Wade Saadi led our January 9th seminar at which he presented the fourth of his series on early classic off-cover stamps by showing the 1861 issue except for the 3¢.  Attached are six pages of selected stamps and cancellations.  They are part of a much larger showing.  For example, he presented 88 Blackjack adhesives and 32 of the 12¢ and 18 of the 15¢ Lincoln copies.  The latter were four-margin examples, a scarcity with this particular value.  There were pages of the one cent, a particular favo...

Dr. Timothy O’Connor led our February seminar on the year 1775.  The focus was on one of the most critical periods in American history and the philatelic evidences.  Since 1768, British troops were quartered in Boston.  Following the Boston Massacre of 1770 and the ‘Tea Party’ of December 1773, all shipping into Boston was stopped on June 1,1774 and heavy restrictions were laid on Massachusetts citizens until open fighting broke out in the battles of Lexington and Concord after which the British...

In addressing the March 13th seminar Wilson Hulme focused upon separations made by postal officials, particularly rouletting, prior to the official perforations of February 1856.  This is part of a larger project on separations and much of the information is new.  He resented a 25-page multi-color handout to guide the discussion.  This letter and the leave-behind attachment is an attempt to boil the presentation down to mailable size.  In an overview perspective, the U.S. officially began issuin...

In the meeting of April 10th, Mr. Grunin presented a spectacular showing of the Mulready covers and their caricatures as well as a series of propaganda covers used in England and the U.S. A..  a small selection of U.S. items is shown in the attached leave-behind.  It was commented upon that most of the printers of both the caricatures and propaganda covers were Scottish.  Did this represent a lingering resentment of Scotland’s incorporation into Great Britain or does it reflect the Scotch ingenu...

In the meeting of May 8th, Dan Seigle presented a series of surprises; he specifically chose a series of covers that he felt would appeal to various route agent members whom he expected might show up for the talk. He also included two covers which were shown in his previous seminar, but which were misinterpreted by me in writing up the results. The first is the unusual Jarrett & Palmer handstamp on the only rail trip upon which it was applied. This cover was a promotion for a theatrical comp...

                                                                                                   Steven Metzger, our June speaker, presented his holding of New York City usages found on blackjacks.  He pointed out that the Blackjack was basically instituted under the Act of 3/3/63, effective July 1, 1863 abolishing carrier fees and establishing a prepaid 2¢ for drop letters. This created a situation where such letters could be divided into three domestic classes, those, which bore the...

Unfortunately, this meeting was scheduled for September 11, the day that terrorists struck New York City. While our club meeting was, of course, cancelled, you can read Calvet Hahn's lively account for that day.          

                                       Our speaker in October, John Irwin, showed page after page of postage due essays, proofs, and stamps in addition to about 100 covers to show various uses. One unusual feature was that he brought a UV-lamp for a hands-on demonstration of the fluorescent qualities of the claret issue. If memory serves this is only the second time seminar attendees have been able to examine the material under black light. Among the significant items was a showing of the Roo...

                                            Our November speaker was Peter DuPuy, who showed a revised new version of his Belgica international gold medal collection of the 30 and 90¢ 1860 issue. A surprise start was a showing of the two largest multiples of the 24¢ value, a block of 22 and one of 20. He began his showing of the 30¢ with several Scott unlisted or very rare proof or essay items including the black trial color discussed in Steinmetz Miscellany, one of our early ...

                                                          Our December speaker, Dr. Ronald Ollstein, presented a history of free franks from late medieval times to the present. In the English system, which we followed, Members of Parliament always seem to have had the frank, but the first written authority was 1652 and the earliest handstamped FREE strikes are from 1706. The earliest American frank was that of New York Governor Lovelace found on the first inter-colony letter establishing a po...