Global Express: Issue No. 5

Volume No. 1                     Issue No. 5                     May 2010

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Contents-

• Hobby library opened on World Book Day
• Achieve Articles

Hobby library opened on World Book Day

The Hindu, Saturday, Apr 24, 2010

Rapt attention: Kanna English Medium School students participating in World Book and Copyright Day in Guntur on Friday.

GUNTUR: In a fitting gesture to celebrate the World Book and Copyright Day, the Guntur Numismatic and Philately Society in association with Kanna English Medium School, Railpeta, opened a ‘hobby library’ on Friday with an initial collection of 300 informative books pertaining to several hobbies.

Involving school students from the Kanna English Medium School, where the Library has been houses, and students from other schools, who were members of this club, they propose to allow children to have access to some of the world’s finest journals on philately, numismatics and book reading.

The Society members donated a number of world catalogues that are beyond the reach of ordinary stamp or coin collector at student level. These books allow the enthusiasts to ascertain their collection was genuine and also gather additional information so that they could develop thematic collections for competitions at district and State level.

After the school director Kanna Master formally declared the library open, former head of Department of Telugu at Acharya Nagarjuna University S. Gangappa, a well-known numismatist and Telugu/Sanskrit reader of AC College N. Kishore Babu and writer, Abhyudaya Rachayuthala Sangham State president Penugonda Lakshminarayana spoke.

A good book was like a good friend, which could enlighten us in many aspects and help us reach our goal by showing the right path and gave the examples of Maxim Gorky’s Amma and Mahatma Gandhi’s several books, which had helped people tread in right direction worldwide. The books not only provide us with knowledge from world over, they also build our personality, he opined.

‘A must read’

Vemana Satakam and Sumati Satakam must be read by all people, who could follow Telugu as they help you remain in good stead at time in your life, said Mr. Gangappa. Describing the importance of book reading, he said Internet cannot replace books for next few decades. The society secretary MVS Prasad also participated.

Reported by- mvsprasad, Secretary, GUNTUR NUMISMATIC & PHILATELIC SOCIETY, 6/18, BRODIEPET,GUNTUR – 522 002. – Mob: 098667 10379, EMAIL: prasad_mandali@yahoo.com
gnpsguntur@gmail.com

Archieve Article

Source: Microsoft Encarta 2008

Archives consist of articles that originally appeared in Collier’s Year Book (for events of 1997 and earlier) or as monthly updates in Encarta Yearbook (for events of 1998 and later). Because they were published shortly after events occurred, they reflect the information available at that time. Cross references refer to Archive articles of the same year.

1938: Philately

Approximately 2,100 new postage stamps were issued throughout the world in 1938, an increase of about 300 over 1937. This figure may be low by nearly 100, since some of the stamps whose official or postal status is still doubtful, notably many of those from Spain, may prove to have seen actual postal service. Of the 149 governments which issued stamps during the year, Venezuela led in number with 95. Two new stamp-issuing governments, Alexandretta and Italian East Africa, appeared; but sixty countries found their current designs and denominations satisfactory and added no new stamps.

Collectors who specialize in the subjects illustrated on stamps have 700 new designs to choose from, ranging from the Australian duck-billed platypus to the newest airplanes. About 350 new air-post stamps were issued, with South and Central American countries taking the lead.

The stamps issued before 1938 by the 410 past or present stamp-issuing governments had a net increase in value of about $6,700, and nearly one third of that amount is contributed by the stamps of the United States. Most of the increase comes from a few rare stamps such as the 1882 special printing of the 5 cent gray brown, valued last year at $500 and now held to be worth $1,500, unused. Other unused United States stamps which have increased in value by $50 or more are the St. Louis (postmaster’s provisional) 5 cent greenish ($150-$500); the 24 cent steel blue of the second 1861 issue ($400-$500); the 1894 2 cent pink (Triangle I, imperforate pair) ($375-$450); and the 1851-56 5 cent red brown (Type I) ($350-$400). Smaller increases in value, from a few cents to a few dollars, are shown by more than 400 unused and about 300 used United States stamps.

A few stamps account for the greater part of the net gain of about $4,000 in used foreign stamps. The 1854 4 cent red and blue of India, with the head of Queen Victoria inverted, has increased from $3,250 to $5,000, and the stamps of India as a whole, including States, have increased about $2,400 in value. Moldavia’s (Rumania) 27p rose tête bêche pair of 1858 has gone to $6,000 from $5,000; Spain’s 25m blue and rose with inverted frame, 1867, is worth $500 more than the $1,500 quoted last year.

Still the world’s most valuable stamp, the British Guiana 1 cent octagonal magenta of 1856 is valued as formerly, at $50,000, in spite of rumors that it has been offered for less.

After the 1937 outburst of ‘commemorative’ stamps, nearly 45 per cent of the total number issued, 1938 was a year of comparative calm. The world’s philatelic presses added about 400, or approximately 25 per cent of all stamps issued, to the commemorative list.

The chief contribution by the United States to 1938′s new issues was the series of ‘Presidentials’ portraying our ex-presidents. Through McKinley, each president appears on a stamp whose denomination corresponds numerically to his administration. Fractional values, the ½ cent, 1½ cent, and 4½ cent show Franklin, Martha Washington, and the White House, respectively, and so do not disturb the order. McKinley, on the 25 cent, is followed by Theodore Roosevelt (30¢), Taft (50¢), Wilson ($1.00), Harding ($2.00), and Coolidge ($5.00).

When the ½ cent stamp was assigned to Monroe, the fifth president, and consequently each succeeding president became one number out of line, but before the stamps were issued, the change was made, adding the White House to the series on the 4½ cent.

Only four United States Commemoratives, all 3 cent, were issued during the year. These marked the 300th anniversary of the landing of the first Finnish and Swedish colonists in America, the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the Constitution by the ninth state, New Hampshire, the sesquicentennial of the settlement of the Northwest Territory, and the centennial of the establishment of Iowa Territory.

‘National Air Mail Week,’ May 15th to 21st, was designated to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of air-mail service, May 15, 1918, and brought out a new 6 cent air-mail stamp, the preliminary sketch for which was made by the President.

One of the outstanding flights of the year, Howard Hughes’ record spin around the world has, so far, produced no available philatelic record. Mr. Hughes carried some letters, which were variously postmarked, and these souvenirs he distributed to friends on his return. It is not improbable that eventually some of them will find their way into flight collections. Corrigan’s ‘mistake’ was not complicated by air-mail covers.

The Hayden-Duffy Bill—the ‘new illustration law’—was signed by the President on January 27th. Its provisions made possible the importation of illustrated stamp catalogues and more complete illustration of all United States stamp catalogues and albums.

Sales to philatelists of United States stamps by the Philatelic Agency in Washington were numerically the greatest for any fiscal year (July 1st to June 30th) in the Agency’s history. Over the counter and mail order sales numbered 149,499 for a total of $1,685,752,73, an amount unsurpassed by the sales of 1935, 1936, and 1937.

Outside the United States, political changes and unrest were widely reflected in postal issues. Either the subjects illustrated on the stamps or the circumstances of issue, and in some cases both of these, marked the course of European events. German stamps replaced those of Austria; Italian East Africa superseded Ethiopia as a stamp-issuing government; many stamps of Spain, Czechoslovakia and Russia were militant; Hitler was a dominant figure on German postal and semipostal issues.

Both in the United States and abroad, the 1938 stamps showed serious attempts at improved design and less reliance on intricate, and extraneous, ornament. The presidential series is the United States’ best contribution. Among the well-designed foreign stamps are Czechoslovakia’s Falcon (A78); Finland’s series commemorating the 300th anniversary of her postal system (A40-A43); French Guinea’s ‘Native Women’ (A10); the first stamps of Italian East Africa (A1-A6, AP1-AP4, APSD1); Lithuania’s ‘Olympics’ (SP1-SP4); Russia’s air posts (AP34-AP40); and Sweden’s ‘New Sweden’ series (A49-A53).

1939: Philately

More than most hobbies, philately is sensitive to political and social change. Except for the United States, the 1939 stamps of most of the major powers, and of many minor ones, were affected by war or conquest. Five stamp-issuing governments — Albania, Alexandretta, Czechoslovakia, Danzig, and Poland — lost their identities; five — Carpatho-Ukraine, Ethiopia, Greenland, Hatay, and Slovakia — were added to the list.

The current war in Europe did not, however, add nearly so many new issues in 1939 as were produced during the corresponding period in 1914 — a few hundred as against more than a thousand.

About 920 new designs, exclusive of overprints and surcharges, were issued by all governments during the year, and about 2,600 major and minor varieties — new designs, new issues of earlier designs, overprints, surcharges, souvenir sheets, etc. — were produced for postal use. The number is probably a trifle smaller for 1939 than for 1938, but the two years are nearly equal in the number of new stamps.

The continued business depression and the deflation of the boom which had sent values in some speculative issues soaring, were reflected in the general lowering of the catalogue prices of stamps in 1939 as compared with 1938. Quotations in the current (1940) catalogue represent a net loss of approximately $6,000 from the previous year, and price levels would seem to be about on a par with those of 1937. The greater part of this loss was accounted for by a few of the higher priced stamps, like the United States 5 cent brown of 1861, unused, which dropped from $2,250 to $1,500. Prices generally were at their lowest at about the time — September — when the catalogue was issued, and tended to rise in the later months. In the auction sale of the Brown collection of United States stamps, held in New York in November, most of the items sold at catalogue or better, and many brought from two to three times their estimated price.

The Philatelic Agency in Washington announced that the fiscal year ending June 30 had been the fourth in the Agency’s history in which sales had gone over the million-dollar mark, total for the year being $1,312,016.48. Although the Presidential series was completed in 1938, final figures on its distribution were not immediately available, and the announcement comes properly in a review of 1939. First day sales of this series of thirty-two stamps brought $639,036.91 for 7,970,732 stamps.

Seven commemorative stamps, all 3 cent values, were issued by the United States in 1939. These were the two World’s Fairs (San Francisco and New York) and the Washington Inaugural, issued in April; Baseball, in June; Panama Canal, in August; Printing in America, in September: Four States, in November. The ‘Heroes of Peace’ series of famous Americans, which was to have been started in December, was postponed. In addition to the United States’ Panama commemorative, both the Canal Zone and the Republic of Panama issued series of stamps marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of the canal.

From the stamp collector’s point of view, one of the most important events of the year was the establishment of regular transatlantic air mail service in May. A special 30 cent air mail stamp was issued for transatlantic service. With the opening of this service the last link in regular air mail routes around the world was forged. First day transatlantic covers, and first ’round the world’ covers, although not among the great rarities, are among the most historically significant air mail items. It is, of course, impossible to predict how much the war will affect transoceanic air service, but 1939 was a year of both expansion and preparation, and created an unprecedented number of international air-mail covers.

The year’s most spectacular philatelic event began late in 1938 and was completed in January with the sale to a New York collector, Mr. E. B. Martin, of the now famous 24 cent green, United States 1869, block of four stamps with inverted centers, first used to pay postage from the United states to Liverpool. This block, the only one of its kind known, was sold at the Crocker sale in London, in November 1938, to Mr. Y. Souren, a New York dealer, who kept in touch with the sale by transatlantic telephone, the first time this system of communication had been used for a stamp sale. After its purchase, the block came to New York and was exhibited, with other rarities, at the Waldorf-Astoria in January. Two thousand collectors attended the exhibition. The block was purchased from Mr. Souren by Mr. Martin for $25,000, approximately twice its auction price of £2,500.

Although an unusual number of interesting pictorial stamps appeared during the year, there were few new designs of outstanding merit. The United States produced two of the worst in its history — the Washington Inaugural, A313, and the Four States commemorative, A317 — and two that are well above average. Both of the latter, the Golden Gate commemorative, A311, and the Printing commemorative, A316, are successful departures from traditional American design. From foreign countries the French semi-postal, SP51, reproducing Fragonard’s ‘The Letter’; Mexico’s printing commemoratives, A134, A135 and A136; Morocco’s air mail, AP4, using flying storks as a motive; and the railroad commemoratives from the Netherlands, A43 and A44.

1940: Philately

Philately came of age in 1940, celebrating its centennial year. On May 6, 1840, Great Britain issued the first adhesive postage stamp, the famous ‘Penny Black’ devised by Sir Rowland Hill. To mark the anniversary a great international exhibition to be held in London had been planned, but the war made this impossible.

A number of countries issued special stamps to mark the centenary and of these the most successful was Great Britain’s own. The design, No. A106 in the Standard Catalogue, followed the style of the first stamp but included two portraits — Queen Victoria, reengraved from her portrait on the ‘Penny Black,’ and George VI.

In the hundred years ending May 5, 1940, approximately 99,350 different postage stamps were issued. About 43 per cent of them were surcharges and overprints, that is, stamps with new denominations or indications of new postal use printed over the original designs.

The full calendar year 1940 brought the total number of postage stamps issued well over the 100,000 mark. From January 1 through December, 1,620 new issues were added to the Standard Catalogue. This is the smallest number in many years, and the marked decrease from 1939 is largely owing to war conditions throughout the world. Fewer stamps have been issued, and there is an uncountable number of new stamps known or reported about which no exact information can be obtained. It is quite probable that many of the stamps issued in European countries occupied by Germany will eventually be catalogued, but at present it is impossible to determine their postal use or official character. Estimates of the number of ‘World War No. 2′ stamps vary from the fifty-two definitely catalogued to more than four hundred, and it seems reasonably certain that at least two hundred stamps, postally valid, were issued during 1940 as a direct result of political and military changes in Europe.

Of the 1,620 stamps catalogued, 615 are new designs. The others are either additional denominations or overprints. Forty-four new designs appeared on seventy-eight United States stamps.

An unusual number of souvenir sheets — forty-one, containing seventy-eight stamps — were added to the catalogue. Twenty-four of these are earlier issues, the 1937 French colonies, which had not been officially recognized before.

Prices on about 10 per cent of the stamps listed in the Catalogue were revised, and the edition (1941) published in 1940 shows a net decline of $20,750 from the previous year. In general, prices were increased, but big declines in those of a few rare stamps brought about the net loss. Four United States stamps, the 1 cent, 5 cent, and 12 cent of 1861 and the 3 cent (147a) of 1870-71, account for $6,000 of the decline. Issues of the Confederate States were reduced in price by $6,300.

Evidence of the growing trend toward the establishment of museum collections of stamps was given by the gift of Miss W. Penn-Gaskell of her famous air mail collection to the South Kensington Museum, London. This is the largest philatelic gift to a public institution since the late Benjamin K. Miller presented his collection of United States stamps to the New York Public Library in 1925.

Among stamp issues of unusual interest brought out during the year are the eight of the Pitcairn Islands — Pitcairn’s first stamps — which illustrate the romantic story of the Bounty, William Bligh and Fletcher Christian; the ‘Balkan entente’ series issued simultaneously by Greece, Turkey, Rumania and Yugoslavia; and Hungary’s five stamps, perhaps the best designed series of the year, commemorating the birth, in 1440, of Matthias Corvinus, Hungary’s great king and scholar.

The most ambitious contribution of the United States to philately was the ‘Famous Americans’ series of thirty-five stamps in seven sets, presenting portraits of American authors, poets, educators, scientists, composers, artists, and inventors. The first of these sets was put on sale on Jan. 29, the last on Oct. 28. Each set was in five denominations, 1 cent, 2 cent, 3 cent, 5 cent, and 10 cent. Fifty million each were printed of the 1, 2, and 3 cent stamps, 20,000,000 of the 5 cent, and 10,000,000 of the 10 cent. On the several first days 13,556,193 copies were sold for a total of $428,105.42. Total first day sales for all United States new issues was $518,179.69.

In spite of the widespread criticism of the designs and subjects of the series it was popular with collectors, and it is probable that more stamps of the same character will be issued. Frank C. Walker, appointed U. S. Postmaster General to succeed James A. Farley, has made the suggestion and has outlined a fairly heavy schedule of new issues for 1941. Collectors’ and dealers’ purchases represent a considerable part of postal revenue. The Philatelic Agency in Washington alone sold $1,000,670.29 in U. S. stamps during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1940.

One of the important developments in United States stamps was the determination of the official status of the famous ‘gift sheets’ of the National Parks series. These sheets, presented imperforate to a few government officials, and later separately gummed, had been variously claimed to be rarities, freaks, unofficial issues with no philatelic standing. The Post Office had made ungummed sheets available to collectors in an effort to still complaints. It announced, late in 1940, that it would gum sheets now in collectors’ hands. The ‘gift sheets’ will, therefore, have no distinguishing feature and will not be recognized as a separate variety.

Throughout the world, fewer stamps especially distinguished in design were produced than in 1938 or 1939. Among the best were a number of heraldic stamps, including Latvia A52, Liechtenstein A95, Portugal A119, and Finland SP40. Consistently interesting stamps, among the best of the year, were issued by Lithuania.

1941: Philately

Philately in 1941 followed the lead of the rest of the world, and events which in other times would be extraordinary became the commonplace happenings of everyday. A very large percentage of the stamps added to the 1942 catalogue, probably more than half, were direct or indirect results of the present world conflict. Even many of the apparently innocuous stamps printed to commemorate historic events or personages of centuries ago were brain children of active propaganda bureaus, put out to indicate historical or ethnic relationship with the current allies, or invaders, of the issuing governments.

From the Democracies point of view, the bravest gesture was that of those French Colonies in Africa and Asia, who dared to indicate their adherence to the De Gaullist government by overprinting their stamps with ‘Libre,’ ‘Libre Français’ or some similar indication of their faith.

In sharp contrast to these are the ‘Occupation issues’ and the stamps issued by conquered governments. The status of many of these stamps is in doubt, and estimates of the quantities which will come on the market, used and unused, are largely guess-work. For some time to come the 1941 war issues must, so far as their ultimate values are concerned, be regarded as speculative. Those for which postal use could be proved were entered in the Catalogue and, as minor records of World War II, they are important and significant. But no one can tell which of the many varieties will be the collectors prizes of 1950 and which will eventually be used to fill cheap packets.

The total number of stamps added to the 1942 Catalogue was 2,186, including 183 listed as ‘Tentative’ because of lack of exact or reliable information. The figure is higher by twenty per cent than that of the previous year, and the increase is very largely accounted for by the occupation or overprint issues already mentioned.

One hundred and ten political divisions, about one-sixth of all those listed in the Catalogue, issued these stamps. Since revenue stamps of the United States only are listed, this country took the lead with 123, but of these 103 were revenues and one was the current hunting permit. Of the countries whose listings of stamps issued for some form of postal use only, those credited with 50 or more stamps are as follows: Poland, 115; China, 100; Russia, 68; Spain, 67; Greece, 66; France (not including the Free French overprints), 58; Rumania, 54. The Chinese stamps include only a small number of new designs, but a great and somewhat confusing number of varieties and overprints. Unsettled conditions in China are indicated by the variations in printers, papers, perforations and plates, as well as by the many local overprints employed to counteract speculation and profiteering.

The stamps of the year, numerically by categories, were as follows: (1) Postal and Semi-postal, 1,383; (2) Airmail, 259; (3) Revenue (U. S. only), 103; (4) Postage due, 82; (5) Official, 81; (6) Postal tax, 30; (7) Parcel post, 20; (8) Souvenir sheets (1 to 6 stamps each), 15; (9) Newspaper, 8; (10) Postal fiscal, 6; (11) Special delivery, 6; (12) Hunting permit (U. S.), 1. ‘Tentative issues,’ including 3 souvenir sheets, many of which will probably be added to the Catalogue at some future date, numbered 183. Grand total, 2,186.

The year was marked by the expansion of continental and trans-oceanic air mail service, and provided an unusual number of ‘first flight’ and ‘first day’ cancellations. In spite of the war, world wide air mail routes increased in number, and schedules were improved. Only commercial covers were available to collectors generally, since military and official covers, domestic and international, have not yet come on the market in appreciable quantities.

Few stamps really distinguished in design appeared in 1941. The revenues of the United States, Documentary and Stock transfer (10 to $1,000.00) included portraits of Treasury officials from Alexander Hamilton to Salmon P. Chase, and so have biographical and historical interest. Designs meriting place in a philatelic gallery of graphic arts were issued by Belgium, Dahomey, Dutch Indies, Finland, Hungary, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland and Togo.

In the United States, at least, the World War seems to have stimulated interest in stamp collecting. The Philatelic Agency in Washington reported sales to collectors and dealers of $1,157,985.20 of mint current United States stamps during the fiscal year, an increase of about 6 per cent over 1940. Prices for older United States issues and for foreign stamps were generally higher in 1941 than in 1940.

1942: Philately

Estimates as to the number of stamps issued by all governments in 1942 vary from 2,000 to twice that number. Only about 600 were added to the Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue during the year, although an equal number were classed as ‘tentative.’ There are two reasons for the discrepancies in figures, first the Government ruling that no stamps of enemy countries, issued after the declarations of war, should be imported, offered for sale or catalogued; second, the impossibility of determining the nature of many stamps reported to have been printed. It is known, for example, that there have been many ‘occupation issues’ of both new stamps and overprints, but there is no means of knowing how many of these have really been valid for postage. Some, like many of the Vichy colonial issues, were obviously printed for propaganda purposes and may never have been used on mail. Other stamps issued by or for the Axis or Axis-controlled countries are equally doubtful.

To a greater degree than usual, stamps of the United States led in popularity through the year. Next to these, and perhaps more spectacularly, the stamps of Free France, later Fighting France, were in demand. Some of the early overprints, hastily printed in small quantities to fill emergency demands, have already disappeared from the market or command high prices. The new designs, with the Cross of Lorraine, were also popular.

The war has stressed the importance to the United States of relations with South and Central America, and philately is one of the many fields which has been affected. Collectors showed much greater interest in the stamps of Latin America than they have in the past.

It is natural that there should be unusual interest in the stamps of countries currently in the war news, but the hobby seems also to have been generally stimulated by wartime conditions. In spite of the fact that thousands of the millions of men drawn from civilian life into the armed forces were stamp collectors, there appears to have been no decrease in the pursuit of stamps. Some of the demand still comes from men now in the army and navy, and the United Service Organizations have established ‘philatelic centers’ in several hundred of their recreation rooms near military camps. In these, stamps, albums, and philatelic periodicals, gifts from collectors, dealers and publishers, are available.

At the beginning of the year, dealers’ stocks of foreign stamps were fairly large, but by December even some of the common varieties began to get scarce, since importation from some of the most prolific sources of supply had stopped after Pearl Harbor. For this reason, the general level of prices was higher at the end of the year than in the beginning. This price change was reflected in many of the auction sales, notably the seven in which part of the collection of the late Col. Edward R. Green was dispersed. These sales, held by as many auction houses, disposed of about 14,000 lots of United States, British and other foreign stamps. Prices in all categories were above usual auction levels, and many of the United States items brought full catalogue prices.

In the United States, most of the ‘war stamps’ issued in 1941 and 1942, 156 out of 161, were for revenue or war savings use. The five postage issues were the 1, 2 and 3¢ Defense Stamps, the ‘Win the War’ 3¢ and the 3¢ China commemorative. In December 1942, the Post Office Department announced the acceptance of new designs to replace the 1¢ and 2¢ Defense stamps.

Until the summer of 1942, the Treasury Department had not encouraged collectors to mount war savings stamps in their albums, but at that time the government gave its official approval. A number of companies printed special album pages for these stamps and gave widespread publicity to the several philatelic varieties available. By the end of the year, most stamp dealers were offering plate number blocks and other collector’s pieces, so far as they could find them, all, of course, at face value. In December, governmental authorities instituted a campaign to promote the collection of war stamps.

1943: Philately

The stamps of 109 neutral or United Nations governments were added to the Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue in 1943. There were 1,198 stamps, including 281 overprints and surcharges, 351 major varieties of previously listed designs — perforation varieties, reissues, reprints, color changes, etc., and 238 airmail stamps. The latter were issued by 35 governments. The total, 1,198, includes 77 United States revenue and 9 war savings stamps.

This total probably represents about one third of the number of stamps issued by all governments, but lack of exact information about the stamps of Axis and Axis-controlled countries, and the spirit of United States regulations with relation to these stamps, prohibit their admission to the Catalogue until after the war. The largest number of stamps from one country, 45, came from Brazil. Syria was next, with 43, followed by China and the Congo with 41 each.

The Chinese stamps, though offering little new in design, afford a graphic picture of the invasion and the difficulties which the government had to overcome. When the printing facilities at Shanghai and Canton were lost and quantities of Chinese stamps fell into Japanese hands, those left were hurriedly and crudely overprinted at Chungking and Chengtu for use in the remaining provinces, Fukien, Kiangsi, Honan and the departments of Szechuan. At Chungking, stamps were issued imperforate to supply the immediate need. As means became available they were first rouletted, probably by hand, and then perforated. All three types are known of most of the Chungking and Chengtu printings.

The growing stability of the Free French organization was reflected in the stamps of its adherents among the French colonies. A few of these were still content to overprint their Colonial issues, but most of them brought out new designs, some of them among the best of the year. Notable among these are the series of fourteen values, postage, issued by St. Pierre and Miquelon and the new stamps of Madagascar and French India.

The stamps of Norway catalogued in 1943 offer another, and different, commentary on the war. The earliest of these is the August 1941 issue, showing a lion rampant against a large V. The latest are the six stamps in the series issued after the invasion by the Norwegian offices abroad, for franking mail carried on free Norwegian vessels.

In the United States, the one-cent Four Freedoms stamp and the two-cent United Nations replaced the earlier Defense stamps. The one-cent was designed by the sculptor Paul Manship and the design is probably the first in philately to be carved in plaster. The stamps were produced from photographs of Mr. Manship’s model.

The Catalogue year ends with August, so only one of the calendar year’s most popular United States series, the ‘Overrun Countries,’ was included. This was the first, for Poland, issued in June, 1943. It was followed by stamps honoring Czechoslovakia, Norway, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania, Austria and Denmark, in that order. The last was issued on Dec. 7, 1943.

Each of these five-cent stamps, the size and shape of the Special Delivery, has a conventional border in blue violet with the flag of the honored country in the center. The flags are in full color against a white ground. The frames are engraved and the centers lithographed, and all the stamps were produced by the American Bank Note Company. They are the first United States stamps since the Columbians of 1893 which have not been done by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing at Washington. First-day sales for each of the stamps were at Washington and averaged over 500,000. About 150,000 first-day covers were cancelled for each stamp.

Washington explained that the Bureau was ‘too busy’ to print the ‘Overrun Countries’ issue. How busy, and with what, was announced soon after the invasion of Italy when the first United States ‘occupation stamps’ and notes were released there. These stamps were planned in the Spring, and consist of a machine engraved background and a white center with an engraved number, and an overprint in another color giving the place, in this case Italy, and the currency. The backgrounds were printed well in advance but the country for which the stamps were intended was kept secret. The invasion began on July 9. The army gave the print order on July 13. On July 19 the first shipment, seven tons on two planes, was forwarded. This first invasion series was issued in nine denominations, for use in Italy only, and few unused examples have come to the United States. The denominations are 15 centesimi, 25¢, 30¢, 50¢, 60¢, 1 lira, 2L, 5L and 10L.

Trading in stamps by retail and auction was brisk throughout the year, with prices in general somewhat higher.

1944: Philately

Nearly one fourth of the 1,390 stamps of the world added to the Standard Catalogue in 1944 came from Central and South American countries. These countries, continuing their profitable custom of recent years, produced many new series and their stamps carried nearly one half of the world’s new designs. All but 34 of the world’s 159 airmail stamps came from them. Ecuador led Latin America with 52 stamps, followed by Brazil and Costa Rica with 38 each. Twenty-four of Venezuela’s 34 stamps were airmails.

Throughout the world, the percentage of overprints and surcharges was unusually high. Of the 1,390 stamps issued by 83 governments, only 354 were produced from new designs. Most of the others were overprints or surcharges, issued in the wake of the Allied advance or, as in China, to keep up with increasing postal rates. The Somali Coast, for example, led the world in the number of stamps issued, 82, and of these all but the 14 handsome ‘railroad’ stamps were Free French overprints. All of Madagascar’s 54 stamps were Free French overprints as were, also, Reunion’s 71, except for the 14 stamps of a new airmail series.

In the total of 1,390, there are 52 revenue and 2 war savings stamps of the United States, categories not counted for other countries. The United States issued four commemoratives and two of the proposed series of Asiatic Overrun Countries stamps which is to follow the 1943 Europeans. These have the same frame as the earlier stamps and the two so far issued show the flags of Korea and the Philippines, respectively.

The commemoratives celebrated anniversaries of the opening of the transcontinental railway, the first ocean crossing by steamship, the birth of the telegraph and of the motion picture industry. Three other new stamps, the 8¢ airmail and the 13¢ and 17¢ special delivery, were issued to conform with new postal rates.

Although thousands of American stamp collectors are in the armed forces, the demand for United States stamps was higher than ever and was particularly strong for the 1938 Presidentials (32 stamps), the 1940 Famous Americans (35 stamps) and the 1943 Overrun Countries (12 stamps). Few of the stamps in these series remained in post offices or the Philatelic Agency in Washington at the close of the year, and most were selling at considerable premiums. In general, collectors showed most interest in twentieth-century issues.

The Philatelic Agency announced in January 1944, that its sales for 1943 were $1,077,552.58. Figures given out through the year indicated that the 1944 total will be higher.

Long series of new stamps, not overprints or surcharges, were issued by Algeria, China, Monaco, Portugal, Russia and Turkey. The first stamps of the Republic of Iceland were issued in June 1944, to mark the island’s separation from Denmark.

Many stamps from the liberated European areas have been brought to this country by returning servicemen and others, although they have not been officially sanctioned for importation. Among them are some of the Vichy stamps, very well designed and executed. The Vichy issues were invalidated for postage by decree of the De Gaulle Committee in August 1944, and invalidated in fact as the Allied armies advanced. The decline and fall of Mussolini’s empire was recorded by overprints on Italian stamps, some of which had originally been issued to boost Fascist morale.

1945: Philately

In the United States, through 1945, popular collecting continued to follow the course of war and peace, with particular interest concentrated on the San Francisco, Roosevelt and Armed Services issues and the several Victory stamps from Europe and the Pacific. Great potential interest was shown in the 1941-1945 enemy issues and these are certain to be in great demand. None was included in the 1946 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, published in 1945. ‘Official’ and fairly complete information about the legitimacy, postal character and value of these stamps will probably be available in 1946.

Next in order of collecting interest were the stamps of China. Their great variety and the unusual possibility for the discovery of unsuspected rarities have made them especially attractive to the more advanced collectors. The issues continued complicated as political shifts and economic instability necessitated a great number of overprints, surcharges and hurried reissues. It will be many months before all of the wartime Chinese stamps can be fully catalogued.

China led the world in the number of stamps catalogued — 76 — followed by France with 74 and Russia with 50. The Central and South American countries continued to lead in the number of air mail stamps issued. Venezuela alone produced 38. The postage and air mail issues included 218 commemoratives.

Two distinguished series of stamps were issued by the United States — the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorials and one honoring the Marines, Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Maritime Service. The 5¢ of the Roosevelt series and the Maritime Service stamp will be released in January and February, 1946, respectively.

The San Francisco Conference 5¢ stamp, whose design and wording were suggested by the late President, was issued on the opening day of the Conference, April 25th. First day sale at San Francisco — $60,000 — was the largest for any U. S. 5¢ stamp. On the second day, 3,959,403 were sold in Washington. This stamp was the subject of Mr. Roosevelt’s last directive. It had been designed originally with the inscription ‘Toward United Nations, April 25, 1945,’ Mr. Roosevelt’s words, but without his name. It was planned that he should buy the first sheet at the opening of the Conference. Plate numbers 23262, 23263, 23264 were assigned to the stamp in this form but these plates were never sent to press. After Mr. Roosevelt’s death on April 12th, his name was added to the stamp, the new plates, with numbers 23265, 23266, 23267, were printed and the stamps were delivered in San Francisco in time for sale on April 25th.

A 3¢ stamp honoring the late Alfred E. Smith was issued on November 26th, with first day sale in New York City.

Postal routes and services throughout the world were opened as the Allied armies and navies advanced — to Guam on January 11th, the Philippines on January 12th, Belgium on February 2nd, etc. In many of the French post offices, American troops found stocks of Vichy stamps overprinted ‘R F,’ ready for use immediately after liberation. These were among the first of the many European Victory issues. Two of the best of these are the Luxembourg ‘Thanks to the Allies’ set and the French ‘Victoire.’ The former comprises four stamps with flags and inscriptions expressing gratitude to France, Russia, Great Britain and the United States.

The French stamp was designed by Edmund Dulac and shows a beautifully drawn head of Victory. A number of values have been issued and more are to come.

The Vichy government issues, invalidated after the liberation of France and apparently never used in the colonies, were duly chronicled although their final status remains in doubt. They are handsome stamps but may prove interesting only as souvenirs of a vicious regime.

Even before V-E and V-J days, stamps from the Axis countries arrived in the United States in considerable quantities. Among them are many so-called rarities which may well prove worthless and careful collectors should refuse to buy until legitimate prices can be established.

Stamps of 103 governments were chronicled for addition to the Standard Catalogue of 1945. The total number of stamps of all kinds, including 22 United States revenue and 1 war savings stamps, was 1,341, only 49 less than in 1944. In this total were 970 postal and semi-postal issues, 261 air mails, 34 officials, 21 postage dues, 12 postal tax, 8 military, 6 special delivery, 3 postal fiscal, 2 parcel post and 1 insured letter.

As in other recent years, the percentage of overprints, surcharges and reissues was high and only 346 new designs were produced.

1946: Philately

Popular Interest.

The return to the United States and to civilian life of millions of servicemen, and the resumption by all Americans of somewhat more normal ways, added impetus to stamp collecting in 1946.

Apparently the proportion of stamp collectors in the armed forces was high. Returning G.I.’s brought in hundreds of thousands of stamps — new or recent issues, occupation issues, and a vast amount of ‘liberated’ pre-war material. The natural interest in these stamps spread to all collecting fields. Stamps of all countries were in great demand during 1946, with those of the United States far in the lead, as usual. Prices for some of the recent United States series — the Presidents, Famous Americans and Over-run Countries especially — advanced sharply, and many of the older issues such as the Columbian and Trans-Mississippi commemoratives made new records. The sale at auction of President Roosevelt’s personal collection for $228,000 was an outstanding event of the year.

1945 United States Commemorative Issues.

The Post Office Department announced, early in 1946, the number printed of each of the eleven commemorative stamps issued in 1945. Lowest figures, 60, 65, 70, and 75 million each were given Florida, Roosevelt, United Nations, and Texas, respectively. The Alfred E. Smith stamp, which created a mild storm, had the largest number, 300 million. Others were from 100 to 150 million.

Catalogue Listings.

Not including those issued by enemy or enemy-controlled governments, about 2,200 stamps were added to the Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue in 1946. These were issued by 115 countries, colonies, or dependencies. The greatest number of additions from a single country, 126, came from the United States but this figure includes 49 revenue stamps and one hunting permit stamp, categories not listed for other governments. Sixty-four of the remaining 76 were occupation stamps, issued for postal use in Europe. Czechoslovakia led the world in postal issues of all kinds with 89 and was followed by Rumania, 85, Italy, 84, the United States and Russia, 76 each, and China, 66.

Stamps with new designs greatly outnumbered overprints and surcharges, reversing the trend of the past few years. Only 469 stamps were overprinted or surcharged, the number of re-issues was small, and about two-thirds of the year’s stamps were completely new. Various denominations of 634 new designs were catalogued.

In the major categories in the Catalogue, the numbers of stamps added were as follows: postage, 1356; semi-postal, 223; air mail, 183; postage due, 103; official, 90; Parcel post, 56.

Air Mails.

Latin American countries continued to be the most prolific source of air mail stamps. Of the world’s total of 183, Mexico, and Central and South America put out 140. Mexico issued 19, Ecuador 16, Bolivia and Costa Rica, 12 each.

Russian Issues.

Except for one souvenir sheet, all of Russia’s 76 issues were for ordinary postage, designed to commemorate various personalities or achievements. So great a number of commemorative stamps in a single year is probably a philatelic record.

Political Implications of Stamps.

Postage stamps are indicative of the nature, policy, and economic status of the issuing government. Stable and conservative governments usually have few new ones, restless or ‘enterprising’ governments have many. The course of war and peace is quickly traced. Inflation brings out a rash of new issues and surcharges. Russia’s commemoratives, obviously designed for propaganda and Great Britain’s current series of 94 peace commemoratives for colonial use, which was to be completed during 1946, may have more than postal significance. The liberation of invaded countries and the defeat of the Axis powers naturally accounted for the majority of the year’s stamps. Germany and Italy reappeared in the Catalogue, first with zone and occupation issues, later with new national series. In May 1946 Korea issued its first stamps since Japan assumed control in 1904. Between 1904 and V-J day some Japanese stamps had been overprinted for Korean use. The Philippines issued its Independence series on July 4, the day the islands became a nation. These are typical examples of political philatelic changes. The stamps of China, Greece, and Hungary — the latter in denominations of trillions of pengos — recorded the breakneck pace of hysterical inflation.

List of Axis Issues.

Since stamps issued by Axis or Axis-controlled countries were invalid for postage after V-E and V-J days, restrictions on their possession and sale were soon lifted. In January 1946 an ‘official’ list of some hundreds of these stamps was published, and most of them will eventually be added to the Catalogue. Information about quantities issued and used is still fragmentary.

Forgeries.

Fragmentary, also, but full of warning for the collector of war issues, are the reports of wholesale forgeries of overprints, especially on Italian and Greek issues. The first stamps used after a country’s liberation, often hurriedly prepared and overprinted by hand, are naturally of great interest, but they are valuable only if they are genuine.

Exhibit Plans for 1947.

Plans were announced for an International Philatelic Exhibition, the first since the beginning of World War II, to be held in New York in the spring of 1947. Since that year is the centenary of United States postage, unusual interest has been shown in the 1847 five and ten cent issues, with a consequent rise in price, the first substantial increase in some years. Reports from collectors and dealers indicate that, in addition to the usual ‘classic’ exhibits there will be many of recent occupation and provisional issues.

1947: Philately

Approximately 3,000 stamps issued by 164 governments, were added to the Standard Catalogue during the catalogue year of 1947. Several hundred others, war issues of Axis or Axis-satellite countries, were only tentatively listed since information about their official status and use was incomplete. They are not included here.

Russia, the Russian zone in Europe, and China were the largest producers of new stamps. Bulgaria led with 157 stamps in all categories, followed by Hungary, 111; China, 104; Romania, 93; and Russia, 88. The same five countries led in ordinary postage issues: Bulgaria again first, with 121; followed by China, 97; Hungary, 94; Russia, 88; and Romania, 81.

By large categories the year’s stamps were divided as follows: postage and semi-postage, 1,672; air mail and air mail semi-postage, 405; postage due, 167; official, 75; postal tax, 62; parcel post, 60; souvenir sheets, 28; occupation stamps, 21; special delivery, 8; postal fiscal, 3; revenue (United States), 53.

As usual in recent years, Latin America led the rest of the world in air mails, with 148 out of the 405 issued, but individual leadership was taken by Lebanon with 33, followed by Costa Rica, 21; Venezuela, 20; Bulgaria, 18; and Ecuador, 16.

There was an unusually high percentage of new designs on the year’s stamps. Two hundred and fifty-three of the 907 new designs came from Russia (75), Bulgaria (71), Austria (56) and Romania (51). These figures include only single designs, many of which were repeated in series of various denominations. Canada, Belgium, Colombia, Finland, France, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Spain, and Turkey also brought out large new series. Overprints and surcharges on older issues accounted for 491 of the year’s new stamps.

Except for three groups, commemorative issues were fairly evenly spread among the several stamp issuing governments. The British Victory commemoratives, two stamps issued throughout the empire, and the four stamps in honor of the African visit of the royal family issued for the African colonies and dependencies, accounted for 100 of the world’s 631 commemoratives. China tried to make its new and higher values more acceptable by making 73 of them commemoratives. Russia remembered its heroes on 31 commemorative stamps.

Public difficulty in keeping up with advancing postal rates was reflected in the unusual number, 167, of new postage dues.

For both collectors and dealers, one of the most interesting events of the philatelic year was the International Philatelic Exhibition, celebrating the 100th anniversary of United States postage, held in New York from May 17th to 25th. Dealers, private collectors and governments sent stamps and covers to fill 2,000 exhibition frames with many of the world’s rarest stamps. Part of George VI’s collection was shown; Switzerland and Egypt sent exhibits valued at $1,000,000 and $200,000, respectively. The United States Post Office Department issued special stamps and sold them at the Exhibition for more than $1,000,000, these were a 3-cent centenary, 15-cent souvenir sheet and 5-cent centenary airmail envelope.

More than 100,000 visitors attended the Exhibition. Much of the local and international success of the show was due to the efforts of the late Alfred F. Liechtenstein, one of the world’s great collectors and first chairman of the Exhibition committee, who died on Feb. 24, 1947. Some of the finest exhibits, including King George’s, were grouped in a Court of Honor dedicated to Mr. Liechtenstein.

Many countries issued stamps commemorating the first United States issues, the 5-cent Franklin and 10-cent Washington, first sold in New York on July 1, 1847.

Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Honduras, Hungary, Mexico, The Netherlands, and El Salvador issued stamps during the year in memory of the late Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Brazil was the first country to use a portrait of President Truman on a stamp, an issue commemorating his official visit to that country in 1947.

Sales of United States stamps at the Philatelic Agency in Washington for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1947 broke all records. The $3,331,291 realized was $310,599 over 1946, the previous high year. In the twenty-five years since its establishment the agency has sold about $26,461,300 worth of mint stamps to collectors and dealers.

Few large collections were sold at auction in 1947. Prices were, in general, higher, but the volume of public and private sales was under that of 1946.

Some kind of record was broken by the last Hungarian postage based on the pengö. The series of stamps, issued in 1946 but catalogued in 1947, began at 1,000,000 pengö and extended, by jumps of millions, to 500 quadrillion pengö. These were for ordinary postage and were the last before the reformation of Hungarian currency. China’s current $5,000 postage seems mild by comparison.

1948: Philately

A study of philatelic precedent shows that in any year in which the world is beset by political disturbances involving aggression such as occupation of territory, either by force or through ‘cold war’ tactics, government printing presses invariably work overtime in producing bits of postal paper. Such a year was 1948.

World Stamp Issues.

Behind the ‘Iron Curtain’ more than 450 stamps were issued for Russia, for the Soviet Zone in Germany, and for the satellite lands of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, North Korea, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia. The American, British, and French authorities in Germany released about 250. Approximately 130 appeared in China, many of these resulting from currency inflation. British forces in Eritrea, Somaliland, and Tripolitania, former Italian possessions, Egyptian and Transjordan invaders of Palestine, and Allied military officials in Trieste all placed postal paper in circulation. The statistical analysis discloses that the foregoing developments were responsible for more than one fourth of the year’s stamps.

At the year’s end it was not possible accurately to state the number of major and minor varieties issued throughout the world. This is true partly because no information had been made available as to what the Chinese Communists may have done postally. It was recognized that it would be well into 1949 before the year’s total would be known.

By the end of 1948, the count had reached 3,164 varieties. This is the highest total in any twelve-month period in philately’s history extending back to 1840. In only two other calendar years had the 3,000-mark been exceeded.

The tentative 3,164 varieties for 1948 were produced by 173 governments. Nearly 24 per cent of the stamps were created, for provisional use only, through overprinting new values or special inscriptions or outlines of airplanes.

More than 36 per cent of the 3,164 fall within the commemoration classification. Ten governments — Chile, Bolivia, Russia, Ecuador, Monaco, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Japan — released nearly one third of the 1,140 commemoratives put forth by 128 governments.

Fifty-three governments issued 415 air-mail stamps, and about 55 per cent of these came from 18 of the 21 Pan American countries. Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua did not print air items.

About 260 semipostals were issued by 33 governments, all but 47 of the stamps originating in 18 European countries.

United States Postage Stamps.

The government was responsible for 79 varieties. Of these, 49 are revenues not valid for postage. Of the 30 postage items only one (a 5-cent red airmail released in coil form on January 15) appeared because of utilitarian need. The other 29 are ‘specials.’ The Post Office Department described all of them as commemoratives, but the philatelist who is a perfectionist can cite reasons why eight of them definitely are not commemoratives.

On May 28 a 3¢ stamp released at Washington, D.C., honored four Army chaplains, George L. Fox, Clark V. Poling, John P. Washington, and Alexander D. Goode, who perished when an army transport was torpedoed in 1943. On July 31 a 3¢ stamp was released at Emporia, Kansas, introducing a portrait of William Allen White, publisher. Francis Scott Key, of National Anthem fame, and Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone were similarly honored on 3¢ stamps released at Frederick, Md., and Chester-field, N. H., on August 9 and August 25. Clara Barton, Red Cross founder, was remembered on a 3¢ stamp issued at Oxford, Mass., on September 7. The Gold Star Mothers were honored on a 3¢ stamp released at Washington, D.C., on September 21. Portraits of Juliette Gordon Low, Girl Scouts founder, and Will Rogers, humorist, appear on 3¢ stamps released on October 29 at Savannah, Ga., and on November 4 at Claremore, Okla. These eight stamps are memorial items. They are not true commemoratives because their releases do not correspond with any significant dates.

The United States deluge was attributed primarily to the fact that 1948 was an election year. Some fence-mending members of the Senate and the House sought to please constituents by introducing bills authorizing postage stamps requested by the folks back home. Not all of the congressional suggestions offered were enacted, but enough were so that some philatelists and newspaper editorialists gave public vent to criticism.

Philately’s Portrait Gallery.

Except for Will Rogers, the aforementioned persons are all newcomers to philately’s gallery. United States stamps during the year also introduced Winthrop Sargent, territorial administrator; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Coffin Mott, woman suffrage pioneers; John McLoughlin and Jason Lee, Oregon pioneers; William Owen O’Neill, a Rough Rider hero; Moina Michael, Poppy Day founder. Stamps issued throughout the world added portraits of figures or monuments of more than 170 personages never hitherto associated with philately.

First-Day Covers.

One of 1948′s features was the increased interest taken by collectors of first-day covers bearing United States stamps. At the first-day sales of the 30 issues approximately 12,400,000 covers received initial-date postmarks. On the thirty dates nearly 29,000,000 stamps were sold, the income realized exceeding $900,000. In no previous year have these totals been approached.

Philatelic Agency.

In July, the Post Office Department announced that collectors and dealers throughout the world had purchased, during the Federal fiscal year ended June 30, approximately $2,490,700 worth of unused stamps at the Philatelic Agency, a government bureau in Washington. This figure compares with the record, $3,331,300, established during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1947.

New Governments.

The year’s new philatelic titles (governments issuing postal paper for the first time) are Israel, Muscat, Perlis, Rheinland-Pfalz, Singapore, Tokelau Islands.

Educational Interest.

The broadening interest being evinced by educators in the cultural phase of philately received stimulus when Temple University, in Philadelphia, announced ‘a two-year college course in philately leading to a degree of Associate in Business (Philately).’ Registration for this course begins in February 1949. In connection with the project the University works in association with a Philatelic Museum, with stamp library and exhibitions, developed by Bernard Davis, textile manufacturer.

1949: Philately

Political and geographical changes in many parts of the world were among the developments which both interested and affected philately during 1949. There were many major transitions.

World Stamp Issues.

In Germany, a Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany) was set up by the Western Powers. The U.S.S.R. retaliated by establishing a ‘German Democratic Republic’ in the Eastern zone. Each new regime issued its own stamps. At the year’s end, Baden, Rheinpfalz and Württemberg, all within the French-controlled area, ceased to have their own stamps and were joined postally to the federal republic. This change, however, did not affect the Saar, which earlier had become economically a part of France, thus giving the Saar individual postal paper.

What had been philately’s Dutch Indies (geography’s Netherlands Indies) became the United States of Indonesia as an equal partner in union with the Netherlands. The Indonesian Federal Government and the rebel ‘Republik’ authorities had issued stamps separately. The two governments merged late in 1949, and the stamps of both were then made valid for use throughout Indonesia pending the printing of U.N.I. postal paper early in 1950.

In Africa, part of Cirenaica (which with Tripolitania and Fezzan had formed Italy’s Libya) became an Arab state under British sponsorship. The new Cirenaica government announced that stamps would appear in 1950. France retained claim to Fezzan, which issued its own postal paper.

Italy’s former Italian Somaliland colony in Africa was under British military administration, with overprinted British stamps reflecting the situation. Late in the year, Italy announced it intended to take over from the British early in 1950, and this foreshadowed an end to the British overprinted provisionals.

Meanwhile, Capricorn Africa was proposed by assembled representatives of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland. They envisioned first a Central African Dominion comprising the three, and second an East African Dominion made up of Kenya, Tanganyika, and Uganda, with the two dominions to merge eventually into Capricorn Africa. Should these plans mature, collectors anticipated an end to separate stamps by the six British possessions.

Spanish Western Sahara (Sahara Español) disappeared politically and its place was taken by Spanish Occidental Africa, which issued its first stamps. Ifni, which had been attached to the Sahara government, continued to have its own postal paper.

Curaçao, a Dutch possession in the West Indies, became Netherlands Antilles, and this new title entered philately. Newfoundland’s postal emissions terminated because Newfoundland joined Canada. Meanwhile, Canada dropped ‘Dominion’ from its official documents.

Transjordan became the Hashemite Kingdom of the Jordan, and the new title was promptly inscribed on stamps. That part of Palestine which was under Jordan occupation was merged with Jordan politically, thus making the use of overprinted Transjordan stamps no longer necessary.

Ceylon in 1949 issued its first stamps as a dominion, in commemoration of the first anniversary. Modern Iran restored its ancient name of Persia. Gaelic Eire became the Republic of Ireland. India proclaimed its independence, to become formally effective with the establishment of a republic on Jan. 26, 1950. Two southern Indian states, Travancore and Cochin, merged under the former name, thus ending Cochin’s philatelic record.

The followers of Mao Tse-tung, Communist Generalissimo in China, formed the People’s Republic of China and issued stamps. The Chinese Nationalist government fled to Taiwan and did likewise. Former parts of philately’s Indochina were merged by France into the Viet Nam Republic, and Bao Dai, an earlier Emperor of Annam (within Indochina) proclaimed himself chief of state of Viet Nam.

Approximately 2,900 major and minor varieties of postal paper appeared in 1949. They were products of 208 governments. This postal deluge, slightly smaller than the previous year’s, was featured by the appearance of nearly 700 stamps issued by about 170 governments in observance of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Universal Postal Union. Some 300 of these emanated from British possessions. The year set a new record for commemorative stamps: more than 1,300 released by 186 governments.

The 1949 tentative figure of 2,900 varieties did not include the Chinese Communist issues, literally hundreds in number. The postal validity of these must be established before they can be chronicled in the Scott Standard Catalog.

United States Postage Stamps.

Contrasting with the previous year’s deluge of 29 special stamps, the United States 1949 program was restricted to 11. This was because Postmaster General Jesse M. Donaldson successfully intervened with Congressional postal committees. They agreed to give him the say-so as to the events to be chosen for commemoration. Thus, although approximately 100 bills providing for stamp-issuing were introduced in the Senate and the House, the measures were not reported out favorably by the committees, and Mr. Donaldson was permitted to use his own judgment.

Of utilitarian character appeared a small-size 6-cent airmail stamp on January 18 at Washington. D. C., the same stamp being issued in coil form on August 25 at Washington. Booklet panes of this 6-cent stamp received first-day sale on November 18 in New York City. A red-on-cream 4-cent airmail postcard was issued at Washington on January 10.

For the Treasury Department, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing overprinted ‘Series of 1949′ on 48 documentary and stock transfer revenues of 1940. For the Department of the Interior was printed a 52 bright green revenue stamp for use on wildfowl hunting licenses. All previous editions of this ‘duck stamp’ were of the $1 denomination.

Post Office Department Sales.

This government bureau at Washington achieved a new federal fiscal-year sales record. During the 12 months ending June 30, 1949, the agency disposed of $4,136,122 worth of its postal wares. This all-time high mark compared with $3,331,291, the previous best figure, recorded during the 1946-1947 fiscal period.

The unprecedented sales during the 1948-1949 period were attributed in part to the fact that 24 special stamps were issued during the second half of 1948, and these were supplemented by five commemoratives and a regular air stamp (6 cents) during the first half of 1949 — 30 stamps throughout the fiscal year.

Philately’s Portrait Gallery.

During 1949 the hobby’s panorama of portraiture was enriched with effigies of 97 persons whose likenesses had not hitherto been postally used. These newcomers were contributed by 44 governments. On United States stamps appeared heads of Edgar Allan Poe, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Robert E. Lee, and George Washington. Of the five, only Orville Wright was not a philatelic familiar.

Necrology.

During the year death removed five persons whose portraits were on stamps. They were Juan Sinforiano Bogarin, Paraguay’s first archbishop (from 1930 until his passing); Douglas Hyde, Ireland’s first president (from 1938-1945); Louis II, ruling prince of Monaco (from 1922 until his death); Sigrid Undset, Norwegian author and poet; and Husni Zayim, who was executed during a revolution a few months after he had become president of Syria.

American philately lost two of its outstanding figures: on July 20, Frederic R. Harris, Rear Admiral, United States Navy, retired, died at the age of 74; and on October 6, Y. Souren, died at the age of 57. Admiral Harris, chairman of the board of the Philatelic Foundation, headed the 1947 Centenary International Philatelic Exhibition in New York. Mr. Souren, born Souren Yohannessiantz in Armenia, was a New York dealer who applied to philately his knowledge of medicine, chemistry, and photography and became recognized as one of the world’s foremost scientists in the stamp field. His Philatelic Research Laboratories, Inc., played a major role in successful prosecution of stamp counterfeiters by the United States Secret Service.

Exhibition.

The American Stamp Dealers Association staged its first National Postage Stamp Show in New York’s 71st Regiment Armory on November 18-20. The affair attracted a 30,000 attendance.

United Nations.

This international organization studied the legal and administrative aspects of establishing its own postal system, and it was indicated late in 1949 that the United Nations hoped to arrive at an agreement with the United States Post Office Department some time in 1950. The U.N. asked both Washington and private stamp-engraving companies about the probable cost of printing special U.N. stamps.

The United Nations budget experts pointed out that the U.N. could save at least $21,000 annually — excluding income from sale of mint stamps to collectors throughout the world — by operating its own postal system.

Meanwhile, Switzerland announced that Swiss stamps would be overprinted for the U.N.’s European office and placed in use on Feb. 1, 1950.

1950: Philately

In 1950 the inscriptions and designs on postage stamps continued to reflect geographical and political developments throughout the world.

First Stamp Issues of New Governments.

Appearing for the first time were stamps bearing the inscription Republik Indonesia. These stamps were listed in the 1951 Scott Standard Catalog under United States of Indonesia, a subtitle of Dutch Indies, thereby reflecting the political transition from the Dutch or Netherlands Indies (Nederlandsch Indie) to Indonesia to the United States of Indonesia (Republik Indonesia Serikat) to the Republic of Indonesia (Republik Indonesia). Netherlands New Guinea (Nieuw Guinea), which remained a Dutch possession apart from Indonesia, was also given its first stamps in 1950.

Stamps imprinted Archipel des Comores (Archipelago of Comoro) became a new philatelic title, Comoro Islands, which was listed as a subtitle under Grand Comoro Island. The latter title was discontinued in 1914, when the islands of Grand Comoro, Mayotte, Anjouan, and Mohéli were attached (by France) to Madagascar. The new stamp issue, and title, followed the granting of administrative and financial autonomy to the archipelago in 1947.

In India, which is no longer a British Dominion, the first stamps inscribed Republic of India appeared on Jan. 25, 1950, replacing the title India. Rajasthan (‘Land of the Princes’), a merger within India of Jaipur, Bundi, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Jaisalmar, and smaller states, was given philatelic recognition for the first time after inquiry produced evidence that its 1949 postal paper (stamps of Bundi and Jaipur with ‘Rajasthan’ overprinted) was authentic.

France sanctioned postal autonomy for the Indochinese states of Viet Nam, Laos, and Cambodia, which are now entitled Associated States of the French Union. Thus Indochina seemed destined to disappear as a current philatelic title.

The Saar, although peace treaties with Germany might later alter its status, was to attain virtual independence on Jan. 1, 1951. During 1950 it became a member of the Council of Europe, a development which it commemorated with a Saar postal issue.

Tripolitania, Cirenaica, Libya, and French-occupied Fezzan, all formerly belonging to Italy, were merged in 1950 into one political unit, Libya, recognized as an independent sovereign state by the United Nations. In December the U.N. General Assembly created a federation under which Eritrea, formerly an Italian possession, was united with Ethiopia (philately’s Abyssinia). Italian Somaliland (Somalia), which is eventually to receive independence, was given to Italy under a U.N. trusteeship. These changes brought to a close some stamp issues and foreshadowed new ones.

World Stamp Issues.

During 1950 approximately 2,500 major and minor varieties of stamps, several hundred fewer than in 1949, were released by 150 governments. The Soviet Union led all countries, with 130 varieties, followed by Hungary with 93, Switzerland 87, Communist China 78, Venezuela 70, Poland 64, Trieste (under Allied military control) 52, Colombia 51, Romania 49, and East Germany (under Soviet occupation) 47. Together, these ten released 721 varieties, or about 30 per cent of the year’s total.

More than one fifth of the 2,500 came from the Soviet Union and satellite nations, at least 550 varieties being issued by Albania, Bulgaria, Communist China, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, North Korea, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. Reports indicated that stamp collecting as a hobby had come into disfavor in some of these countries because of unpopular official controls. Observers suspected that the primary purpose of many of the stamps was to foist them on collectors in foreign countries, in return for American dollars, British pounds, and other Western currencies.

U.S. Stamps.

During the life of the 81st Congress, which went out of existence on Jan. 2, 1951, about 140 bills requesting new stamps were introduced. The Congressional postal committees, however, agreed in 1949 to leave to Postmaster General Jesse M. Donaldson the final decision on persons and events to be remembered postally. Accordingly, nearly all the bills died with the 81st, and in 1950 only 11 special stamps were issued. All were of 3-cent denomination, and all but two — honoring railroad engineers and the Boy Scouts — were commemorative stamps,

In addition to the adhesives, four embossed stamped envelopes appeared. For airmail use, a 6-cent carmine illustrating a plane was released on September 22, with first-day sale at Philadelphia. For regular use, a 1-cent green, with portrait of Benjamin Franklin, and a 2-cent red and 3-cent violet, each with head of George Washington, were issued on November 16, 17, and 18, respectively, with first-day sale at New York City. Thirty revenue or fiscal items (not valid for postage) were recorded. Besides a $2 ‘hunting permit’ item, some 1940 documentary and stock transfer revenues were given a ‘Series of 1950′ overprint.

Philatelic Agency.

In the 28th full fiscal year of the U.S. Philatelic Agency at Washington ending June 30, 1950, collectors and dealers throughout the world purchased mint postal paper amounting to $2,891,976.31 (a monthly average of $240,156), compared with the record total of $4,136,122 during the 1948-1949 fiscal period. The decrease of more than $1,244,000 was attributed to the fact that only 15 new stamps were issued from July 1, 1949 through June 30, 1950, compared with 30 in the 1948-1949 fiscal year. From December 1921, when the Philatelic Agency was placed in operation, to June 30, 1950, the sales aggregated $36,000,986.

U.N. Stamps.

Late in 1950 it was announced at Lake Success that a postal agreement between the United States and the United Nations would be signed by President Truman and Secretary General Trygve Lie to permit the establishment of a separate U.N. postal administration empowered to print and sell its own stamps. Under the agreement, which was expected to become formally effective in July 1951, the U.S. Post Office Department would operate the U.N. post office in New York City, using U.N. stamps subject to reimbursement by the United Nations. Bertil A. Reneborg of Sweden, chief of U.N. communications, was assigned to head the project.

It was stated that the United Nations would in time open a philatelic agency for sale of the stamps to collectors. Some U.N. philatelic experts estimated that such sales should amount to at least $300,000 annually. The aspect of thus inducing philately to help support the United Nations was not relished by American collectors, especially since a tentative U.N. program called for stamps in denominations ranging from one cent through $5. Harry L. Lindquist, chairman of the National Federation of Stamp Clubs, sent a questionnaire to members, and 74 per cent replied in opposition to special U.N. stamps. Most of the others urged that such a series be restricted to denominations not higher than ten cents.

Portrait Gallery.

Likenesses of 111 men, women, and children never before postally honored appeared on stamps during 1950, the issues coming from 40 governments. Only nine were living persons: Perak’s Sultan Abdul Jalil, Mexico’s President Aleman, Denmark’s Princess Anne-Marie, England’s Prince Charles, Haiti’s President Estimé (who later was forced out of office), Trengganu’s Sultan Ismail ibni Almarhum, Soviet Deputy Premier Molotov, East Germany’s President Pieck, and President Quirino of the Philippines. Five of the 111 were women: Anne-Marie of Denmark, Bulgaria’s thirteenth-century Queen Desislava, France’s Mme. Sévigné and Mme. Recamier, and Mary Melnik, a guerrilla fighter of the Soviet Union.

Only two of the newcomers appeared on U.S. stamps: Samuel Gompers (1850-1924), labor leader; and John Luther (Casey) Jones (1864-1900), locomotive engineer, famous in folklore and song.

Exhibition.

The Second National Postage Stamp Show of the American Stamp Dealers’ Association, Inc., attracted an estimated 45,000 persons in New York City’s 71st Infantry Regiment Armory on November 16-19. The new 1-, 2-, and 3-cent stamped envelopes, the first, except for airmail envelopes, in thirty-four years, received first-day sale at this exhibition. At a special substation in the armory, visitors paid more than $10,000 for mint postal paper, commemoratives as well as the new envelopes.

1951: Philately

The year 1951 brought approximately 2,400 new major and minor varieties of postage stamps, the products of 159 governments.

For the first time in several years the Soviet Union did not issue the most new stamps. Hungary was the leader with 101 different stamps, followed by Czechoslovakia 62, Bolivia and the Soviet Union 60 each, South Korea and Poland 58 each, Yugoslavia 52, Venezuela 49, and Japan 48. These nine countries alone released 544 stamps, or more than one-fourth of the total. (The United States is omitted from the foregoing because only 9 of the 58 postal pieces printed at Washington were valid for postage, the others being for revenue.) More than one-sixth of the 2,400 output came from nine Iron Curtain lands.

Commemorative postal paper issued by 102 governments totaled 858, or only 35.6 per cent of the total, whereas in some years more than one-half of the world’s stamp output had been commemoratives. Bolivia led in this category in 1951 with 60, all its stamps being of this character.

A total of 357 airmail stamps, or between one-sixth and one-seventh of all the varieties, were issued by 51 governments. The United States issued only one. Better than 45 per cent of all the airs came from 15 of the 21 American republics, of which only Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, and Uruguay refrained from printing such stamps.

As usual, European countries led in producing semipostals, with 14 releasing 85 of the year’s total of 130. Only 11 governments elsewhere issued semipostals.

Suggesting the approaching settlement of some of the world’s political problems, fewer occupation stamps appeared. Only 87 such pieces were released — in Eritrea and Tripolitania under British administration, in eastern Germany under the Soviet Union, in the Fezzan part of Libya under French rule, and in the Allied Military Government sector of Trieste. On December 24 Libya became independent with United Nations sanction, foreshadowing an end to stamps for Fezzan.

Of the year’s total of 2,400 stamps, 357 were provisionals which 51 governments created by overprinting special inscriptions or new denominations. The overprints were only 14 per cent of the total, whereas there have been years in which more than half of all the stamps were overprinted varieties.

Portrait Gallery.

Generally in one year’s time approximately a hundred persons never before postally honored enter philately’s gallery, either with their portraits or figures used, or names inscribed, or statues or tombs pictured. During 1951 a probable record was set when the number of men and women thus honored exceeded 150. The United States issued only one such stamp — portraying Cadillac, the French colonizer in southern Michigan.

Governments use portraits to commemorate achievements in drama, exploration, geographical expansion, literature, medicine, music, painting, religion, science, sports, statesmanship, and in other fields. The Soviet Union in 1951, for example, honored 20 scientists, composers, artists, and writers, few of whom are mentioned in English-printed reference works. France placed 19 more famous Frenchmen on stamps. Nearly 50 governments in all added such stamps to the hobby’s panorama of portraits.

United Nations.

It was with some misgiving that philatelic leaders throughout the world heard of the plan announced by the United Nations organization to have its own postal paper. The grumblings recorded in stamp journals died away when artists retained by the United Nations produced stamps that many collectors consider among the hobby’s most beautiful vignettes. One of the artists is a Mexican-born New Yorker, Leon Helguera, several of whose sketches have been utilized in the past for United States postal items.

The U.N. stamps, with the inscriptions in the U.N.’s five official languages (Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish) are postage 1, 1′, 3, 5 and 25 cents and $1 released on October 24; postage 2, 10, 15, 20 and 50 cents on November 16; and airmail 6, 10, 15 and 25 cents on December 14. The designs reflect the purposes, activities, and achievements of the world organization.

Under the contract between the U.N. and the U.S. Post Office Department the latter operates the only U.N. post office, which was placed in the U.N. Headquarters Building (illustrated in Mr. Helguera’s design on the postage 1′-cent and 50-cent) in New York City. The stamps are valid on mail only when deposited at the post office, and nowhere else in the world.

During the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly at Paris, beginning in November, the stamps were sold to collectors and dealers, but exclusively for philatelic purposes. Purchasers of stamps with face value exceeding $100 were required to sign papers that they would not export them to the United States in an effort to make ‘black market’ profits because of the international currency situation.

In New York, Bertil A. Renborg, Chief of the U.N. Postal Administration, opened a Philatelic Office through which unused stamps could be obtained by mail. The post office itself was within the restricted area and so was inaccessible (except on the dates of first-day release of the stamps) to the general public. This hardship for collectors would be eliminated, Mr. Renborg said, by removing the post office to a building being erected on unrestricted land nearby.

New Governments.

The year brought three other new philatelic titles, Cambodia, Laos, and Viet Nam, and the announcement of a fourth, Tristan da Cunha.

Cambodia, Laos, and Viet Nam had been constituent parts of French Indochina. France made each one independent, and each issued its first postal paper as a royaume (kingdom). But inscribed on the stamps is, also, ‘U.F.’ — thus reminding that the three countries remain within the orbit of the French Union.

Great Britain disclosed that on Jan. 2, 1952, stamps would be issued for the first time in Tristan da Cunha, a chain of tiny islands in the Atlantic between Africa and South America. The population is only a few hundred — but there are millions of collectors to buy the stamps. The initial series comprises postal paper of St. Helena with the newcomer’s name overprinted on it.

United States Issues.

Washington produced 58 philatelic pieces during 1951. Of these, 49 are revenue stamps — 48 earlier Documentary and Stock Transfer fiscal items with ‘Series 1951′ overprinted, and the 1951-1952 Federal 2-dollar ‘duck stamp’ for use on wildfowl hunting licenses.

The other nine, valid for postage, include six commemoratives (listed herewith); a provisional six-cent-airmail stamped envelope contrived by overprinting ‘Revalued 6c P.O. Dept.’ in red on some remaining stocks of the five-cent airmail stamped envelope; and a two-cent red postcard (November 16) and a 20-cent black special delivery (November 30) printed to accommodate postal rate increases (from one cent and 15 cents respectively) which Congress legislated to become effective in 1952.

During the first session of the 82nd Congress 11 Senate and 34 House bills requesting special stamps were introduced by hopeful senators and representatives. Postmaster General Jesse M. Donaldson’s task under such pressure was eased, however, by the fact that a tacit mutual agreement with the Senate and House postal committees left the selection of persons and events to be honored to his discretion. So the bills never became law, as the committees did not even report them out for legislative action. Collectors generally considered six special stamps too few for any one year and late in 1951 Mr. Donaldson indicated that twice that many would be issued in 1952.

Philatelic Agency.

When relatively fewer stamps are issued within a Federal fiscal year, sales of mint stamps and other postal stationery at the Government’s Philatelic Agency in Washington is, logically, smaller. During the 12-month period which ended on June 30, 1951, five commemorative stamps and four stamped envelopes were issued, and sales at the Agency totalled $1,336,050. This compared with 15 stamps and sales amounting to $2,891,976 in the previous fiscal year. The drop in income was nearly $1,556,000. The Agency’s record sales figure of $4,136,122 had been achieved during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1949. During that year 30 new stamps appeared. From mid-December in 1921, when the Agency was placed in operation, through June 30, 1951, sales aggregated approximately $37,316,335.

National Exhibition.

The Third National Postage Stamp Show, sponsored by the American Stamp Dealers’ Association, Inc., a non-profit organization, was held in New York City in November. The Post Office Department gave the two-cent postcard first-day sale there on November 16 and provided a $1,000,000 display of postal wares brought from archives in Washington. New York’s Postmaster Albert Goldman installed a subpostal station. The Bureau of Printing and Engraving operated machines to show how stamps are printed. The United Nations put on an exhibit which gave the viewer a graphic picture of how the U.N. postal paper was developed from the inception of artists’ sketches, through the printing processes, to delivery of the stamps from England and the Netherlands. Peter G. Keller, executive officer of the A.S.D.A., estimated that 57,000 persons visited the show.

1952: Philately

During 1952 approximately 2,500 varieties of stamps were released by 138 governments. Venezuela led with 159, followed by Romania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Cuba, Turkey, Egypt, Hungary, Jordan, and Libya. These ten countries alone produced 750, or more than one-fourth of the total. The ‘Iron Curtain’ lands, seeking to attract American dollars, and operating state monopolies which virtually eliminated private dealers, issued better than one-seventh of the year’s total.

About 800 of the 2,500 stamps were commemoratives printed by 98 governments. Air mail items exceeded 370, with 225 of these released by 16 of the 21 American republics. Of 130 semipostals issued for charity reasons by 27 governments, 12 European countries were responsible for more than 90.

U. S. Stamps.

Fifty-one philatelic items were issued at Washington. Of these, 35 are revenues — of interest to American but not to foreign collectors because such fiscal paper is not valid for prepaying postage. The 16 for postal use were 13 commemoratives, and 80-cent air for use primarily on packages flown between the mainland and Hawaii, and two ‘Revalued 6-cent’ provisional-airpost 5-cent stamped envelopes.

First Days.

Interest in collecting first-day covers was undiminished. The postmasters of the cities and towns where the 13 commemoratives were given initial sale serviced 4,640,275 envelopes to which the new stamps and the ‘First Day of Issue’ cancellation were applied. In all, the postmasters sold 17,105,334 of the 13 stamps on the release dates.

Multicolor by Rotary.

In 1952 for the first time the Post Office Department printed a bicolor stamp — the International Red Cross commemorative — by the rotary process. About ten years ago the Bureau of Engraving and Printing at Washington began experiments which culminated in the multicolor rotary press. All of Uncle Sam’s previous bicolor postal paper was produced by the flat-bed method.

In the opinion of some art critics the Red Cross commemorative was one of the most artistic stamps produced at Washington since the Government began printing its own stamps 60 years ago. The new press is the Post Office Department’s response to demands by American collectors that Washington turn out stamps comparable in beauty with that of the postal paper of some foreign countries.

Philatelic Agency.

During the fiscal year which ended on June 30, 1952, the Government’s Philatelic Agency at Washington sold $1,578,633 worth of mint stamps and postal stationery to collectors and dealers throughout the world. This compares with $1,336,050 during the previous fiscal period — an increase of approximately $240,000. The record is $4,136,122, achieved during the fiscal year which closed on June 30, 1949.

The Agency was opened in mid-December of 1921. From then until the end of June 1952 the aggregate income exceeded $38,900,000.

Colored Illustrations.

A 1952 development of extreme value to philately was a Treasury Department ruling liberalizing Federal interpretation of that section of the United States Code affecting reproduction of postage stamps in color. Under this revision, illustrating of foreign stamps in their original colors was now permissible in the United States — and foreign-printed books containing such reproductions could be imported — if the stamps thus pictured are obsolete issues. This ended the Government’s practice of confiscating literature presenting colored illustrations of those foreign stamps which no longer have any postal validity. It was still illegal to publish or have possession of illustrations of United States stamps — even those long since demonetized.

The liberalization came in connection with a British-made book, ‘The Royal Philatelic Collection,’ describing the postal holdings which King George V assembled and which his successors, including Queen Elizabeth II, augmented. This $180 volume, years in the making, was intended for bibliophiles, educational institutions, and libraries, as well as for collectors. The British Embassy at Washington presented ‘the question of admissibility’ to the U.S. Attorney General, and the Treasury Department’s ruling was based on the Attorney General’s favorable decision.

United Nations.

The U. N. Postal Administration ended it first year of operation on October 23, after having released 11 postage stamps, 4 air mail items, a 10-cent air lettersheet and a 2-cent postal card. Philatelic sales exceeded $800,000 gross — a somewhat amazing figure because the philatelic press and collectors in general had, in advance, opposed stamp-issuing by the world organization.

On October 1, Bertil A. Renborg of Sweden retired as Chief of the Postal Administration and was succeeded by Reidar Tvedt of Norway. One of Mr. Tvedt’s first acts was to set up a stamp-selling counter in the public lobby of the U. N. General Assembly Building, thus making the postal paper obtainable in an area accessible to collectors. He was able to do this because the United Nations and the U.S. Post Office Department, which operates the United Nations post office in the basement of the Headquarters Building, revised their original agreement. Under the latter, the public had been excluded, except on certain days, from patronizing the post office, which is within a ‘restricted area,’ and had to order stamps by mail for philatelic purposes. Now collectors can buy at the new counter and post letters there.

Late in 1952 Secretary General Trygve Lie conducted a contest among leading artists throughout the world in search of acceptable designs for future United Nations stamps. He appointed a jury comprising Dr. Luis F. Thomen, the Dominican Republic’s Ambassador to the United States, as chairman; Bernard Davis, founder of the National Philatelic Museum, Philadelphia; Harry L. Lindquist, chairman of the National Federation of Stamp Clubs and publisher of Stamps magazine; and Jan Juta, a South African artist and designer.

Sixty-seven illustrators representing 32 countries submitted 194 sketches. Three first prizes of $1,000 each were won by Messrs. Wind and Struski, Israeli artists who had successfully collaborated in contriving Israeli postal designs; Leonard C. Mitchell, New Zealand; Dirk Van Gilder, Netherlands. Three second awards, $500 each, went to Johannes Haukland, Norway; Steven P. Ir-Shay, Israel; Hubert Woyty-Wimmer, United Kingdom. Honorable mention was accorded illustrators whose designs were purchased outright. Not one American was among the successful contestants.

Exhibition.

A major event during the year was the fourth annual National Postage Stamp Show held in New York by the American Stamp Dealers’ Association (ASDA) on November 21-23. The Post Office Department co-operated by releasing the International Red Cross commemorative there and by displaying $1,000,000 worth of mint sheets, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing gave public demonstrations of the flat-bed and rotary processes of producing stamps. The New York Red Cross operated a bloodmobile for the benefit of the Armed Forces. Peter G. Keller, executive officer of the ASDA, estimated the attendance at 65,000 persons.