Our meeting in January was the ever-popular Member’s One-Frame Exhibit.  The following members participated in this exhibition: Dan Ryterband exhibited his collection of free franks of presidents and other famous people.  Some of the highlights of his collection included free franks of: George Washington, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and many other Presidents and historical figures .  One of the most interesting free franks was that of Davy C...

Michael Heller presented at our February meeting on the topic of “Illustrated School and College Advertising Covers.”  Each of these covers depicted an illustration of a private or public school or college building; in some cases, it was a business or correspondence school.  The covers ranged from the early 1850s to the 1890s. In most cases, he was able to research and gather some information about these institutions of learning.  As many of these schools are still in existence, there is a fa...

Our speaker for March was Ed Siskin, who gave us a fascinating lecture (as always) on Colonial postal history.  Ed came prepared with a PowerPoint presentation that covered postal history from the 1600s to 1792, although his focus that evening was on the period from the Act of Queen Anne of 1711 through 1775. While the Act of 1711 gave the British Post Office responsibility for all colonial post offices, the mails remained sparse and unreliable for many decades thereafter.  The cost of postag...

Wade Saadi was our speaker for April, on the topic of “Stamps and Covers from 1857-1860 not shown in my Exhibit.”  Wade brought many stamps and covers that were each special in their own way, either due to the rarity of the cancel or the beauty of the cover.  Some of the highlights included: Shabbona Grove, Ill. shield on three cent 1857; Steamer Commander postmark; superb strike of Crockett, Texas; Lykens, PA fancy cancel; Masonic compass in circle cancel; Outline star cancels on two pairs of 1...

Larry Lyons was our speaker for May, on the subject “Fakes and forgeries from the Philatelic Foundation’s reference collection.”  Larry brought a great deal of material with him that evening, showing almost every possible type of fake, forgery or counterfeit example pertaining to U.S. stamps and postal history. Larry started his talk by describing the differences between various terms such as: bogus, forgery, counterfeit, etc., and then discussed the different forms of fakery encountered at t...

Our speaker in June was Bob Lorenz on the topic: “Connecticut Postal History”.  Bob brought a very diverse group of covers that covered a wide range of postal history, including fascinating rates and usages, and many scarce cancels.  Some of the highlights included: early ship and steamboat markings; railroad postmarks on the three cent 1851 issue; Saybrook Ferry postal marking; and unusual illustrated advertising covers including one depicting a diver! Other highlights of this presentation i...

Dan Ryterband was our speaker in September, on the topic of Civil War Prison Covers.  Dan brought a fabulous grouping of rare Civil War POW covers, representing prisons in both the North and South.  In additional to showing these rare covers, Dan provided us with a lot of background information, including mortality statistics covering the two sides of the war. Among these covers were about 10 examples showing the stamps of both the Union and the Confederacy, all of whom were in much above-ave...

Larry Hunt spoke at our October meeting, on the topic of “Selected Rarities.”  Larry brought with him a fabulous array of rare and interesting stamps and postal history, covering a wide range of 19th century philately.   Larry began his presentation with an overview of the forms and causes of rarity.  He then reviewed a number of rarity scales, including Simpson’s, Cole’s and Rohloff’s. Some of the rarities shown that evening included: Scott #5 (7RIE), one of about 100 known copies; Scott 5a,...

Michael Laurence was our December speaker, on the topic “Domestic covers bearing the U.S. 10c 1869 stamp."  Michael noted that there were about 45 known domestic uses of this stamp, of which 27 were included in his presentation.  Many of these covers reflected multiples of the basic three cent domestic rate (5X, 7X, 9X, 10X, etc. up to 15 X rate).  In most cases, these multiple rate covers included other stamps from either the 1869 or the Banknote series. Other covers reflected registry uses ...

Our January meeting featured the popular Member’s One-Frame Exhibit, where we were treated to three fabulous exhibits.  Michael Laurence’s exhibit focused on the essays and proofs of the Ten Cent 1869 Issue.  The exhibit first covered the iconography and evolution of the ten cent stamp design, including some beautiful British and U.S. propaganda covers,  The die essays included: head of Lincoln; and several on government entire envelopes (each a unique example).  Other items included: card proof...

Michael Heller spoke at our February 8 meeting on the topic of “Domestic Postal Rates: 1799 – 1845.”  After distributing a listing of the various postal rates applied during this time period, he presented many examples of stampless covers that demonstrated most of the rates applicable during this time period.  This included a fair number of multiple rates and also many examples of re-rated and forwarded covers.  He also explained the meaning of some of the more esoteric rates (e.g., 18 ¾) and ho...

Ed Siskin, our speaker for March, delivered a fascinating presentation on “American Postal History before the U.S. Post Office”.  Ed started off with an explanation of how letters written during the Colonial days used words and phrases that seemed very different from more modern writings, particularly since there was no dictionary and most words were written phonetically.  He then displayed examples of very early letters, including the three earliest pieces of surviving mail, written in 1512 fro...

Drew Nicholson and Charles DiComo, our joint speakers for April, gave us a very in-depth PowerPoint presentation on the “Postal History of Pawling, NY.”  The presentation started with a discussion of the early mail contracts and postal routes that covered this small town.  They then showed a number of examples of covers that were sent to Pawling in the mid-19th century, following by many examples of various Pawling postmarks. It was noted that the spelling of this town varied over time (Pauli...

Our May speaker, Larry Hunt, gave us a very detailed and fascinating presentation on “Depreciated Currency Markings of the Civil War.”  As Larry pointed out, this area of postal history has not been fully explored.  His presentation began with a discussion of the Civil War and the fact that unpaid letters entering the U.S. required that the Federal government pay foreign countries in gold or other specie.  Due to the ongoing costs of the war and the hoarding of coins and specie, the value of U.S...

George Kramer, our speaker for June, brought an incredible array of postal history for his presentation on “Mail of the American West.”  The covers shown came from a number of his gold-medal exhibits, tracing postal history in different parts of the American West.  The items shown varied from scarce to unique, with some of the most important pieces of U.S. postal history on view that evening. Highlights included:  One of three letter s from the first official mail from California to Ft. Leave...