The following is solely the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of any philatelic organization.

by Lloyd A. de VriesThe upcoming 25-subject Figures of the American Revolution stamps, announced for issuance by the U.S. in 2026, honors “25 individuals whose ideas, leadership and sacrifices were vital to achieving American independence and shaping the new nation,” according to the U.S. Postal Service (as quoted on The Virtual Stamp Club‘s page for that issue). In addition to the well-known patriots such as Washington, Jefferson and Franklin, they include two Native Americans, five women, three African-Americans, three citizens of other countries — but no Jews.

Perhaps the planners thought that Deborah Sampson, who disguised herself as a man and served in the Continental Army, was Jewish. No, sorry: She was born in the Congregationalist denomination of Christianity but left it to become a Baptist as a young woman. As one biography puts it, “She never felt committed to any one religious denomination, believing only in the principles of Christianity.” (Freeman & Bond)

Nathaniel Greene? He was a Quaker.

It is not that Jews sat on the sidelines during the Revolutionary War. Although only 0.1% of the population, “of the roughly 2,000 Jews in Colonial America, most cast their lot with the Patriot cause.” (Diamond) Their participation continued after the war. “Jews played a critical role both in winning the American Revolution—fighting for the patriot cause from Bunker Hill to Yorktown—and in defining the republic that was created from it. As the most visible non-Christian religion, Judaism was central to the debate over religious freedom in America at a critical juncture.” (ARI intro to Jortner)

What about Haym Salomon, whom Wikipedia calls “the prime financier of the American side.” He bankrupted himself, underwriting the American war effort. In particular, he put forth the funds that allowed Washington’s to join the final, deciding Battle of Yorktown. Yes, he was honored on a stamp in 1975 (Scott 1561) but how many stamps have been issued for Abigail Adams, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and all the presidents including in this set.

No stamp has yet been issued for Mordecai Sheftall, the highest ranking Jewish officer in the Continental Army. Captured, imprisoned and tortured by the British, he was a leader of both the Patriot opposition to British rule as well as the Jewish community in Savannah.

There are other Jewish patriots who also could be honored. Do a web search for “Jews in the American Revolution” for a variety of articles and works.

Certainly, other cultural and ethnic groups may wonder where their representatives are in this very-large set of stamps. Even 25 stamps probably is not enough to commemorate all the major figures of the American Revolution. However, I am disappointed that not even one of these stamps features a Jew.

Sources:

“Jews, despite their small numbers, played a significant role in the Revolutionary conflict.”
Carmi, Ziv R. (2023) “To Bigotry No Sanction, To Persecution No Assistance: Jews in the American Revolutionary Period,” The Gettysburg Historical Journal, Vol. 22, Article 6.
Available here.

Diamond, Richard, Times Of Israel Blogs, November 30, 2025.

Finkelstein, Norman H., The Revolutionary War and the Jews, available here.

Freeman, Lucy and Alma Halbert Bond. America’s First Woman Warrior. New York: Paragon House, 1992.

Jortner, Adam, in his talk A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom to The American Revolution Institute, October 24, 2024. Watch here.

Wikipedia on Haym Salomon.

Wikipedia on Mordecai Sheftall.

Young, Alfred F. Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier. New York: Random House. 2004.

The mystery is what happens to you if you fall for this scam. The real address in the FROM field is hiddenfindsbox.sbs”. “sbs” is not a particular country. I did not check out what is at that URL.

In a new article on the Martha Stewart website, an article titled “10 Hobbies for Older Adults That Improve Brain and Body Health” lists walking, learning languages, quilting, photography, dancing, video games, even juggling — but not stamp collecting.

In fact, a search for “philately” on the site only found two articles on addressing wedding invitations. “Stamp Collecting” as a search produces nine hits, including “How to Have a Collecting Hobby If You’re a Minimalist” (a passing mention after “holiday decorations”) and “10 Collectibles That Could Be Worth Serious Money.” We get first mention in that one, but are only ranked #8, with one short paragraph that has little useful information and, in fact, is somewhat misleading:

While your basic forever stamp might not be worth more than 73 cents, there are rare stamps that can fetch a pretty penny. If you inherit a stamp collection or find one at a secondhand store for a song, consider looking through it for presidential stamps or specific issues featuring important historical events.

There’s some good advice in “How to Value and Sell Your Antique or Vintage Collectibles” but absolutely no mention of stamps. Except, of course, for the last item: “Know When To Restore.” For stamps, that answer is “never” and “restoring” could get you in trouble.

The lack of information about philately makes me wonder about the other advice on the site. Someone should inform them of the oversight. I think I will.

As I wrote recently in Linn’s, ya gotta be careful with Artificial Intelligence-generated images! I created this image using Microsoft Designer’s Image Creator. I had started to format it for a Dragon Card when I stopped and counted the candles: Four on the left, five on the right and presumably the “shamas” or leader candle used to light the others in the center, hidden by the window partition. In my description, I specified “Hanukkah menorah,” which would be eight plus one. (There are other menorahs, not for Hanukkah, with fewer candles. I’ve seen 4 and 6/7.)

In fact, none of that day’s designs had the right number. I went back this morning, and one of the 3 created had 11. So far, though, two of them seem acceptable. But I’m looking carefully for mistletoe and mangers.

of inattention or distraction to destroy a potential Dragon Card first day cover. There were going to be 12 for the Willie O’Ree Canadian stamp. Make that !!.* (A song from “Hello Dolly.”)

The cards are printed two to a page. The printer’s fee to cut them is too much for such a small quantity, and I have a big cutting board. An occasional mistake like still make sense.

I’ve been thinking of an exhibit, “Dragon Cards Mistakes” and now I have another item for it.

The question was posed in the American Topical Association’s Facebook group about a favorites sports/philatelic memory. This is mine:

In 1979, I was a freelance radio sports reporter, covering the Baltimore Orioles, who won the American League Pennant and went to the baseball World Series. I discovered the Baltimore post office had a station in Memorial Stadium with a pictorial postmark, and purchased a stamp and had it serviced. (Appropriately, the stamp is the Fort McHenry Flag, and Fort McHenry is in Baltimore Harbor.)

Now, freelance reporters don’t travel with teams, except on rare occasions or at their own expense. I did not go to Pittsburgh for Games 3, 4 and 5, but when the Series came back to Baltimore, I was ready: I obtained a few more credentials envelopes from my friends in the public relations office and had topically-related stamps ready, to produce another cover.

I also obtained a few Baltimore Orioles No. 10 business envelopes.

Sidebar: UPI Audio sent its White House reporter Tom Foty, who is still working in 2023 for CBS News, Radio, on weekends, to do the reports during the American League Championship Series. UPI’s competitor, AP Radio, asked me to do its voicework during the ALCS — but UPI wouldn’t let me use my own name! “‘Lloyd de Vries’ belongs to us!”

I was doing two reports an hour for APR as “Dave Archer” (“Archer” is my middle name, “Dave” was a corruption of one of the many mispronunciations of “de Vries”), one an hour for Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Radio as “Lloyd de Vries,” and various stations and regional networks at different points, also under my own name. We secondary press were displaced from the press box and put in the stands, where I had had my own telephone installed, and I had cards in front of me to make sure I got the names, times, and everything else right.

I used to hang out at the office in Washington with the APR guys, though, so every time “Dave Archer” called in, we all started laughing. “OK, Dave or Lloyd or whatever your name is….”

Sadly, the O’s lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 7 games. And to this day, I cannot stand to hear the Bucs’ anthem, “We Are Family,” which was played ad nauseam by Pittsburgh. Still, this is my favorite memory combining sports and philately, and maybe even combining my career and philately.

Artificial Intelligence? I think the phenomenon is not only very much overblown and it is also not new. What is new is the “Everybody Knows” fear-mongering that AI is taking over.

All computers can do is choose from among the choices a human or group of humans have provided. They may do so more quickly, sorting and choosing from a large number of options, but they don’t create, except under our direction.

Two quick examples: Does your car have an automatic transmission? It switches gears so the vehicle can speed up or slow down, climb hills or descend. You could do it yourself but possibly not as quickly or as smoothy. I think that’s an example of “artificial intelligence,” but it’s not new. Automatics began to appear in mass-produced automobiles in 1939.

How many minutes has it been since you cursed out the spellchecker on your phone or computer? These programs think they know what you meant to write or should have written and change your text, often resulting in embarrassment or gibberish.

Can AI create artwork of a pastoral day in the country? Yes, if someone programmed it that the sky should be blue, the grass and other vegetation green, and so on. Can it write text? Again, yes, if someone programmed it properly. Otherwise you might end up with a sterling endorsement, like the one that runs regularly on my Kindle: “Try to enjoy reading the poems.” Sorry, if I have to try to enjoy reading something that is for recreation, I’m going to skip it.

When “AI” beats you at chess, that isn’t artificial intelligence, it is good programming: Someone put in all the possible moves for all situations and the chances that the human opponent would do such-and-such as a result of a given move. College papers written by AI? Most professors probably would welcome the improvement! And what’s the difference between a heavily “photo-shopped” photograph and one created from scratch using an AI program? Where is the line?

One of my favorite Science Fiction authors, Glynn Stewart, writes about what he calls “artificial stupids:” Robots or holograms that make choices within severely limited parameters. I don’t think we have progressed beyond that: Humans set up the choices, even for sophisticated AI programs. I don’t see that changing any time soon.

An interesting piece of mail in my box today. At first I wondered who was sending me something that required a customs label. Then I realized it was a U.S. customs declaration! I took another look at the address. (Click on the picture to see a bigger version.)

Still, not too bad: Despite the extra postage (presumably) paid via the Stamps Endicia system (“FCI” is probably “First Class International”), it made the 40-mile trip — 83 miles if it detoured to the JFK Airport Customs facility — in just a day.

Thank goodnes for ZIP codes!

It was an auction catalogue, by the way.