The United States Stamp Society will hold its 2018 Annual Meeting at MILCOPEX, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 14-16, 2018. The Wisconsin National Show is hosted by the Milwaukee Philatelic Society, Inc. The show venue is the Crowne Plaza Milwaukee Airport, 6401 South 13th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53221. For additional information contact Mary Ann Bowman/ Dona Fagan, maryann15b@mac.com, 262-251-0617
The United States Stamp Society donated a valuable prize to World Stamp Show – NY2016. The award was a complete error pane of 20 of the $2.00 Bobcat definitive plate number 1111(1) with the engraved black missing. As a result, the $2 denomination and initials USA are missing from all 20 stamps. The multicolor lithographed & engraved stamp, designed by Chuck Ripper, was issued June 1, 1990.
Listed as #2482a, each of the 20 stamps are valued at $200 in the 2016 edition of the Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps & Covers.
The United States Stamp Society had an active presence at the big show.
Two new books were released on opening day, Saturday, May 28 at 1PM… The Encyclopedia of United States Stamps and Stamp Collecting, Second Edition and The Durland Standard Plate Number Catalog 2016 Edition. Guest speaker was Jay Bigalke, editor of the American Philatelist. The Encyclopedia was available during the show at the USSS booth and can be purchased from the website store.
USSS Events at World Stamp Show – NY 2016
Saturday May 28, Opening Day
1:00pm Book Release:
Encyclopedia of United States Stamps and Stamp Collecting – Read More
Durland Standard Plate Number Catalog, 2016 Edition
2:00pm Jeff Shapiro – presentation on “Prexies and World War II”
Sunday, May 29
1:00pm Annual Membership Meeting of the Society
Monday, May 30
1:00pm Rod Juell will speak on “The Men who made the Stamps of the 1920s”
7:00pm USSS fellowship dinner – location to be announced
Tuesday, May 31
1:00pm Rod Juell – presentation “Collecting United States World’s Fairs”
Wednesday, June 1
1:00pm Bob Rufe – presentation “The Beginning of Priority Mail – U.S. Special
Handling: 1925-1959”
Thursday, June 2
1:00pm Jay Stotts – presentation “The 25-cent Niagara Falls Stamp of the Fourth
Bureau Issue”
Friday, June 3
1:00pm John Hotcher – will speak on “Collecting Errors, Freaks, and Oddities”
Saturday, June 4
11:00am Roger Brody- presentation “The Jamestown 1907 Commemorative Issue”
The Society booth, staffed throughout the show, provided members with a place to gather and visit.
David Crotty is recipient of the 2015 Hopkinson Memorial Literature
Award, given annually for the best article or series published in The United
States Specialist during the past yea r. The award, which includes a plaque
and honorarium , is for his ” Compute r Vended Postage Barcodes on Your
Mail.” The article appeared in the April, 2015 issue.
Crotty’s article meets all the established criteria for the Hopkinson Award
– original research ; a meaningful subject for United States specialists; a clear
and comprehensive presentation ; and thorough, comprehensive references to
prior publications on the subject – which assure its enduring value. Besides
those aspects it has the added bonus of novelty.
By exploring a built- in security feature embedded in a new postage
stamp technology that the Postal Service itself cannot yet fully exploit, Crotty
has broadened our app roach to studying stamps beyond the routine philatelic
sequence of preliminary designs, essays, proofs, production techno logy, issued
stamps, varieties , and later modifications. Going forward we will need to
add contemporaneous aspects that anticipate future developments for their
promise to be fully realized.
The Walter W. Hopkinson Memorial Award was established in 1953 in
honor of Walter W. Hopkinson, by his wife, Mrs. Constance B. Hopkinson.
The award honors Hopkinson’s interest in philatelic scholarship and the
dissemination of research and knowledge through the Society ‘s publications.
Hopkinson was a pl ate number specialist as well as a vigorous supporter and
long-time member of the Bureau Issues Association, as the Society was then
known. The first award was given in 1954, and it has been presented annually
thereafter. The award consists of an engraved plaque with the Society’s sea l,
and an honorarium.
The selection committee was comprised , as usual , o f the three most
recent awardees: Ken Lawrence (acting as chair), Richard Nazar and James
Robinson.
A list of previous winners of the award is posted on the Society’s website:
In accordance with Article V, Section 2, of the Society By-Laws, the Nominating Committee for the 2015 United States Stamp Society election, consisting of Wade E. Saadi (Chairman), Stephen Reinhard and Edward Grabowski, has submitted a slate of nominees to serve as Officers and Governors. They will serve a three year term running from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2018.
In addition to the members running for Chairman, President, Vice President and Secretary, nine members have been nominated for the Board of Governors. The Treasurer, Specialist Editor, and Executive Secretary are not elected, but rather are paid employees of the Society appointed by the Board.
The election ballots will be included with the annual dues mailing in the Fall. The Executive Secretary will then receive and tabulate the completed ballots and report the results to the membership.
A brief background of each of the nominees is presented below.
Candidates
Chairman – Roger S. Brody is an active researcher and author and exhibitor. He has lectured on the U.S. Series 1902, modern 20th Century definitive issues, back of the book revenue and telegraph stamps, as well as on stamp development and production at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. He is a two time recipient of the Unites States Stamp Society’s Hopkinson Memorial Literature Award for the best research article in The United States Specialist. He was the 2007 recipient of the APS Luff Award for Distinguished Philatelic Research.
He is a Governor, of The Collectors Club and has served as President, Vice-President and Treasurer. He is Board Chairman of the USSS, and a former member of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s Council of Philatelist. He is a Trustee and currently President of the APRL, and chairs the John N. Luff Awards committee.
President – Nicholas A. Lombardi of Mountainside, New Jersey is currently the President of the Society and has served in that position since 2004. Prior to that he had served a three year term as a Governor from 2001 through 2003. He is also the Chairman of the Second Bureau Issue Committee.
Nick is currently a Director-At-Large of the American Philatelic Society and had previously served six years as a member of its Board of Vice Presidents, four of which were as its Chairman. He is the President of the Westfield (NJ) Stamp Club and Vice President of NOJEX, a World Series of Philately show. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of The Collectors Club and a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London. Nick also holds memberships in the AAPE, USPCS, RMPL, CZSG and the NJPHS.
Nick collects U.S. stamps and postal history with a special interest in the Second Bureau Issue and registered mail. He is an active exhibitor and has won Gold medals and Grand Awards. He won the Hopkinson Trophy in 2000 and the Cleland Award in 2015. He has also authored a number of articles for The Specialist and was the 2005 winner of the Hopkinson Memorial Literature Award. His articles have also appeared in The Collectors Club Philatelist and The Philatelic Exhibitor.
Vice President – Jeffrey Shapiro — I have been collecting stamps since I was eight years, but began collecting in earnest after graduate school, which slowly evolved into philatelic interests centering on Twentieth Century United States Postal History. This interest has led to me to both exhibiting and philatelic writing.
Besides memberships in a variety of national philatelic organizations, I belong to four local stamp clubs as well as the Philatelic Group of Boston and the Collectors Club of New York. I am past-President of the Northeastern Federation of Stamp Clubs, and for the past eighteen years, have served as the Chairman of “Philatelic Show,” an annual APS “C of C” qualified show, the largest stamp show and exhibit held in New England. I am also an accredited APS Judge, a Mentor for the APS Youth Fellowship Program and have served as an instructor at the APS Summer Seminars.
I have been Vice President of the United States Stamp Society for a number of years, as well as a member of the USSS Board of Governors, as well the Chair of the USSS Prexie Era Committee, currently with a membership of over 110 individuals.
Secretary – K. David Steidley, Ph.D. is a retired medical physicist living in West Orange, NJ. He is an active collector and exhibitor of U.S. stamps and postal history with a special interest in the Second Bureau Issue. He is a frequent author for The United States Specialist and The Collectors Club Philatelist. He is currently, and for the last 18 years, the Secretary for the Collectors Club in New York. He has previously served as an officer for the American Air Mail Society, NOJEX and World Stamp Show-NY 2016. He is a life member of the APS and has served as an instructor at its Summer Seminar.
Governor – Lynn R. Batdorf of Bethesda, Maryland was the proofreader for the first edition of the Encyclopedia of United States Stamps and Stamp Collecting – also writing three chapters and Appendix B, Print Resources. He is a co-editor of the second edition. He has served as a Governor for the United States Stamp Society for the past three years. He served as The United States Specialist indexer for the past eleven years. Lynn is a member of six U.S. related specialty societies and the APS. His primary philatelic interests are general U.S., precancel and uncut press sheets. He retired two years ago, after serving as a curator at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. for 36 years. He is married with four children and five grandsons.
Governor – Frank Braithwaite is a self-employed contractor who lives with his wife and two children in Smithtown, NY. He has collected stamps and postal history for almost 40 years and is a member of the APS and USSS since 1993. Currently a member of the Board of Governors of USSS and Vice President of the Empire State Postal History Society, Frank also runs the Exhibit Photocopy Service and is a member of the Second Bureau Issues Committee. His collecting interests include Long Island Postal History and the 13¢ Benjamin Harrison stamp of 1902.
Governor – Kim Johnson lives in Georgetown, Illinois. Currently retired, he and his wife Julie owned Westville Homes, a manufactured home sales center. He has been active in the USSS for over 45 years since assuming the Plate Number Checklist Committee from Bill Patten in the mid-1970s and has edited the 2000 and 2005 editions of the Durland Standard Plate Number Catalog and assisted editor Wallace Cleland on the 2008 and 2012 editions. He coordinates the monthly report of new plate numbers that appears in The Specialist. He is also a member of the American Philatelic Society.
Governor – Rodney Juell currently serves on the Board of Governors of the USSS. A stamp collector since childhood, he specializes in the stamps of the Harding/Coolidge/Hoover years. He is co-editor of the Encyclopedia of United States Stamps and Stamp Collecting, and a regular contributor to American Stamp Dealer & Collector. He serves on the Organizing Committee for World Stamp Show-NY2016 and has been an instructor at APS Summer Seminar. A Lutheran pastor and bio-medical ethicist, he lives with his wife of 45 years in Joliet, Illinois.
Governor – Mike Lampson of Charlotte, North Carolina has been webmaster for the USSS website, a member of the Dummy Stamps Study Group and a current member of the Board of Governors. He is a member of several U.S.-related specialty societies and an APS member since the age of sixteen. Mike serves locally as secretary of the Charlotte Philatelic Society and is an active member of the CHARPEX stamp show committee. Mike’s collecting interests include dummy stamps, Ohio postal history, auxiliary markings and many other areas.
Governor – Joann Lenz resides in Sterling Heights, Michigan. She is currently the Secretary of the Society and serves as Awards Chair for the American Philatelic Society. She served as a Director at Large of the APS and has held various positions in the Plate Number Coil Collectors Club. Presently her stamp collecting interest is mint stamps of the USA. Her prime interest is in U.S. postal history usages from the Liberty era to date. She also has an avid interest in dummy/test stamps, postal counterfeits, and modern postal innovations including the developments of personalized U.S. postage. Her specific stamp and postal history specialty is the 6¢ Theodore Roosevelt of the Liberty series. In addition, she and her husband Kurt have three single-frame exhibits that have won grand awards. Her articles for The Specialist have concentrated mostly on dummy/testing material.
Governor – Robert G. Rose has been a life-long collector and has fond memories of attending FIPEX, as well as many ASDA shows at the 71st Regiment Armory in New York and numerous visits to Nassau Street. While attending graduate school at Columbia University, he worked at Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries and assisted in writing up the Lilly, Neinken and Katherine Matthies collections for auction. Following graduation from law school, he pursued a successful 40-year career as an attorney before retiring a year ago.
Bob is a member of the American Philatelic Society, The Collectors Club, The Royal Philatelic Society, the United States Stamp Society, the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, and the New Jersey Postal History Society. He currently serves as the President of the New Jersey Postal History Society and as an editor of its quarterly journal, NJPH, to which he has contributed many articles. He has served for over a dozen years as Chair of NOJEX, the annual WSP show held in Secaucus, NJ and as a member the Council of Philatelists for the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum in Washington. He has been a member of the Philatelic Foundation’s Board for 15 years and served as its secretary and vice-chair before his election as Board Chair in 2012. For over the last 35 years, he has collected New Jersey stampless cov¬ers and his exhibit has won four Grand Awards in World Series competition and was shown both at Pacific ’97 and Washington 2006.
Governor – Robert G. Rufe of Hockessin, Delaware is an active USSS member and regularly volunteers for the Society table at the New York ASDA and APS StampShow events. He is the son and grandson of postmasters in eastern PA, and a collector of U.S. stamps since childhood. He is the author of 25 articles in philatelic journals. Bob’s groundbreaking studies in the U.S. Special Handling issue resulted in the USSS Hopkinson Literature Award in 2007 and the Hopkinson Trophy for the Best Twentieth Century Exhibit at its national show in 2010. The same exhibit, “US Special Handling 1925-1959: The Stamps and the Service,” has garnered 23 gold awards at WSP national shows, and won the World Series of Philately Grand Award at 2013 PNSE, 2014 NOJEX and 2015 St. Louis shows. Bob has been President of the Brandywine Valley Stamp Club since 2007, a longtime member of the Delpex Show committee, an APS Tiffany Donor, and a member of the USSS “Ugly Shirts!”
Governor – Jay Stotts is a life-long collector, specializing in U.S. philately, especially twentieth century definitive issues and postal history. He has exhibited philatelic material for 30 years and has served as an APS accredited national judge for more than 20 years.
Mr. Stotts has served on the Boards of the Bureau Issues Association and the United Sates Stamp Society since his appointment in 1991. In June, 1992, the Board elected him to fill the vacated President’s position of the BIA. He was re-elected to two additional terms and served as President through 1997. In 2000, the Board appointed him to the vacated Presidency of the USSS and he was elected for one additional term, returning to the Board in 2003.
In 1989, Jay was a co-founder of the Fourth Bureau Issue Committee of the Society and currently serves as its Chairman. He has won both the Hopkinson Literature and Exhibiting awards of the Society and served as its annual show coordinator from 1991 through 2003.
Mr. Stotts has also served on the Boards of the Southwest Philatelic Foundation and the Texas Philatelic Association. In 1999, he was awarded the TPA’s Distinguished Philatelic Texan Award for service to philately, the highest award the state’s organization presents.
He has served local philatelic organizations for 30 years. In the Cleve¬land, Ohio, area he served many years in various capacities for the Euclid Stamp Club, receiving their Stross Award for service to the club as well as a Lifetime Member Award. He and his wife Denise, currently an APS Director-at-Large, received the joint La Ganke Award in 1992 for service to the Garfield-Perry Stamp Club of Cleveland.
He has served for more than a dozen years as Librarian, Secretary and Editor of the Houston Philatelic Society in Texas. He also holds various show committee responsibilities with the Greater Houston Stamp Show.
As an exhibitor, he has won four national Grand Awards and numerous gold medals. He has several multi-frame exhibits in several classes including traditional, postal history, thematic, aerophilately, first day covers and post cards.
He has collected the Great Americans Series since the early 1990s and has a ten-frame exhibit on the issue. He is an avid student of the modern stamp production methods associated with this issue and is proud to present the subject at APS Summer Seminar 2011.
Professionally, Mr. Stotts is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. In Ohio, he was employed by Caterpillar Industrial Inc. as a project engineer and currently serves as an engineering manager for vehicle design with Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America in Houston.