A new book from the American First Day Cover Society chronicles a collector’s love for the 8-cent Albert Einstein stamp of 1966. The Al Raddi Collection of Scott 1285 Albert Einstein FDCs shows 163 different first day covers for the Prominent Americans issue.
Each of the cachets is shown in color. Raddi, from Michigan, invites readers to send information about other cachets that exist for this issue.
The book starts with a brief biography of the scientist, and information about both the U.S. Einstein stamp and those issued by other countries.
The Al Raddi Collection s available as a .pdf download from the AFDCS for $8 ($6 for members) or a printout may be purchased for $15 ($13) postpaid. Either version may be ordered from the AFDCS website at www.afdcs.org/fdccatalogs.html. The printed version may also be ordered by mail from AFDCS Sales, PO Box 44, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701-0044.
The American First Day Cover Society is a not-for-profit educational organization, with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status granted by the IRS. Established in 1955, the AFDCS also publishes handbooks, catalogues and its award-winning bimonthly journal, First Days. It also promotes first day cover exhibiting, both at its own Americover show and at other stamp shows.
For more information about the AFDCS, visit www.afdcs.org, e-mail afdcs@afdcs.org or write the AFDCS at PO Box 16277, Tucson, AZ 85732.
The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum will host the 15th Maynard Sundman Lecture Wednesday, Oct. 10, from noon to 1 p.m. in the museum’s Discovery Center. Admission is free, with no reservation required. Glen Sample Ely, author of The Texas Frontier and the Butterfield Overland Mail, 1858–1861, will discuss the nation’s first transcontinental mail service from St. Louis to San Francisco. A book signing will take place immediately following the lecture.
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Australia Post has released a special edition Drought Relief stamp to help raise funds for Rural Aid, the charity behind the Buy a Bale campaign, with the aim of raising $200,000.
This month Australia Post continues its humorous commemorative stamp series, Fair Dinkum Aussie Alphabet, which takes a light-hearted look at Australia through cultural icons, places, characters, flora, fauna and more. In part four of the series, Gavin Ryan illustrates five stamps for the letters E, O, X, Y and Z.
recreation and even fashion to take a snapshot of things that are iconic to our country,” Mr Zsolt said.
$1 O is for Oilskin, opal opera house, oar and …
The autumn stamps feature ten types of mushrooms that we may encounter in our country. The photographs used are ‘portraits’ of these mushrooms in their natural environment. Most images run almost imperceptibly through onto the adjacent stamp. This creates natural contact between the mushrooms, as if they appear next to each other in the same wood, which would not be the case in reality.
The American Topical Association has just published What’s First?, a 335-page book that pictures and describes the first stamp for more than 800 topics. From abacus to zebra, it is colorfully illustrated with stamp images and descriptions of the first time a topic appeared on a stamp.
The Jenny airmails may be among America’s best-known stamps, but little is known about the first day covers of those stamps. In fact, well-known philatelic author and researcher Ken Lawrence says there may be only one genuine FDC.
First Day Covers of 1918 Air Post Stamps — Or Are They? Is available as a .pdf download from the AFDCS for $12 ($10 for members) or a printout may be purchased for $20 ($17) postpaid. Either version may be ordered from the AFDCS website at 
The Hague, 17 September 2018 – PostNL’s newest set of architecture stamps celebrates the ‘New Construction’ construction style, also known as functionalism. This architectural style was characterised by its functionality, lack of unnecessary decoration and use of modern techniques, as well as the incorporation of modern building materials such as concrete, steel and glass.
The ten stamps on the New Construction Architecture stamp sheetlet feature black and white pictures of five buildings that are characteristic of this style: the Coöperatie De Volharding office building in The Hague (1928), the Zonnestraal (“Sunbeam”) sanatorium in Hilversum (1928), the Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam (1931), the houses on Erasmuslaan in Utrecht designed by Gerrit Rietveld (1931) and the Schunck Glaspaleis (“Glass Palace”) department store in Heerlen (1933).
The stamps feature both a general view and a detail from the architectural drawing or floor plan of each building. Rotterdam-based graphic designer Ariënne Boelens decided to use black and white images to highlight the key role of white plaster in the New Construction style. “I also paid homage to the twenties in the typography by using a font that was very popular at that time,” Boelens explains. “A bit bombastic, with many combinations of bold, fine and double lines.”
The New Construction Architecture stamp sheet is the second sheet in the architecture series issued by PostNL. The first stamps, issued in 2017, were dedicated to the period of reconstruction after World War II. “We want to take this opportunity to showcase the fantastic buildings that were constructed in the last century,” says Stephan van den Eijnden, marketing director for Mail at PostNL. “There’s a good reason why Dutch architects have such a high profile in other countries. Their most important works from the twentieth century can still be admired today across the country – and on our stamps.”
The New Construction Architecture sheetlet consists of 10 stamps with five designs, all marked with Nederland 1, the denomination for mail weighing up to 20g destined for delivery to an address in the Netherlands. The stamps are available as of 17 September 2018 from the post office counter in Bruna stores and online at postnl.nl/bijzondere-postzegels. The stamps can also be ordered by phone from the Collect Club customer service on telephone number +31 (0)88 868 99 00. The validity period is indefinite.
