Past U.S. Philatelic Classics Society president Van Koppersmith lead the January 13th seminar on Philadelphia ship mail from 1792 to the 1860s. After discussing three pages of rate tables, Van showed three of the four recorded types of in-ship '4' rates of 1792-98. He then showed examples of the manuscript ship rate markings, noting that Philadelphia used a Franklin dater but not a town postmark at the time. The first Philadelphia circle of 1799 was shown along with a straightline SHIP (an arc v...
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2004 Meetings
Unusual 1847 usages from Pennsylvania
Harvey Mirsky led the February 10th seminar, showing unusual uses of the 1847 issue from Pennsylvania. The six pages attached below show some of the important material that was discussed at the seminar. The image on the left shows a first month use of the 10 cent stamp on an envelope. While envelopes go back quite far, they are rare prior to 1845 and comparatively rare prior to 1849. Also on this page is a very scarce use of a circular...
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Erie postal history
Tom Mazza was our guest speaker for the March seminar. Tom noted that Erie was founded by the French as Presque Isle in 1753, one of its strings of fortresses along the Appalachians, to prevent westward expansion of the English. Presque Isle was laid out as a town in 1795 and county seat in 1800. It gained a post office on September, 19, 1800 with J. Wilson as first postmaster. The name was changed in April 1811 to Erie with J. Gray as first postmaster and in 1851 Erie was incorporated as a city...
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The octagonal postmarks of Philadelphia: 1834-1836
Norman Shachat led the seminar for April, with a fascinating talk on the octagonal postmarks of Philadelphia. Norm noted how these postmarks are only found in the period 1834 to 1836. He showed examples of each of the different varieties of these markings, including covers that were forwarded to other destinations. He also showed examples of ancillary octagonal markings, including free, paid, forwarded and a six cent rate marking. Among the h...
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Lititz, PA
The May 11th seminar featured two speakers, Richard Colberg and Jim Boyles. Richard talked about the postal history of Lititz, Pennsylvania. He noted that Lititz was a small Moravian community, founded in 1756. The first Lititz post office was established in 1806 and Richard showed an 1822 example of the first known postmark. In addition to many examples of stampless markings, he showed one of the two known examples of 1847 five-cent stamp usages from Lititz. Jim's...
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Non-destructive testing of philatelic papers and inks
Prof. Gene Hall, our presenter for June, gave a marvelous talk on the topic: "Non-Destructive Elemental and Chemical Analysis of Postage Stamps." He first gave a brief overview of important dates in history that dealt with different aspects of paper and ink. He then went into great detail regarding the chemistry of ink and paper. Prof. Hall discussed the questions asked in any analysis of a stamp, such: Is the ink consistent with the time period?; Are the fillers in the paper appropriate fo...
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