s available, just send a self-addressed stamped envelope to the address listed on my contact page.
I checked my post office box yesterday, and inside was a cover bearing a copy of the latest local post stamp from Scott A.’s Purgatory Post:
The stamp, which celebrates the centennial of the opening of the Panama Canal, depicts the SS Ancon, which on August 15, 1914—exactly 100 years ago today—became the first ship to officially pass through the canal. (According to Wikipedia, two other vessels had actually already made the trip through Central America, but the Ancon gets credit for it.)
The frame of Scott’s new stamp makes me think of some of the United States commemoratives from the late 1900s on up until the mid 1920s, with big, solid labels accentuated by scroll work on the sides. I’m happy to add this one to my collection.
Have you ever noticed how, when there are several different varieties of a particular stamp, you might end up with multiple copies of all but one variety, and that last one is all but impossible to find even though it’s theoretically very common?
Such is the case with this year’s Star-Spangled Banner stamps. I have glassines stuffed full of the stamps die cut 9.4 vert. or 11.2×10.8. I even have a couple of singles from the ATM booklets. But for whatever reason, the booklet single with “USPS” in the fireworks above the flagpole continues to evade me. I’m sure it will turn up and some point, and when it does, I’ll work up a post on how to identify the different varieties.
Are there any common definitives issued in the last couple of years that should be easy to find used but that you haven’t yet managed to acquire?
Two or three weeks back, I received my copy of the Quarter 3 issue of USA Philatelic, the United States Postal Service’s official sales catalogue. While thumbing through it to see what might be of interest, I noticed that something didn’t look exactly right on page 25.
Although the large illustration of the $19.99 USS Arizona Memorial stamp is okay, the stamps in the pane of 10 depicted behind it have no denomination! “USA” and the face value were omitted from the stamps.
My wife asked if maybe the information was omitted intentionally. I suppose it’s possible that someone was afraid the “stamps,” if values were printed on them, might be cut out and used on letters. It does seem strange, though, to omit the face values from those stamps only when other stamps are depicted with the values merely crossed out.
The denomination omitted stamps don’t really exist as far as I know. But what do you think? Did USA Philatelic make a mistake, or is the omission intentional?