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...

Larry Lyons, our speaker for September, gave a fascinating presentation on “New Orleans Carriers, 1851 – 1860”.  Larry brought all of the pages from his gold medal one-frame exhibit, supplemented by many other covers that illustrated the post office carrier system in New Orleans during this time period. Larry first discussed the carrier rate system and their charges: one cent to the post office and two cents from the post office or from house to house.  He also described the many different po...

Michael Heller gave a presentation on “Early Illustrated Lettersheets” at our October 11 meeting. While most of the examples shown were folded lettersheets that were either stamped or had stampless postal markings on the outside, some of the lettersheets were accompanied by stamped envelopes. The presentation started with a folded letter sheet dated in 1837 that depicted a wood engraving of a factory for a surveying equipment manufacturer (West Troy, NY).  Some of the highlights included: ...

Wade Saadi was our speaker for November, on the topic “The 1851 Issues, Ones Not Shown in My Exhibit”.  While the stamps and covers that Wade showed that evening may not have made it into his exhibit, each of the member’s present would have been very happy to include any of these items in his own collection! Each stamp or cover was picked for its attractiveness, cancellation or unusual usage.  Many were struck with a fancy cancel, rare postal marking or just represented a beautiful stamp.  So...

Roger Brody was our speaker for December on the topic of “United States Telegraph Issues”.   In addition to displaying a large selection of various telegraph stamps, Roger put together a really wonderful PowerPoint presentation on U.S. telegraph companies and the many stamps they issued. The presentation started with a fascinating video on the invention of the telegraph and the roles of Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail in its development.  That was followed by a study of the growth of the various...