Bernard A. “Bud” Hennig, Sr., of Chicago, a major force in philatelic judging in the U.S. and recipient of the American Philatelic Society’s John Luff Award for Service to the APS, has died at the age of 97. On the right, he’s shown in the Bud & Dodie Hennig Room at the American Philatelic Center in 2005.

I didn’t know him well, so I’ll let others who did tell you about this important figure in U.S. Stamp Collecting. Please feel free to add your remembrances and cite his accomplishments below.

—Lloyd A. de Vries, The Virtual Stamp Club

“Bud was a gentleman of the old school, a legend in American philately, highly accomplished in the realm of German (among other) stamps and covers, a very involved worker for the APS — there is a Bud and Dodie Hennig room in Bellefonte — one of the finest judges ever to walk an exhibit floor (and the first recipient and namesake of the Hennig Award for Judging Excellence).”

—John M. Hotchner, Editor, U.S. Stamp News; Columnist, Linn’s Stamp News;
Chair, Hennig Judging Excellence Award Committee, AAPE

“What we do as judges is so much based upon his work principles and vision and all exhibitors as well as judges should thank him as we remember his life and mourn his passing.”

—Tim Bartshe, Past President, American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors

[press release]
Charles Neyhart Wins 2014 Richard Helbock Prize

La Posta Publications Publisher Peter Martin has announced that Charles Neyhart was selected as the winner of the 2014 Richard W. Helbock Prize for his “The 1905 Portland, Oregon, Lewis & Clark Exposition Postal Stations” article that appeared in the Second Quarter 2013 issue of La Posta.
The 2014 Richard W. Helbock Prize is awarded to the best postal history article appearing in a 2013 issue of La Posta: The Journal of American Postal History.

Neyhart, who holds a PhD in business administration from Penn State, retired in 2001 as emeritus professor of business from Oregon State University and lives in Portland.

His article was an analysis of the impact of the 1905 Lewis & Clark Exposition on operations of the Portland Post Office and the postal markings left in its wake. For his win, Neyhart receives cash and prizes valued at nearly $450. The runner-up and third place recipients also receive cash and prize awards.

Runner-up for the 2014 prize was “U.S. Foreign Offices’ Use and Handling of Fractions on Insufficiently Paid UPU Cards” by Henry J. (Hank) Berthelot (Second Quarter 2013 La Posta), a retired attorney who lives in the metropolitan New Orleans area.

Berthelot has a BS degree from the United States Military Academy and a JD degree from Tulane University’s School of Law.

For the last 50 years, Berthelot has focused on postal history, especially that involving U.S. postal cards. His article provided an easy to understand explanation for a very complex postal rate area.

Third place wound up in a tie between “Intoxicated Ground Zero” by Richard S. Hemmings (First Quarter 2013 La Posta) of Stewartstown, Pa., and “Auxiliary Markings of the 1869 Three-Cent Pictorial Issue” by Barry Jablon (Fourth Quarter 2013 La Posta) of Los Angeles.

Hemmings, the winner of the inaugural Helbock Prize in 2013 with “New York City’s Cortlandt Street: One Way to the River,” returned in 2013 to complete his popular trilogy about New York’s Twin Towers District.

Jablon is an attorney in Los Angeles who specializes in the U.S. three-cent pictorial issue. He has written elsewhere about pastoral eclogues, Lis Pendens and life in East Asia.

Also receiving votes were: “The United States’ Large Grant Postal Cards Use in the UPU Mail” by H.J. Berthelot; “The Postage Meter Tips Off Mail Preparation” by David Crotty; “The 411 of 9/11” by Richard Hemmings; “First Battalion Florida Special Cavalry: ‘Munnerlyn’s Cow Cavalry’” by Patricia A. Kaufmann; and “The SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm Revisited” by Jesse Spector and Robert Markovits.

The selections were based on voting by the La Posta editorial staff and the Benefactor subscribers of La Posta.

The Richard W. Helbock Prize is named in honor of the founding editor of La Posta who died from a heart attack in 2011. Helbock founded La Posta in 1969 and continued to edit the journal for more than 42 years until his death.

La Posta: The Journal of American Postal History is published four times per year. It is the leading journal devoted to American postal history and marks its 45th year of publication in 2014. Subscriptions are $32 per year. For more information contact: La Posta Publications, POB 6074 Fredericksburg, VA 22403 or e-mail laposta.joan@yahoo.com

By John M. Hotchner

Having grandchildren is a wonderful thing — not least because that exalted status forces one to see life and especially modern pop culture through new eyes. Many of us would rather not, thank-you-very-much, but like other facts of life, it is better we know where society is going, even if the olden days are more appealing. All this to lead into the fact that I joined some of our progeny to see Madagascar 3 yesterday; an animated bit of fluff that is entertaining so long as you are willing to ignore the fact that there are certain logical discontinuities and a lot of action that is physically impossible.

I class movies in two categories: those I don’t need to see again, and those I want to see again knowing that I will see things I missed the first time. Madagascar 3 is definitely in the first group. Been there. Done that. But it was not a wasted afternoon. Hearing what my grandkids laughed at and what they treated as serious, hearing my chronically sleep-deprived son nod off with a light snore in a movie that is the equivalent of sitting next to the launching area of a long fireworks display, and having an excuse to eat popcorn were all worth the price of admission.

And what has this to do with stamp collecting, I hear you say? Well, I suppose it is possible that the Madagascar-series characters will one day appear on a series of stamps, though I would put my money on the characters from the Ice Age series. But more importantly, it reminds me of the willing suspension of disbelief that we all engage in to one extent or another when it comes to evaluating the daily fare of life.

Taken literally, you could not credit the action and dialogue in the first scene of the movie, let alone the entire story. But suspending disbelief allows one to watch the movie and process it as an exercise in learning to enjoy something for what it is, rather than what we would like it to be, or think it should be. I would suggest that is a life skill; not one that should be overused as we don’t prosper by living in fantasy-land. But it is one that keeps us from the sin of being unremittingly critical.

As we witness the unfolding of the Baseball All-Stars saga — four stamps that were issued in July 2012 in honor of Larry Doby, Willie Stargell, Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio — this is a particularly useful skill. It is clear that the U.S. Postal Service stamp development folks have been given an order to maximize revenue. What else could account for the plethora of formats being released?

It began as a set of four stamps to be released as a pane with all four stamps together. Then it was announced that each of the stamps would be released in panes of that stamp alone. So far, I am ok with the program. Though it skates on the edge, a case can be made that individual panes will have meaning for both baseball fans and stamp collectors.

And then the crowning glory: five press sheets, one for the combined stamps and one each for each All-Star; each with six panes. And they would be issued without die cuts. Not since the imperforate National Parks issue of 1934, the so-called Farley’s Follies, has there been such an event. At least that one was not conceived of as a means of fundraising for the then Post Office Department. Yes, it morphed into that when Postmaster General James Farley was forced to make available to collectors what he had already made available to friends and political cronies. But here we have a different animal indeed.

The U.S. Postal Service is intentionally creating a limited edition philatelic product that has no relationship to valid postal operations or need, with the express intent of reaching out to new markets — not stamp collectors at all, they say, but to well-heeled baseball fans who want to display a special collectible. And this is the explanation for the lack of die cuts. Why are they needed when the stamps will never be used as stamps, only as some genre of artwork?

Trouble is that much as the USPS would like us to believe they are not pitching these press sheets to stamp collectors, it can’t be true. To believe that requires us to believe that they do not understand there is a rather large body of collectors who want examples of everything the USPS produces. And we know from other behaviors and other issues that they are well aware we exist and that we care enough to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on stamps that will not ever see use on an envelope or package.

So, why the pretense? Well, partially it is fact based. Press sheets have not been accepted by the hobby as an essential, and revenue from selling them has been modest compared to what it might be had the collecting community embraced them with gusto. Furthermore, the USPS has been focused on growing sales to niche audiences beyond collectors. It is for this reason that they have chosen to issue so many commemorative stamps at conventions of organizations dealing with the stamp subject instead of at stamp shows. Doing so gains maximum free publicity beyond the stamp-collecting community, not to mention sales to a whole new class of people who will buy the stamps for retention as souvenirs; something that represents nearly total profit to an organization that is in serious financial trouble.

The second part of the pretense is found in the fact that it is impolitic to announce to the stamp collecting public that the USPS is issuing products with the sole intention of raising revenue. It just isn’t done, though we know it and they know we know it. Some things are just better left unsaid. Another thing they don’t say is that they believe there is value to creating limited edition stamps because collectors who can make money by selling in the secondary market what they bought at face value will become both more serious about their own collecting, and effective recruiters for the hobby; thus encouraging its future growth and sales potential for routine USPS products. Is this true? Only you can answer that question for yourself.

So, is what is happening with the Baseball All-Stars in any way a good thing for the hobby? History teaches that it probably is. Anything that creates buzz for the hobby is good in the short term as it gets more people to take note of stamp collecting. Anything that creates complexity in philatelic products makes the hobby more interesting to serious students of philately in the long term.

Many issues have been denounced by the hobby over the history of philately. The Columbian Exposition set of 1893, with its unnecessary $1, $2, $3, $4, and $5 stamps is perhaps the best example. But the multiplicity of varieties of the Washington-Franklins of 1908-1922 is another. Though muttered about and denounced when issued, they are popular mainstays of the hobby today. Some collectors of the time picked up their marbles and went home, convinced that the hobby had changed fundamentally from what they signed up for. We will see another spate of those types of letters to the editor in the current situation. And that decision is theirs to make.

However, they often append to their letter a statement that current practice is evidence that the hobby is going to hell in a hand basket, and the Postal Service is killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Perhaps for the present collectors there is some truth to this, but 165 years of philately suggests that even the most egregiously money-grabbing practices bring in more new and serious collectors than are lost from outrage.

Or maybe I am engaging in a willing suspension of disbelief.

Should you wish to comment on this editorial, or have questions or ideas you would like to have explored in a future column, please write to John Hotchner, VSC Contributor, P.O. Box 1125, Falls Church, VA 22041-0125, or email, putting “VSC” in the subject line.

Or comment right here.

National Postal Museum Opens “Pacific Exchange: China & U.S. Mail”
Exhibition Features Stamps and Mail Never Before on Display

[press release] The “Pacific Exchange: China & U.S. Mail” exhibition opened today in the Postmasters Gallery of the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum. It tells the story of the Chinese and U.S. relationship through the unique lens of stamps and mail. U.S. artwork and die proofs related to China and the Lunar New Year are featured and organized into three thematic areas: commerce, culture and community. The sections about commerce and culture focus on the decades between 1860 and 1980; the section on community tells the story of Chinese Americans from the Gold Rush to today’s celebration of the Lunar New Year.

“We look forward to sharing, publicly for the first time, stunningly beautiful pieces from our international collection,” said Allen Kane, director of the museum. “This exhibition provides additional incentive for people around the world to want to visit our William H. Gross Stamp Gallery.”

The U.S. and China are the world’s largest economies, and they share a complicated history. In recent years, about 2½ million Chinese have become avid stamp collectors.
“Stamps and mail never before on public display will offer insight into the complex relationship between the two countries,” said Cheryl R. Ganz, exhibition curator. “Viewing this cultural exchange will offer a deeper understanding of each nation’s history and people in relationship to the other.”

Highlights of the exhibition include an 1849 letter to an American opium trader in Canton, very rare proofs of stamps from the China Bureau of Engraving and Printing (1912–1928), original artwork for U.S. Postal Service Lunar New Year postage stamps and the iconic map-design error of the People’s Republic of China, of which less than 10 are known to exist in private hands.

On Saturday, March 8, Ganz will give a talk and a curator-led tour of the exhibition. She will speak about China’s founding father Sun Yat-sen on American postage stamps at 2 p.m. in the museum’s Byrne Education Loft, followed by a tour of the exhibition at approximately 2:45 p.m. Before and after the talk and tour, she will autograph copies of the exhibition catalog at the museum store from 1–1:45 p.m. and 4:15–5 p.m. The 50-page, full-color catalog is available for purchase for $14.95 in the museum store or online.

A special online version of the exhibit is available, featuring many of the items on exhibit, plus resources and additional images of archival artwork that shows how postage stamp designs evolved.

The National Postal Museum is devoted to presenting the colorful and engaging history of the nation’s mail service and showcasing one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of stamps and philatelic material in the world. It is located at 2 Massachusetts Avenue N.E., Washington, D.C., across from Union Station. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (closed Dec. 25). For more information about the Smithsonian, call (202) 633-1000 or visit the museum website at www.postalmuseum.si.edu.

[press release]
Dr. Cheryl R. Ganz to Retire
Granted Smithsonian Emerita Status

Dr. Cheryl R. Ganz, Chief Curator of Philately and lead curator of the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery, will retire at the end of February from the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum. Her retirement follows a decade (2005-2014) in which she transformed the vision for philately at the museum and set new international standards for museum postage stamp exhibits. “There will never, ever be another Cheryl,” said Allen Kane, director of the museum.

The Smithsonian Institution grants emeritus status to exceptional employees, who have made significant and lasting contributions to the Smithsonian. Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough has recognized Ganz with the title Curator of Philately Emerita. She is the first National Postal Museum employee to receive this honor.

Ganz’s exhibit strategy of selecting rare philatelic objects and framing them with strong narratives engages a variety of visitors. By organizing exhibits around the idea that “every stamp tells a story,” her exhibits offer a fresh perspective of history and culture and make philately exciting, accessible and engaging for all visitors. Exhibitions, web stories and catalogs that she worked on include Rarity Revealed: The Benjamin K. Miller Collection; Delivering Hope: FDR & Stamps of the Great Depression; Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic; Favorite Finds and Pacific Exchange: China & U.S. Mail. As lead curator of the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery, Ganz developed the conceptual plan for the new gallery, incorporating input from over one hundred staff members and stakeholders. She led the museum curatorial, script and content teams in creating the world’s largest postage stamp gallery. The gallery opened to rave reviews in September 2013.

Ganz received the Smithsonian Secretary’s Research Award for the best research book of the year in 2011. Her scholarship previous to working at the museum, combined with museum outreach to various audiences via popular press, academic journals and philatelic publications, has positioned her as a preeminent philatelic researcher and author. Smithsonian Scholarly Press is currently preparing her latest book, Every Stamp Tells a Story: The National Philatelic Collection, for publication in 2014.

Kane has appointed Daniel A. Piazza, curator of philately, as the museum’s interim chair of the department of philately.

The National Postal Museum is devoted to presenting the colorful and engaging history of the nation’s mail service and showcasing one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of stamps and philatelic material in the world. It is located at 2 Massachusetts Avenue N.E., Washington, D.C., across from Union Station. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (closed Dec. 25). For more information about the Smithsonian, please call (202) 633-1000 or visit the museum website at www.postalmuseum.si.edu.

Linn’s Stamp News (March 3, 2014 issue) reports a non-denominated Forever postal card will be issued March 28th, at the American Stamp Dealers Association Spring Postage Stamp Show in New York. There were no details on the design, or the exact formats (single, reply, sheets of 40) will be issued.

This was confirmed in the March 6th Postal Bulletin:
Stamp Announcement 14-20: Tree Stamped Card
© 2014 USPS

On March 28, 2014, New York, New York, at the American Stamp Dealers Association Spring Postage Stamp Show held at the New Yorker Hotel, the Postal Service will issue a Tree stamped card (Forever priced at 38 cents) in one design.

In 2014, the U.S. Postal Service issues a Tree Stamped Card. This graphic depiction captures the look of a fanciful tree, in greens and browns, amid birds and tall grasses. Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamped card, using an illustration created by artist Cathie Bleck.

The Tree stamped card will be available in the following formats:
• Single-cut cards (Item 227900).
• Double-reply cards (Item 233000).
• Sheet of 40 cards (Item 234000).

The stamp will go on sale nationwide March 28, 2014.

Distribution: Multiple Items: Tree Stamped (Forever priced at 38 cents (34 cent postage plus 4-cent surcharge)

• Item number 227900, single card, Quantity 5,000
• Item number 233000, double reply card, Quantity 2,000
• Item number 234000, sheet card, Quantity 250 (of 40 cards)

How to Order the First-Day-of-Issue Postmark:

Customers have 60 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at their local Post Office, at The Postal Store website at www.usps.com/shop, or by calling 800-STAMP-24. They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes (to themselves or others), and place them in a larger envelope addressed to:

Tree Stamped Card
Special Events Coordinator
380 West 33rd St. Room 4032
New York NY 10199

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark up to a quantity of 50. For more than 50, customers have to pay five cents each. All orders must be postmarked by May 27, 2014.

Philatelic Products:
• 227916*, single card with cancellation, $0.50
• 233016*, double reply card with cancellation, $0.88

Technical Specifications:
Issue: Tree Stamped Card
Item Number: 227900
Denomination & Type of Issue: 38-cent Stamped Card Forever
Format: Single Cut Cards
Series: N/A
Issue Date & City: March 28, 2014, New York, NY 10199
Designer: Ethel Kessler
Art Director: Ethel Kessler
Typographer: Ethel Kessler
Artist: Cathie Bleck,
Modeler: Joseph Sheeran
Manufacturing Process: Offset
Printer: Ashton Potter
Printed at: Williamsville, NY
Press Type: Stevens, Vari-size Security Press
Print Quantity: 13,960,000 stamped cards
Paper Type: Nonphosphored Type III, Block
Adhesive Type: N/A
Processed at: Ashton Potter
Colors: Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow
Image Orientation: Horizontal
Image Area (w x h): N/A
Card Size (w x h): 5.5 x 3.5 in./139.70 x 88.90 mm
Full Pane Size (w x h): N/A
Plate Size: 18 cards per revolution
Plate Numbers: N/A
Marginal Markings: © 2014 USPS • Recycling logo

Technical Specifications:
Issue: Tree Stamped Card
Item Number: 233000
Denomination & Type of Issue: 38-cent Stamped Card Forever
Format: Double Reply Cards
Series: N/A
Issue Date & City: March 28, 2014, New York, NY 10199
Designer: Ethel Kessler
Art Director: Ethel Kessler
Typographer: Ethel Kessler
Artist: Cathie Bleck
Modeler: Joseph Sheeran
Manufacturing Process: Offset
Printer: Ashton Potter
Printed at: Williamsville, NY
Press Type: Mueller Martini, A76
Print Quantity: 300,000 double-reply cards
Paper Type: Nonphosphored Type III, Block
Adhesive Type: N/A
Colors: Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow
Image Orientation: Horizontal
Image Area (w x h): N/A
Card Size (w x h): 5.5 x 7.0 in./139.70 x 177.80 mm
Full Pane Size (w x h): N/A
Plate Size: 12 cards per revolution
Plate Numbers: N/A
Marginal Markings: © 2014 USPS • Recycling logo

Technical Specifications:
Issue: Tree Stamped Card
Item Number: 234000
Denomination & Type of Issue: 38-cent Stamped Card Forever
Format: Sheet of 40 Cards
Series: N/A
Issue Date & City: March 28, 2014, New York, NY 10199
Designer: Ethel Kessler
Art Director: Ethel Kessler
Typographer: Ethel Kessler
Artist: Cathie Bleck
Modeler: Joseph Sheeran
Manufacturing Process: Offset
Printer: Ashton Potter.
Printed at: Williamsville, NY
Press Type: Heidelberg Speedmaster XL105
Print Quantity: 19,500 (sheets of 40)
Paper Type: Nonphosphored Type III, Block
Adhesive Type: N/A
Colors: Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow
Image Orientation: Horizontal
Image Area (w x h): N/A
Card Size (w x h): 5.5 x 3.5 in./139.70 x 88.90 mm
Full Pane Size (w x h): N/A
Plate Size: 40 cards per revolution
Plate Numbers: N/A
Marginal Markings: © 2014 USPS • Recycling logo

The 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta will be offered at an auction in New York on June 17th. Sotheby’s, which is handling the sale, predicts it will sell for $10-20 million dollars.

“This is the superstar of the stamp world,” David Redden, Sotheby’s worldwide chairman of books and manuscripts, told the Associated Press.

The stamp hasn’t been on public display since 1986.

“It’s a stamp the world of collectors has been dying to see for a long time,” said U.S. National Postal Museum director Allen Kane.

It is now being sold by the estate of John du Pont, the eccentric heir to the chemical fortune who was convicted of the murder of a wrestling coach. Some of the proceeds to the Eurasian Pacific Wildlife Conservation Foundation that du Pont championed during his lifetime.

[AFDCS press release]
AFDCS Makes Digital Edition of First Days Available To All Members

First Days, the award-winning journal of the American First Day Cover Society, is now available online to all classes of membership. The magazine is one of the principal benefits of membership in the AFDCS.

Each issue will be available in three different versions:

• A page-flip version which simulates an actual magazine on a monitor connected to a Windows or Macintosh computer;
• A mobile version for use on tablets, phones and other mobile devices; and
• A .pdf version, whose file can be downloaded and saved.

The online editions are available to members as soon as the issue is submitted to the printer, allowing earlier access to the journal, and without the problems inherent in postal delivery.

The AFDCS offers several levels of membership: Online, which does not include a printed copy of First Days; Regular, which does; Silver and Gold, which allow members to express their support of the AFDCS and first day cover collecting; and Life, which includes both the online and hard-copy magazines.

Members who want access to these digital editions of First Days, as well as other AFDCS digital publications planned for the near future, and have not previously registered on the site should click on “Member Register”in the top left corner of the AFDCS website, www.afdcs.org.

“Digital publishing of hobby publications is the future, and now, for the AFDCS, it’s the present,” said AFDCS president Lloyd A. de Vries. “I especially want to thank webmaster Todd Ronnei, who spent months seeking and then testing the necessary software.”

Ronnei was also responsible for compiling a digital archive of First Days from the first issue in 1955 through 2011, which is available on a DVD for $79 or a flash drive for $89. An update disk is planned covering subsequent years, although .pdf files of all issues from January 2011 to the present are still available.

The American First Day Cover Society is the world’s largest not-for-profit organization dedicated to the collecting of FDCs. Each issue of First Days is published in full color and includes articles, columns, Society business, a non-commercial Cover Exchange, and the best collection of FDC advertisements anywhere.

For more information on the AFDCS, visit www.afdcs.org or write to the AFDCS, P.O. Box 16277 Tucson, Arizona 85732-6277, or via e-mail at afdcs@afdcs.org.

[press release]

SPM 2014, to be held in scenic St. Pierre, Sept. 24-28, 2014, will take place on the tourism-friendly island of St. Pierre et Miquelon, a French Overseas Department, off the east coast of Canada. It is a national show, recognized by the InterAmerican Federation of Philately (FIAF), with participation of exhibitors from the home country, Canada, the USA, Chile, Colombia,and France. Judging will be by an internationally-accredited panel using the standards of the International Federation of Philately (FIP), and eight levels of medal will be awarded.

This is a chance for exhibitors to hone your skills and get FIP-level feedback before the next U.S.–based international show in New York in 2016.

Categories for SPM 2014 are Traditional, Postal History, Aerophilately, Postal Stationery, Maximaphily, Revenue, Youth, Open (Display), and Single Frame exhibits. Other than the latter, five and eight frame exhibits are being accepted.

More information is available on the SPM 2014 website: www.spm-expo.com. When you access the website, look for the English flag and click on it if you prefer English text.

The application form and show regulations are available there, or can be obtained by writing to John M. Hotchner U.S. Commissioner to SPM 2014 PO Box 1125 Falls Church, VA 22041-0125or by email at jmhstamp@verizon.net.

Because You Belong – News from the ATA
January 31, 2014

TOPICAL TIME

The Jan-Feb issue was sent to the printer yesterday and is scheduled to be mailed on Feb. 7. Allowing for the nine business days in which the USPS expects delivery, US members can expect to receive their copy by Feb. 18. This information is regularly posted on our website.  Please recycle the plastic wrapper in which it’s protected.  Before you do so, you might wish to take note of your ATA membership number and expiration date, found just above your name on the mailing label.  (If your expiration date is May 1, 2014, and you mail your dues dollars in February, it’ll save the ATA Office folks time and money in sending you a dues reminder in March.)

New this issue:  Electronic Topical Time (ETT).  All ATA members can access the electronic version of our journal from the home page of the ATA website, www.americantopicalassn.org, or directly at http://americantopicalassn.org/ETT/ETT-2014/ETT-383/

This issue includes a feature on Montenegro Coat of Arms by Miloje Chastven.  The Study Unit Spotlight article is from the Chess on Stamps Study Unit, by Joram Lubianeker.  A new and interesting column written by Dawn Hamman appears:  the first “My Topic” features our own Spiderwoman, Bea Vogel.  You’ll find the prospectus and exhibit application for National Topical Stamp Show (NTSS) in St. Louis; the jury and awards are announced, also.  Gary Hendren highlights the first information about NTSS tours.  And Dottie Smith has performed her indexing magic once again; this issue includes a helpful index of all the 2013 Topical Time issues.

NEXT YEAR’S NTSS
Next year’s National Topical Stamp Show will be at the Monarch Hotel and Convention Center, Clackamas (near Portland), Oregon, July 31-August 2, the venue of NTSS 2008. www.monarchhotel.cc/  (note the / at end)

STUDY UNIT PUBLICATION COMPETITION AT NTSS THIS YEAR
For information, contact Jeff Hayward, Director of Study Units:
PO Box 60180, Staten Island, NY 10306; stamps@jeffhayward.com

WHAT TO DO WITH A FREE EVENING…
We are all so busy that we often marvel at how quickly the time passes. But, once in a while, we have a free evening, and decide to take time for our favorite hobby–topical collecting.
When your free evening comes, and you want to look for new stamps, check first at
www.topicalsonline.com

It’s the ATA site that offers inexpensive topical stamps.  It’s easy to use, and allows you to search by more than 700 topics.  With your checklist in-hand, you can also search by country and Scott number.

When you make a purchase, the ATA receives 10 percent.  So, while adding to your collection, you are helping the ATA.  A great way to spend an evening!

APPOINTMENTS
Donald J Chenevert, Jr as ATA Legal Counsel and Director of Claims Services – To fill unexpired term ending in summer 2015. He fills the term of the late Joseph Frasch, Jr.

Amanda Morgenstern, new interim webmaster – she is the graphic designer who has served in a variety of roles for ATA including the design of our current website. We thank Sean Lamb for serving as our webmaster the past 2½ years. He brought our website out of infancy and into maturity, receiving Gold awards in the 2012 and 2013 APS Web Competitions.

AMBASSADORS WILL REPRESENT ATA AT THESE UPCOMING SHOWS
If you can assist at the ATA table for an hour or two, please contact the ATA Office.
Members may save postage by contacting the ATA Office to request that certain items (eg handbooks, membership directories, checklists, DVDs) be brought to these shows for them.

Jan. 31-Feb. 2
Southeastern Stamp Expo, Norcross, Georgia

Feb. 7-9
Sarasota National Stamp Exhibition, Sarasota, Florida

Feb. 14-16
APS AmeriStamp Expo, Little Rock, Arkansas

Feb. 22-23
Toledo Stamp Expo, Holland, Ohio

Mar. 21-23
St. Louis Stamp Expo, St. Louis, Missouri

Mar. 27-30
ASDA Spring Postage Stamp Show, New York, New York

ATA MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY
In February you’ll receive, by email, a request to supply information for ATA’s 2014-16 Membership Directory.  We will include in the Directory only the information you authorize.  But we certainly hope you’ll share your updated collecting interests and either an email or mail address, to facilitate communication with other topical collectors.  Please respond to our request immediately, to assist the ATA Office with preparation of the Directory.

WANTED – Please contact Jack Denys if you can serve in any of these ways: jdenys@verizon.net
▪  ATA Webmaster
Keeps the website current and secure, posting updates promptly, designing additions, serving as interface with provider
▪  Checklist Proofreaders – Proof new checklists for typos and consistency. Scott catalogue is NOT needed
▪  Catalogue Research Assistant – Someone to provide Scott catalogue numbers of recent issues for author of a proposed ATA handbook on the general topic of Frogs on Stamps (stamp scans provided)

BOLDLY TO THE FUTURE!