The Postmaster Newsletter of the New Haven Philatelic Society

January-March 2018 Webpage: http://www.NHPS1914.org/ No. 83

Holiday Dinner was held at the Graduate Club

The elegant Graduate Club, located on the New Haven Green, was again the venue for our annual Holiday Dinner. There are more pictures on page 5.

Boxborough Philatelic Show 2018 In this issue … On page 2, Mike Frechette offers This year's Boxborough Philatelic Show will be held May 4 to his thoughts on “flyspecking”. May 6, 2018 at the Boxborough Regency of Boxborough, Massachusetts (Interstate 495 & Route 111). Show hours are Ever heard of “Postcrossing”. 10am to 6pm on Friday, May 4; 10am to 5pm on Saturday, May Learn more about this worldwide 5; and 10am to 3pm on Sunday, May 6. craze on page 4.

There will be meetings of the Canal Zone Study Group, What were members favorite – Bermuda Collectors Society, the Society for Hungarian and least favorite – stamps issued in 2017? See page 6. Philately Universal Ship Cancellation Society and the Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Federation of Stamp Clubs. There New Haven’s 1938 Arbor Day will also be presentations of early Flown Mail to Bermuda and Celebration was not on Arbor Day. Bermuda Keyplates. See on page 7.

2017/2018 Office Holders President – Michael Frechette Treasurer – Ken Allen Vice President – Marcia Meyers Secretary – Vern Nelson

The New Haven Philatelic Society Editor: Campbell Buchanan P.O. Box 8141 133 Pheasant Lane New Haven Branford, CT 06405 Connecticut 06530, USA Telephone 203-481-3039 Webpage: http://www.NHPS1914.org/ Email: [email protected].

©2018 The New Haven Philatelic Society The Postmaster January-March 2018 No. 83 Page 2

From the Club President’s Desk

Recently, Brian McGrath asked me to verify whether a certain Irish overprint was a scarce overprint or not. The overprint that had a long “1” was considered scarce, and Brian told me he carefully measured the length of the “1” and thought it might be the variety. He wanted to be sure he had correctly evaluated the stamp and knew I had an interest in early Irish stamps. Unfortunately, the stamp was not the variety he hoped for, and I returned the stamp to him.

The point of this little tale is to talk a little bit about varieties, errors, and flyspecking. In my mind, a variety is a distinct difference in the normal appearance of a stamp to the extent that it is immediately noticeable when compared to a normal stamp. Flyspecking, on the other hand, is the comparison of two stamps to the extent that the only difference between the two stamps is a very small, minor difference.

Canadian stamp collectors are notorious for flyspecking. Take for example, the “blinkie” varieties of the 2 cent Centennial issue. The stamp features a totem pole in the background, and the totem pole has tiny little eyes.

2 cent Centennial issue “Blinkie” varieties: Four eyes closed, top left eye open and four eyes open.

If the eyes are open, they have a dot of color. If closed, they have no color. Hence the nickname “blinkie” because they look like they have just blinked. The head is about 1/15th of an inch wide, so you can see how small the eyes are. Most collectors would never notice the difference … in fact most collectors would not care because the variety is so minor that it requires a magnifying glass to be sure. Yet the variety commands a premium.

My experience has been that when Scott mentions a variety, it is usually of the kind that is readily apparent when you see it … I have experienced many a “Eureka!” moment when I finally see the true variety and understand what it is. A classic example is US #500, the 2 cent Washington type Ia. I have looked at many collections where a collector has hopefully stuck a stamp in the space indicated, thinking it was the stamp. It was not. I finally bought one (with a certificate) to see what they really did look like, and once you see one, you will not make the mistake again … it is truly, distinctly different from #499 (the cheap stamp!).

I am reminded of flyspecking every time I receive my monthly copy of “PNC3”, the Plate Number Coil collectors journal. They talk about PV (Peak/Valley) die cuts as if everyone understood what they are talking about. We don’t. They write about plate numbers being misaligned, and all sorts of other minor details that most of us wonder what it is they are talking about. Please do not misunderstand me - I love plate number coils, and the articles do appeal to those collectors who are deeply immersed in the world of PNCs - but when collectors do a deep dive into the minutia of an issue, they are flyspecking.

Delving deeply into the technical aspects of stamps is an interesting and rewarding pastime for some of us. But because it is so technical, we all cannot be experts in all aspects of every stamp ever issued by every country. That is one of the beauties of belonging to the Philatelic Society; each of us has his or her own field of study, and is quite capable of rendering a decision on whether stamps are or are not what we might wish they were. So if you have a question about one of your stamps, as to whether it is or is not of a certain variety, please bring it in one night, and let us talk about it!

Happy Stamp Collecting …Mike Frechette

The Postmaster January-March 2018 No. 83 Page 3

Club News

Welcome to a New Member

We welcome Dave Gorski to the NHPS. He resides in Watertown and collects 1847-1930 US stamps. He is a teacher and is starting a stamp club at his school.

Sometimes it is worth attending our meetings!

Occasionally, attending meetings enables you to see something that is uncommon. At our Tuesday 27 February meeting, we had a visitor who owned an old Japanese Presentation booklet. After several of us looked at it, and offered our somewhat uneducated opinions, we gave it over to Brian McGrath to look at. With a little research on the Internet he was able to identify the origin of the booklet.

Apparently the Japanese government issued about 500 of these booklets to high ranking dignitaries in the 1890's. Over the years, people have removed the mint stamps from the book as they contained several valuable stamps. The total book, intact as we saw it, is worth several thousand dollars. Yes, sometimes it is worth attending our meetings. --MF

Join the NHPS Stamp Group on Facebook

Mike Frechette has created an adjunct Facebook group, “The NHPS Stamp Group”, which can be found at the following link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/280114869122312/

The advantage to having a group is that it’s possible to upload and download files to a group whereas you cannot do that on a regular Facebook page.

Yale Daily News “Stampomania”

A student reporter for the Yale Daily News, Shea Ketsdever, attended one of our Tuesday meetings and wrote an article titled “Stampomania”. The article is not very complimentary, implying that our members are a group of old, eccentric fuddy-duddies who gather together each week to reminisce about the past. Perhaps we are like that … or perhaps that was the impression we gave that evening.

The reporter asks, somewhat disparagingly, “But why collect stamps? This is what nobody could quite explain to me. They could estimate offhand the number of Yale affiliates who have appeared on stamps or name each foreign air mail line from the 1930s, but no one was able to articulate why they cared enough to know any of these things in the first place.”

OJ Burns wrote a good response in our Facebook page. “I believe that the only way to answer the question of why collect stamps is to follow the question with one of your own. Whether it is a favorite book, movie, scientific fact, or recipe, everyone has favorites, and no one can pinpoint any more precisely or eloquently what exactly captures them about it -- why garden, why tinker with old radios, why scrapbook? I believe the answer eludes us all ... for now.”

You can read the Yale Daily News article at https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/02/04/stampomania/.

Looking for Presentations

There have been good turnouts at our meetings and we want to make the evening interesting for everyone. We have put our projector to good use to view presentations by the United Postal Stationery Society that they offer on their website; it was refreshing to see some material from outside our typical fields of interest.

Please let Mike Frechette know of any other on-line presentations that you may stumble across, or of any outsider who will be will to come to a meeting to give a “stamp” talk. Of course we are always looking for volunteers to make presentations at our weekly meetings – it doesn’t have to be lengthy or esoteric.

The Postmaster January-March 2018 No. 83 Page 4

Presented by Mike Frechette at the February 6th Meeting

Postcrossing is an online project that allows its members to send and receive postcards from all over the world. The project's tag line is "send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world!” Its members, also known as “postcrossers”, send postcards to other members and receive postcards back from other random postcrossers. Where the postcards come from is always a surprise.

Postcrossing is the union of the words "postcard" and "crossing". A member sends a postcard to another postcrosser and receives a postcard back from a random postcrosser. Exchanges between the same two members only occur once (although direct swaps between members happen, they are not part of the official happenings on the site). The project is completely free and anyone with an address can create an account. However, the postcards themselves and postage fees to mail them are the responsibility of each user.

By February 2018 Postcrossing had more than 719,000 members in 212 different countries who had registered and exchanged over 45 million postcards that have traveled over 229 billion kilometers.

The highest concentration of Postcrossing members reside (in order) in Russia, Taiwan, China, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Finland, and the Czech Republic, each with over 20,000 members. Globally, most postcrossers reside in North America, Europe, and East Asia. Of particular note, Postcrossing is popular in eastern European and former-Soviet states. As of January 2012, more than a quarter of the combined total of postcards were sent from Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.

Anyone can sign up for free at the Postcrossing website: https://www.postcrossing.com/.

There have even been stamps issued to commemorate Postcrossing such as these examples from Indonesia, Netherlands, Belarus, Czech Republic, Guernsey, Russia and Eire.

The Postmaster January-March 2018 No. 83 Page 5

NHPS Holiday Dinner Pictures

It has become a tradition to have our Holiday Dinner in the early part of January, on January 9th, an enjoyable evening was spent with fellow members and their spouses or partners at the Graduate Club, New Haven.

The dinner was a rare opportunity to show off that “stamp” tie …

Gaudy ties, adorned with Inverted Jennys, Penny Blacks and even the Looney Tunes, were much in evidence at the Club Dinner. From left, Mike Frechette, Ken Allen, Ray Osborne, Campbell Buchanan and Vern Nelson.

The Postmaster January-March 2018 No. 83 Page 6

Club Entries to Linn’s 2017 Stamps Popularity Poll By Campbell Buchanan

Each year Linn’s Stamp News asks readers to vote for their favorite stamp issued during the previous year. There are also categories for the worst design, the most important and the least necessary.

Linn’s encourages stamp clubs entries, and the NHPS ballots were filled out by members attending Tuesday meetings during February. What did our members think of the stamps issued in 2017?

For most categories there was no clear favorites which probably is a reflection of the diverse collecting interests of our members. ”Flowers from the Garden” was the Overall Favorite choice.

It would be interesting to see how the club members’ choices compare with the national poll when it is published by Linn’s. The Overall Favorite

Commemoratives

Best Design: “History of Hockey” Worst Design: “National Museum of African American History”

Most Important: There was no clear winner. “Protect Pollinators”, “Andrew Wyeth”, and “WPA Posters” tied with a few votes each.

Least Necessary: Sports Balls

Definitives

Best Design: “Flowers from the Garden” Worst Design: “The Snowy Day”

Most Important: “Alzheimer's” Semi-Postal

Least Necessary: Shared by “Seashells, “USA Star”, “Delicioso” and “Strawberries”

Postal Stationery

There were only four postal stationery items issued in 2017 and an almost unanimous choice for Best Design was Northern Cardinal.

The Postmaster January-March 2018 No. 83 Page 7

A Look at the Past A View of New Haven Postal History

by Campbell Buchanan

1932 Arbor Day

The Arbor Day originated when journalist Julius Sterling Morton moved from Detroit to Nebraska in 1854. At the time, the wide open spaces of the west were problematic for pioneers — the shadeless prairie was hot in the summer with few windbreaks to keep tilled soil from blowing away. The solution? Plant a tree.

Morton rose to become the State Secretary, and helped establish the first Arbor Day on April 10, 1872. More than 1 million trees were planted across the state that day.

Arbor Day became a national sensation in 1907 when President Theodore Roosevelt issued a proclamation to school children about forestry and the importance of trees.

On April 22, 1932, the U.S. Post Office Department issued a single 2- cent red stamp to celebrate Arbor Day, and Nebraska City was the official first day city. The stamp's issue date coincided with the 100th anniversary of J. Morton Sterling's birth.

Covers with a green cachet showing an oak tree and postmarked in New Haven on April 29, 1932 are quite frequently seen, and are often offered as “first day covers” despite the date being five days after the official first day.

The printed cachet explains that these covers were issued to commemorate the dedication of a planting of native oaks on the streets of New Haven (which presumably occurred on the 29th April 1932). Many of these covers are franked with a red 2¢ George Washington Bicentennial which was issued on January 1st, 1932 (the lower cover is a typical example).

The upper cover is unusual because the block of four Arbor Day stamps are cancelled with a green handstamp that has an identical design as the cachet. There is also a single Arbor stamp which has been cancelled with a New Haven duplex “shield” cancel. The cover is addressed to the New Haven Forester, Frederick S. Eaton.

Nowadays Arbor Day is generally observed on the last Friday of April, but the dates can vary depending on when spring arrives in the local region (which seems to take forever here in Connecticut!)

The Postmaster January-March 2018 No. 83 Page 8

Upcoming Schedule

NEW HAVEN PHILATELIC SOCIETY Meetings held 7:00pm each Tuesday at 1205 Chapel Street, New Haven An auction will be held at each meeting's end. 2017/2018 SEASON January 2 The letter “J” All January 9 Holiday Dinner at the Graduate Club. January 16 Bourse Evening All January 23 My latest acquisitions All January 30 My favorite literature & journals. General discussion February 6 “Postcrossing” Mike Frechette February 13 Cinderella Evening. Non-Scott listed stamps. All February 20 The letter “I” All February 27 “Introduction to Worldwide Postal Stationery” UPSS March 6 “Columbian Envelopes” UPSS March 13 Cancelled due to snow March 20 “Western Hungary” Brian McGrath March 27 “Blobs, Blotches and a Lobster” Campbell Buchanan April 3 Letter “H” All April 10 “Poster Stamps” Ron Zacks April 17 My favorite Revenue Stamps All April 24 “New Haven Shield Cancels” Campbell Buchanan May 1 Letter “G” All May 8 To be announced May 15 To be announced May 22 To be announced

The New Haven Philatelic Society is a Chapter of the American Philatelic Society (APS# 0054-025889)

Not a member? New members are always welcome. Membership fee is $10 per year, $5 for students

See our Facebook page for updates, as well as the latest news and pictures of our activities.

FOURTH SUNDAY SHOW Organized by the New Haven Philatelic Society

Annex YMA, 554 Woodward Ave., New Haven 10am to 3pm◊Free parking◊Free admission◊Door prizes◊Refreshments and meals available

Sunday April 22nd 2018 ◊ Sunday May 27th 2018 Sunday June 24th 2018 ◊ Sunday July 22nd 2018 For more information contact the Show Chairman, Brian McGrath at 203-627-6874