UPCOMING EVENTS

PITTPEX 2009 - Saturday/Sunday, November 7 & 8, 2008; South Fayette Fire Hall, 661 Millers Run Road, Bridgeville. I79 Exit 54 (Bridgeville), Left on Route 50 West, .05 miles to Millers Road, Right 2.3 miles to fire hall.  Contact Ron Carr, rgc211215@aol.com; 412-561-6562. Annual exhibition and bourse sponsored by the Philatelic Society of Pittsburgh. About 20 dealers, USPS substation, Exhibits, youth area, flea market.

Johnstown Stamp Show – Saturday, November 14, 2009; 10:am – 4:00pm; Senior Activities Center, 550 Main St., Johnstown.  Sponsored by the Johnstown Stamp Club. 5 dealers, USPS substation.  Contact Charles D. Holtzman, Jr., chazhjr@msn.com; 814-532-0199.

Cranberry Stamp and Postcard Show - Sunday, December 6, 2009; 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 Jan Harris at 412-851-1674 for more information.

US New Issues

Winter Holidays – October 9

On October 8, 2009, in New York, New York, at the Mega Stamp Show, the Postal Service will issue a 44-cent, Winter Holidays special stamp in four designs in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) booklet of 20 stamps and an automated teller machine (ATM) booklet of 18.  Designed by Richard Sheaff, Scottsdale, Arizona, the stamp goes on sale nationwide October 8, 2009.  The U.S. Postal Service celebrates the winter holiday season with stamps featuring a reindeer, snowman, gingerbread man, and a toy soldier. A merry reindeer dangles a bulb ornament from his antler. Flurries of large flakes dust a snowman sporting a top hat, coal buttons, and a carrot nose. A gingerbread man is decorated for the season with green, red, and white icing, and a toy soldier smiles while standing at attention. Borders of evergreens, stars, wreaths, and holly add another holiday touch to the stamps. To create the stamps, Joseph Cudd, Greensboro, North Carolina, first sketched the designs by hand and then finished them on the computer using a graphics tablet.  First day address:

Winter Holidays Stamp

Postmaster

421 Eighth Ave., Rm. 2029B

New York, NY 10199-9998

All orders must be postmarked by December 9, 2009.

There are five philatelic products available for this stamp issue:

·         First Day Cover Set of 4, $3.28.

·         First Day Cover Set of 4, $3.28.

·         Digital Color Postmark Set of 4, $6.00.

·         Ceremony Program w/4 Stamps, $6.95.

·         Cancellation Keepsake (Digital Color Postmark w/Pane), $14.80.

Hanukkah – October 9

On October 9, 2009, in New York, New York, at the Mega Stamp Show, the Postal Service will issue a 44-cent, Hanukkah special stamp in one design in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 20 stamps. Designed by Carl T. Herrman, North Las Vegas, Nevada, the stamp goes on sale nationwide October 9, 2008.  The 2009 Hanukkah design features a photograph of a menorah with nine lit candles. The menorah was designed by Lisa Regan of the Garden Deva Sculpture Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and photographed by Ira Wexler of Braddock Heights, Maryland. The 2009 Hanukkah stamp is the third U.S. issuance to commemorate the holiday. The first Hanukkah stamp, issued in 1996, featured a stylized illustration of a menorah. A design featuring an ornate dreidel followed in 2004.  First day issue:

Hanukkah Stamp

Postmaster

421 Eighth Ave., Rm. 2029B

New York, NY 10199-9998

All orders must be postmarked by December 10, 2009.  There are three philatelic products available for this stamp issue:

·         First Day Cover, $0.82.

·         Ceremony Program, $6.95.

·         Cancellation Keepsake (w/pane), $9.62.

Kwanzaa – October 9

On October 9, 2009, in New York, New York, at the Mega Stamp Show, the Postal Service will issue a 44-cent, Kwanzaa special stamp in one design in a pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 20 stamps.  Designed by Carl T. Herrman, North Las Vegas, Nevada, the stamp goes on sale nationwide October 9, 2009.  With this colorful stamp, the U.S. Postal Service celebrates Kwanzaa, a nonreligious holiday that takes place over 7 days from December 26 to January 1. Kwanzaa draws on African traditions and takes its name from the phrase for “first fruits” in Swahili, a widely spoken African language. Stamp artist Lloyd McNeill, New York, New York, created a festive, highly symbolic design to celebrate the holiday.  This is the third stamp design issued by the U.S. Postal Service in celebration of Kwanzaa. The first Kwanzaa commemorative stamp was issued in 1997.  First day address:

Kwanzaa Stamp

Postmaster

421 Eighth Ave., Rm. 2029B

New York, NY 10199-9998

All orders must be postmarked by December 11, 2009.  There are three philatelic products available for this stamp issue:

·         First Day Cover, $0.82.

·         Ceremony Program, $6.95.

·         Cancellation Keepsake (w/pane), $9.62.

Christmas: Madonna – October 20

On October 20, 2009, in San Simeon, California, the Postal Service will issue a 44-cent, Christmas: Madonna and Sleeping Child by Sassoferrato special stamp in one design in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) double-sided booklet of 20 stamps.  Designed by Carl T. Herrman, North Las Vegas, Nevada, the stamp goes on sale nationwide October 20, 2009.  Since 1978, the theme of each “traditional” Christmas stamp has been the Madonna and Child. The 2009 Christmas stamp features Madonna and Sleeping Child, a painting by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Salvi, (1609– 1685), more commonly known as Sassoferrato. The painting depicted on the stamp shows a blonde Madonna clothed in red and cradling the sleeping Christ Child in purple cloth. From each of the two top corners, the childlike face of a cherub looks down from the clouds. The painting is currently in the collection of Hearst Castle in California.  First day address:

Christmas: Madonna and Sleeping Child Stamp                         

Postmaster

444 San Simeon Road

San Simeon, CA 93452-9998

All orders must be postmarked by December 21, 2009.  There are three philatelic products available for this stamp issue:

·         First Day Cover, $0.82.

·         Ceremony Program, $6.95.

·         First Day Cover Keepsake, $9.62.

2009 Yearbook

The 2009 Commemorative Stamp Yearbook will soon be available for sale at all post offices. The yearbook is a 64-page hardbound book that includes 68 commemorative stamps, with mounts, and sells for $59.95. The yearbook includes 61 commemorative stamps.  The book this year has a new section for 33 “mail use” stamps, which are not included.  These stamps can be purchased as a packet from Kansas City.

Ed: The USPS is now using the terms “mail use” and “collectable stamps” instead of commemorative and definitive.  I suppose this means definitive stamps are not collectable and commemorative stamps are not to be used for postage.

2009 Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps

Also coming soon to a post office near you is the 2009 Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps — 36th Edition.  Priced at $19.95.  A fully illustrated, four-color guide to U.S. stamps, this official publication provides the most comprehensive information available about the U.S. stamp program. Beginning with the first stamps issued in 1847, The Postal Service Guide to U.S. Stamps covers more than 4,000 stamps issued up to the present:

100 Years Ago

The Hudson-Fulton Issue

As early as 1905, prominent New Yorkers began planning a 1909 celebration of the anniversaries of Henry Hudson’s navigation up the Hudson River in 1609 and Robert Fulton’s New York-to-Albany steamboat service in 1807.

The event was of particular importance to New York City. The city’s last major exposition had been held in 1853, and the intervening years witnessed exponential growth. The Brooklyn Bridge connected Manhattan and Brooklyn in 1883. Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island were consolidated into a single municipal government in 1898. The subway system opened in 1904. An ambitious city was eager to show itself off on the national stage, and in 1906 a joint city-state commission was placed in charge of the Hudson–Fulton Celebration.

Twice the Commission petitioned the U.S. Post Office Department (USPOD) for a commemorative stamp to mark the Hudson-Fulton anniversaries, and the request was refused both times. Then, in August 1909, every member of New York’s congressional delegation wrote to Postmaster General Frank H. Hitchcock to support the stamp. The timing suggests that the celebration’s commissioners took advantage of the August recess—during which congressmen flee Washington’s heat and mosquitoes to spend time in their constituency—to lobby them at home.

The campaign was successful. The USPOD relented and placed an order with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for a stamp to be issued on September 25, the Hudson–Fulton Celebration’s opening day. The Commission was asked to supply design source material: specifically, images of Henry Hudson’s ship Half Moon, Robert Fulton’s steamer Clermont, and the Hudson River Palisades.

Demand for the finished stamps was naturally heaviest in New York. Commercial mailers seized the opportunity to use oversized, attractive stamps to draw attention to their mailings. A stationery firm in Rochester inquired after 10,000 copies “for advertising purposes.” The postmaster at New York City reported that another company wanted 25,000 of the stamps, while the postmaster at Brooklyn complained that he had received less than half of his initial requisition of 1,000,000 stamps and was in danger of being sold out (left). On the third day of sale, September 28, the New York post office requested 3,000,000 additional copies. In addition to the initial delivery of 50 million Hudson–Fulton stamps, a second printing of 20 million copies was ordered on October 2 and a third printing of 1.8 million on October 23.

The vignette of the stamp portrays the Palisades of the Hudson River in the background, with Henry Hudson’s “Half Moon” sailing up the river and Robert Fulton’s “Clermont": steaming in the opposite direction.  In the foreground is an Indian in a canoe, and in the distance on the left, just discernible, is a canoe containing four other Indians, the canoes representing the first means of navigating the river.

Ed:  Thanks to the National Postal Museum for much of the material in this article.  This stamp issue perpetuates the myth that Robert Fulton invented the steamboat.  Everybody knows that James Rumsey demonstrated the first steamboat on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown, West Virginia years before Robert Fulton's "Clermont".. 

West Penn Railways Perfin

Companies punched their initials into stamps to discourage employee theft before postage meters became common.  West Penn Railways was no exception.  Collectors call these stamps perfins, a shortened form of the phrase “perforated initials”.  West Penn Railways was the street railway division of West Penn Power, now doing business as Allegheny Power.  This cover was posted at Connellsville, the headquarters of the street railway division.  This cover was mailed on July 6, 1932, the first day of the 3-cent letter rate. You can see the WP perfin in the stamp in the second image if you look closely.