American Philatelic Society Affiliate No . 52 EDITOR : Robert C . Ross, 28 Kenmore Place, Glen Rock, New Jersey 07452 MAY, 1978 POINT v . 4, no . 5, wh . no . 37, p . 97 " The next edition of the Specialized Switzerland Zumstein is rumored to become available by the time LEMANEX, the next national stamp show in the spring of 1978, in Lausanne, rolls around . Thus it might be appropriate to ask a question of the editors : Why not follow suit of the Scott catalogue and list prices for booklet panes? Zumstein does list entire booklets, at remarkably stiff prices, and of course all the se-tenants, interspaces, and tete-beches that come into being when printing full sheets for booklets are listed with all details ; but booklet panes are strangely absent . WHY? IF they are to be listed there will have to be a distinction made be- tween prices for booklet panes that retain the selvage and those that do not. Most used panes that are found in this country on the back of Sekula envelopes to US customers have no selvage . Similarly, several people have asked what value a tete-beche block of four has in relation to a normal block of four . " (Felix Ganz in Tell/August, 1977 issue, page 154 .) COUNTERPOINT The issue of whether booklet panes should be listed in the upcoming Zumstein Specialized Catalogue in addition to complete booklets and the reasons offered for listing single panes are sound . However, it is important that they not be priced at substantial premiums over the single stamps in the pane regardless of the price of the booklet . Few people realize that any Unused Swiss booklet pane may be fabricated at any time simply by cutting the pane out of a sufficiently large multiple that has the proper selvage and punching the staple holes . The interest in Unexploded Booklets as well as single panes is enormous ; certainly sufficient to justify the listing of panes, as long as their pricing does not encourage deceptive practices. Used Booklet panes with selvage (other than Pro Juventute Booklets) are seldom seen ; those without selvage are generally evaluated as a used block of 4 plus singles . If a tete-beche or se-tenant combination is present they are figured as that combination plus singles . Tete-beche blocks of four are generally evaluated at approximately twice the single tete-beche pair for most items . " (Henry Gitner) Page 98 May, 1978 FROM THE CIRCUIT DIRECTOR You asked me about comments from circuit participants . First, let me assure you that, as time consuming as the circuits are, I tremendously enjoy serving the AHPS . Hearing a good word or a sign of appreciation (in the form of a beautifully stamped letter or a post card), or half a sentence or a nice excuse explaining why the circuit was delayed makes it even nicer. A certain doctor in Boyertown evens out the dime to the next bill, for which I would like to officially thank him on behalf of the AHPS . This money is used to offset the mail- ing expenses of the circuits . One of the nicest letters that I received recently is from Harold Yaeger . I especially liked the sentence, " I do not always understand what you write, but I manage to eke out the meaning . " Well, apparently, the combination of my handwriting and my limited knowledge of the language seemingly plays tricks on the reader . However, this proves that nice people always try to understand. If only the pre-printed cards would be filled out correctly, the process could be much smoother . Would you believe that already over 500 of these cards have been sent out? Approximately 180 have come back and about half contained all of the information needed for a speedy process . Really, all I need is, on front, the participant's name and the circuit number (numbers 01 to 100 for this year and 101 to 200 for next year) ; on the back, I need the book number, such as A-100 (A-Z, 1-150 for this year, A-Z, 150-300 for next year) . The total number of items purchased and the total amount of dollars per book purchased is also required . If there is more than one book and one even takes the time to add everything up it helps even more. Would you believe that some members send circuits uninsured? : One member writes checks for stamp purchases to the previous participant . Many complaints reach me about high prices . Will all participants try to help me? (Mario Wiedenmeier) "NICENESS" " I subscribe to many philatelic papers here and overseas but I must congratulate you and all others making Tell what it is . It is true, it is not a fancy magazine with beautiful printing, but I would not give it for any of the fancies . It is probably the only paper I read from cover to cover . I guess I am not a specialist (yet), but I would like to become one, and Tell sure is the best tool I have seen . Keep up the excellent work . A . Dory . May, 1978 Page 99 SHOULD I HAVE MY STAMPS EXPERTIZED? By Walter Abt (translated by Felix Ganz) Three main reasons seem to make stamp collectors hesitant and unwilling to have their stamps expertized: 1. The " sure and dependable source " from which they obtained their stamps -- most often by inheriting a family collection : grandfather to father to son; 2. Too optimistic a belief in one ' s own philatelic knowledge; 3. Fear of having to pay high expertization fees. In addition, there is the important and psychological fear of possible ridicule Of having one's prize possessions, proudly shown off to family and friends, declared worthless even though one might have had nagging doubts concerning authenticity of these very pieces for a long time . And one could not bear losing face in front of a girlfriend or cronies who viewed one's treasures with awe but would not do so if that proudly shown Basel Dove or Double Geneva suddenly bears a tell-tale " FALSE " mark. Let me try to demystify all three points and to explain them in more detail. Point One : the " Dependable source . " It is a proven fact that grandfather's or dear old Uncle Joe ' s collections are likely to contain the greatest number of non-authentic stamps. When groups started to collect (1890-1905) the price of a Zurich 4 already stood at $300 or that of a Basel Dove at $150 -- and that was a real lot of money then, especially for a young man . Therefore, to fill the blank spaces in his album, he got himself so-called facsimiles . These did not disturb him in the least and below them he could fill the pages with seated and standing Helvetias which most often he could get for next to nothing from current correspondence at home or at work . The facsimiles of the early stamps furthermore had the added advantage of looking much prettier than their most often defective and/or badly cancelled originals . And when he showed his album to his girl (later grandma) she too was much more impressed by those clean, earliest stamps than by damaged and ugly lookin g originals. Similarly, the chance of finding in that same collection post-factum cancelled stamps of the Seated Helvetia issue on granite paper (1882) is more than likely . In those years one collected " used only " almost exclusively and gramps really disliked the looks of those mint stamps among all the other cancelled ones . Thus he went to see his friend, the post- master, and asked him to obliterate those items for him, or even to let him have the town postmarker overnight . The postmaster or his clerk did not consider such a request as violating postal directives -- no, they could thus even make sure that those uncancelled and demonetized stamps would never be used unlawfully to pay postage . This 1882 set in mint condition literally was a drug on the market around 1900 because the PTT sold them, after their invalidation and from 1887 on, at these prices (face SFr . 2 .67) : one set: SFr.0.50; 50 sets at 0 .30 per set ; and in bulk over 10,000 sets, at SFr . 0 .20 per set. Maybe I have dwelt overly long on the first point, but I believe that it is the important reason which gives rise to false beliefs when one attempts to evaluate such an early, family-owned, tradition-rich collection. Point Two : would a top whizz automobile mechanic ever attempt to repair his TV set? NO - not in his wildest dreams . But a stamp collector, once he owns a Scott or even a Zumstein catalogue, considers himself an instant authority especially if he also owns tongs and a magnifying glass . And he becomes a top expert if in addition he joins , AHPS and APS. Unfortunately though, payment of a membership fee does not an expert make, even though he may learn a lot from joining such organizations and carefully reading their periodicals . In order to pass into the category of truly knowledgeable philatelists a lot of study and a lot Page 100 May, 1978 of time becomes a necessary, intense study of all available literature but before all else, a great amount of comparison materials -- authentic comparison items, that is. It may be amusing to collect fakes ; but to assemble them in the hope of building a comparative file is utterly worthless . How can one identify a stamp as being authentic if one owns but fifteen falsifications? But assembling authentic copies of early rarities nowadays, is almost exclusively the domain of professionals, and this leads to: Point Three : Cost of Expertization .