Volume 22, Number 3

March 2008

THE NEW RATES

UPCOMING EVENTS

Cranberry Stamp and Postcard Show - Sunday, March 16; 10:00am - 4:00pm.  Four Points Sheraton Inn, 910 Sheraton Drive, Cranberry, PA (North of downtown Pittsburgh, at the interchange of I-79 and the PA turnpike) About 8 stamp and cover dealers from the local area, good selections, a nice program.  Sponsored by Sandra & Jan Harris.  Call 412-851-1674 for more information.

TRIPEX Stamp Show – Saturday March 22, 10AM - 3:30pm, Tri State Stamp Club, Lavale Volunteer Fire Dept., Station 1, 421 National Hwy., Lavale, MD (Cumberland). Contact: Jeff Hutter, evenings and weekends. jeff.hutter@twrcommunications.com  301-777-0379 

Garfield-Perry March Party – Friday March 28, 11AM-6PM; Saturday March 29, 10AM-5:30PM; Sunday March 30, 10AM-4PM; Masonic Auditorium, East 36^th Street and Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH; 50+ dealers. Website address: http://www.garfieldperry.org/marchparty.html

Spring Expo, Saturday, April 19: Cumberland Valley Philatelic Society, Eugene C. Clark, Jr. Community Center, 235 S. Third Street, Chambersburg. Contact Quinn Witherspoon, rspran@pa.net; 717-264-1252.

WILKPEX 2008 - Saturday, April 19, 10AM-5PM; Sunday, April 20, 10AM-3PM; Garden City Hall Inc., 600 Garden City Drive, Monroeville, PA. 15146.  Directions: Take Rt. 22 West to Monroeville from Turnpike Monroeville Exit.  Turn right at first traffic light Rt. 48 north.  Stay north on Rt. 48 to the first traffic light and turn left onto Old Wm. Penn Hwy.  Continue to the second (2nd) stop sign and turn right onto Garden City Drive. Stay on Garden City Drive. Parking Lot for Garden City Hall is after the third (3rd) stop sign, just before you get to the hall in the Garden City Plaza. 

LANCOPEX 08 – Saturday, April 26, 10am – 5pm; Sunday, April 27, 10am – 4pm; Farm & Home Center, 1383 Arcadia Rd., Lancaster, PA. Sponsored by the Lancaster County Philatelic Society, Contact: James Boyles, jboyles@dejazzd.com; Tel: 717-394-5118.

Favorite Stamp Balloting 

At our February meeting we voted for our most and least favorite stamps of 2007.  The ballots were sent to Linn’s for inclusion in their poll.  The results are:

Commemorative:

Best Design: Longfellow

Worst Design: Jury Duty

Most Important: Gerald Ford

Least Necessary: Jury Duty

Definitive:

Best Design: Marine One

Worst Design: Celebrate

Most Important: Harriet Beecher Stowe

Least Necessary: Flower Blossoms

Postal Stationary:

Best Design: Horses Stamped Envelope

Worst Design: Tie – Air Force One Stamped Envelope & Marine One Stamped Envelope

Most Important: Tie – Air Force One Stamped Envelope & Marine One Stamped Envelope

Least Necessary: Tie – Air Force One Stamped Envelope & Marvel Comics Postal Cards

Favorite Stamp: Longfellow

C23 and National Airmail Week

The Celebration

Greensburg, PA National Airmail Week Cover picturing Arthur St. Clair Memorial 

In 1938 with the world mired in the Great Depression, air transport companies were struggling.  Air travel was still a novelty to many; after all, the Wright Brothers had taken their first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina just 35 years before.  In an effort to help the airline companies and at the same time promote airmail service, a nationwide campaign was launched.  Dubbed the National Air Mail Week, activities were planned to honor twenty years of airmail service in the United States.  Held May 15 thru 21, 1938, the goal of the organizers was to get each citizen to mail and/or receive an airmail letter during the weeklong celebration.  Festivities were kicked off with the issuance of a new 6-cent airmail stamp on Saturday, May 14^th.  For the next seven days, thousands of communities across the 48 states and most U.S. Territories became involved with their own local activities.  Along with all the varied local events, from the largest cities to the smallest crossroads, an estimated 10,000 individual cachets were prepared, giving each of the localities a chance to brag about the beauty and history of their hometowns.

   While these cachets were available for use the entire week, most of these covers were mailed on Thursday, May 19^th to be carried on special one-day-only NAMW flights, linking all the thousands of participating sites.  Many local airports were dedicated during National Air Mail Week, but if the sites had no air facilities, organizers were very creative in accommodating these special flights.  Fields were cleared and back roads were closed, creating temporary runways to allow these planes to land and take-off.  Weather delayed only a few flights, and only one crashed.  No one was hurt, and the covers were safely delivered by motorcar!  

The Stamp 

C23b Vertical Imperf Variety - Cat. Value $12,500

• Flat plate printing in sheets of 100, cut into panes of 50, perforated 11.
• Color is dark blue and carmine, with one recognized color variety of ultramarine and carmine (Cat. Value $150).
• In all, there are 955 collectible combinations of the 38 vignette plates, the 16 frame plates, and the marginal markings.
• A couple of perforation errors exist: C23a – vertical pair, imperf horizontally (Cat. Value $325) and C23b– horizontal pair, imperf vertically (Cat Value $12,500).

A Mr. Frank Zeltman visited a Brooklyn post office and found 40 panes with the stamps imperf horizontally.  He purchased them and quietly left with his discovery.  A dealer syndicate ad appeared in the philatelic press offering panes of the stamp error.  Ten pairs are known to exist imperf vertically.  Editorials and stamp organizations condemned the error, calling unsuccessfully for the post office to reprint sufficient imperfs for everyone.

Ed: This is the text from the brochure that was handed out during the member presentation at the February meeting and is reprinted here for all those who missed the meeting.

Tiffany Lamp Reissue – March 7

The Postal Service will reissue the Tiffany Lamp 1-cent definitive stamp in one design in a pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 20 stamps on March 7, 2008.  Sennet Security Products (SSP) will print it.  The Tiffany Lamp stamp was first issued on March 1, 2003, in a water-activated gum (WAG) coil of 3,000 stamps and was printed by Sennett Security Products (SSP). The stamp was reissued on March 16, 2007, in a pane of 20 stamps, printed by Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd. (APU).  There will be no first day ceremony. 

Ireland – St. Patrick – Feb. 11

Ireland has issued a stamp on February 11, 2008 honoring St. Patrick.  Popular legend suggests that St. Patrick banished all the snakes from Ireland and the image used in this year's stamp shows St Patrick blessing a crowd of people while standing on a number of snakes.  The image is reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Ireland and is from the Brocas Collection. (The Brocas Collection is a collection of 2500 prints drawings and watercolors representing the work of six members of a Dublin family 1754-1873.)  The engraving is by a member of the Brocas family after an earlier engraving by Leonard Gaultier (circa 1561-1641) based on a work by Thomas Messingham, author of studies of Irish saints in the 1620’s.  Denominated at 78c, this allows postage paid from Ireland to anywhere in the world. Also available for this issue is a First Day Cover.

Ireland – Missing Color

This stamp on stamp issue pictures a proposed US postmaster provisional stamp of 1847 known as the Albany essay.  But it is not a US issue at all.  It is a 1976 issue of Ireland with the silver inscription missing celebrating the US Bicentennial.  A collector purchased a sheet of 100 of the 15-penny stamps in a small post office in County Galway, Ireland.  The collector was a Canadian vacationing in Ireland.  Before leaving Ireland, the collector showed his find to David Feldman, a Dublin stamp dealer.  Mr. Feldman made the collector an offer for the sheet, which was accepted.  Feldman exhibited the stamp at INTERPHIL ’86 in Philadelphia where it attracted a great deal of attention. 

The Albany Essay features a profile of Benjamin Franklin with “ALBANY OFFICE” on either side and “POSTAGE/5 CENTS” on the top and bottom.  The missing inscription reads “American Declaration of Independence 1776, Benjamin Franklin” in silver diagonally at the upper left and “15 EIRE” in silver horizontally at the lower left.  The stamp is listed as Scott 392a with a catalog value of  $950 mint and $900 used.  It is unclear why anybody would have used them.

USPS Offers Military Discount For New, Larger Flat-Rate Box

The USPS will introduce a new flat rate box on March 3.  The box is 50 percent larger than the previous flat rate box and will be delivered for $10.95 to an APO/FPO address and $12.95 for domestic destinations The new Priority Mail Large Flat-Rate Box (12" x 12" x 5 ½") will be available in Post Offices nationwide beginning March 3.

Easter around the World 

	Pysanky Egg issued by Czech Post on March 2, 2005.
	Poland issued this Easter stamp of a bunny in a flower patch on March 1, 2005.
	Serbia and Montenegro chose a Resurrection theme on this Easter stamp issued on March 15, 2004.
	The Republic of Srpska issued this religious theme stamp on April 18, 2005.  You will need a new page in your album for this warring faction of the former Yugoslavia.
	Romania issued this bunny carrying a letter and an Easter egg to a lucky postal customer on April 10, 2003.