Category Archives: Publications

Mellone Cachet Catalogues Republished

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[press release] [click on any of the pictures for larger versions]
AFDCS Republishes Mellone Cachet Catalogues

All 18 volumes of the Mellone’s Planty Photo Encyclopedia of Cacheted First Day Covers, encompassing issues from 1901 through 1939, are now available from the American First Day Cover Society, either as digital downloads or computer-printed unbound copies punched for looseleaf notebooks. That includes the long out-of-print Volume 17 that catalogues the Baseball Centennial issue of 1939, Scott 855.

The AFDCS obtained permission from Michael A. Mellone’s estate to reprint his important books on first day covers. Eventually, the society hopes to expand and update the listings. Already, Volumes 1 through 6 include updates that were published in First Days, the official journal of the society. The catalogues may be ordered from the AFDCS website, www.afdcs.org/catalogs.

“First day cover catalogs are essential for any collector of first day covers,” said Publications Committee chair Mick Zais. “They identify cachet makers and establish rough measures of scarcity and desirability. Providing these catalogs online is a great service that the American First Day Cover Society provides to its members and the public.”

Also available are reprints of Mellone’s Specialized Cachet Catalog of FDCs of the 1940s and the 1950s. A reprint of the 1960s catalogue should be available soon.

The cachet catalogues by Prof. Earl Planty first appeared in the 1970s, but Mellone’s FDC Publishing Co. was responsible for refining and expanding the concept and making the books available to a wider audience. The knowledge contained in these books revolutionized first day cover collecting, allowing philatelists to know what they had and what they didn’t have.

The AFDCS is the largest not-for-profit first day cover society in the world, with members in more than half a dozen countries. It publishes its award-winning journal, First Days, six times a year, as well as original handbooks, catalogues and YouTube videos, and is a co-sponsor of the annual Great American Stamp Show. It holds an annual cachetmaking contest and encourages philatelic exhibiting and writing about FDCs.

The AFDCS Publications Committee —Zais, Education Department chair Michael Lake, Tris Fall, Doug George and Pat Morgan —is working on reprints of other FDC Publishing works. The AFDCS also offers catalogues for specific issues, ranging from the 1969 Moon Landing stamp (Sc. C76) to Cats and Elvis.

There are lower prices for AFDCS members. Membership begins at $24 a year. The different options are listed at www.afdcs.org/Join-AFDCS

For more information about the AFDCS, visit www.afdcs.org, e-mail afdcs@afdcs.org or write the AFDCS at Post Office Box 57, Somerset, WI 54025-0057.

Major Publications Have New Owner

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Updated Thursday, October 16. There is also a new article on the Linn’s/Scott Stamp website.

Jay Bigalke, David Fritz and others have formed a new company to publish the philatelic publications formerly owned by Amos Media: Linn’s Stamp News, Scott Stamp Monthly and the Scott postage stamp catalogues. The announcement was made Wednesday, October 15, after the close of business and Amos employees were notified.

Amos Media will retain its numismatic publications and the supplies and albums operation.

The new company is called “Scott Stamp LLC” (LLC stands for limited liability corporation, a legal term.) The negotiations took many months. Among the investors is Mystic Stamp Co. president Don Sundman, who called it “a great day for stamp collecting.”

All of the investors are themselves stamp collectors, Bigalke told The Virtual Stamp Club in a telephone interview, and their ages vary widely.

In the story on the Linn’s website, Bigalke [shown left at Great American Stamp Show 2021] and Fritz are described as “passionate collectors dedicated to strengthening and modernizing philately for future generations.”

Bigalke is already well-known in philately, starting with his first day cover cachetmaking while in high school, then to editorial jobs with VSC (albeit unpaid), Linn’s, the American Philatelic Society’s journal The American Philatelist and then back to Linn’s. Fritz, however, is not as well-known, although he is an active member of The Collectors Club and a member of the Royal Philatelic Society.

The new ownership is likely to be apparent with the November 3 issue of Linn’s, which is expected to go online this Saturday, October 18. All the philatelic editorial staff is making the move to the new company. Scott Stamp LLC’s offices will be located in Troy, Ohio.

Readers had noticed the paper was shrinking, both in terms of advertising and editorial content, and Bigalke told The VSC he plans to reverse that trend. “The editorial content is going to increase greatly,” Bigalke said.

Could Linn’s again be available as a printed newspaper? Yes, said Bigalke. “I am studying how to do it and if it makes financial sense to do so.”

When he returned to Linn’s after the APS sojourn, he told Amos Media owner Rick Amos he wanted to run not just the weekly newspaper, but also the Scott publications. “I’m gunning for your job,” he says he told Amos. “I always thought it would be fun to own the stamp side of the business some day.”

“What I want to pump back into philately is excitement,” he added. “We’re going to make heads spin here and I can’t wait.”

International Flavor to May-June First Days magazine

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The May-June issue of First Days, the official journal of the American First Day Cover Society, is now online here.

In this issue, we celebrate the 103rd anniversary of a milestone in first day cover collecting and the 185th anniversary of first day covers overall; “Canada’s Chemical Industry Issue FDCs” are chronicled by Howard Dewald; Cynthia Scott tells how to personalize philately through event covers; and Tris Fall makes a modest proposal about postcard exchanging. Alan Warren reviews a new book on private-sector Canadian FDCs of the 21st century and notes articles about FDCs in publications other than First Days.

The author of the long-running “Question Box” column also turns the tables and asks a question of readers. Continuing the international theme of this issue, ArtCraft columnist Michael Lake talks about FDCs for the 1958 Brussels exhibition and Michael Dodd about the recent UK Garden Wildlife issue and related issues. Editor Bard also reports on one of the rare philatelic exhibitions in the UK.

The May-June issue also includes a special section with details about the AFDCS at this summer’s Great American Stamp Show 2025 in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Please note: A new version of this issue has been uploaded that includes the Americover/GASS section

March-April 2025 First Days Online

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The new issue of First Days is online here.

The feature article is on the ArtCraft cachets for the George Eastman FDCs of 1954 (Sc. 1062). Other articles include error postmarks on FDCs, cachets for Sc. 989 Statue of Freedom, Baffling Cachets and Part 2 of a checklist of cachets and cancellations for World Stamp Expo 2000.

Some additional news:

The AFDCS “central office” is closed for the entire month of April, although Your Faithful Officers (and the rest of us) try to pick up the slack.

You can pay electronically for items from the AFDCS (such as memberships or covers) without having or getting a PayPal account. You’ll find details here.

Financial Woes for Major Publisher?

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by Lloyd A. de Vries

Amos Media, the largest philatelic media publisher in the U.S., appears to be having financial difficulties. Amos publishes the Scott Postage Stamp Catalogs, Linn’s Stamp News and Scott Stamp Monthly, as well as publications for other hobbies.

In a discussion in The Stamp Collecting Forum started by veteran philatelic writer Ken Lawrence in early October, readers revealed they had not received their printed copies of Monthly for several months and columnists for both that magazine and Linn’s reported receiving no payments for their articles since June. [Disclosure: The author of this article is a Linn’s columnist who has not been paid since June.] In addition, printed editions of the Scott catalogues that were due for release on or after September 1 were on back-order, with no date of delivery, and remained so at the end of 2024. Digital editions are available.

Printed editions of Coin World magazine, also published by Amos, also were not available, according to a post on a coin collectors forum.

In early December, Amos Media advised print subscribers via email that printing of SSM would resume with the December issue and the catalogues would be shipped in early 2025. The company blamed a “business dispute” with its printer that had been resolved.

The problems with the printed copies of SSM follow a disturbing pattern. Abruptly in mid-August, Linn’s Stamp News announced it was immediately halting the printing of its weekly newspaper with the current issue, and it and future issues would only be available online. The announcement said SSM would continue to be printed and mailed to subscribers who had chosen that option. However, the September issues failed to arrive in mailboxes.

In reply to an email query from The Virtual Stamp Club, Amos Media chairman Rick Amos [below right] apologized for the lack of communication with readers.

“We’ve had an issue with our printer and several times over the past month we thought it had been resolved. It now has and Scott Stamp Monthly will return soon,” he wrote “We are waiting for the date in which the December issue will be mailed to subscribers. Once we do the dates will be published on our website and sent via email to our subscribers.”

He did not address the problems with the catalogues, which was included in The VSC‘s inquiry.

Amos is the only person listed in the “Our Team” section of the Amos Media website, and his biography there is outdated: It says he is also president of another company, which he left more than ten years ago. On LinkedIn he describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur” and both his current ventures and his residence are in the Chicago area, about 250 miles from the headquarters of Amos Media in Sidney, Ohio. One wonders at how involved he is in running Amos Media.

Although Amos told The VSC in that November 22 email that “no decision has been made yet if we will still print the October and November issues,” an email to subscribers in early December said those issues, plus September 2024, would not be printed. Print subscribers will have their subscriptions extended and advertisers will receive at 30% credit toward future advertising but not a refund. The ads did appear in the digital editions.

“We are pleased to announce that the Scott Stamp Monthly December issue will be mailed during the week of December 16th,” said the message, signed “The Linn’s and Scott Team.” “Furthermore, the Scott Specialized and Classic catalogues will be mailed sometime in January and February 2025.” The message was repeated on the editorial page of the December issue of SSM.

Some subscribers reported receiving printed copies of the magazine on December 24.

“Issues with suppliers” are often the suppliers’ unwillingness to provide the product or service without getting paid. “If this were a book we’d be be looking at Chapter 11,” commented collector Lawrence Sherman on The Virtual Stamp Club‘s message board.

In late December, Brookman Stamp Co. advertised an alternative to the Scott Specialized via an email sent by the American Stamp Dealers Association: “Are you STILL waiting for the Scott US Specialized Catalog?” was the subject line.

The Scott books are the major catalogues for stamp collectors in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The first Scott catalogue was a 21-page pricelist in 1886 by New York City stamp dealer John Walter Scott. Scott Publishing was acquired by Amos in 1984 and the operations moved to Sidney, Ohio, near Dayton. Today, the catalogue is six volumes plus related specialty catalogues and thousands of pages and costs nearly $700 from the Amos website (list price $1,034.92).

The major catalogue publisher for British Commonwealth issues, Stanley Gibbons, also has been in financial trouble, reorganizing in December 2023 to relieve itself of a debt burden.

No More Printed Linn’s Stamp News

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Linn’s Stamp News, the major weekly news publication of U.S. philately, is now only available as a digital (online) product. In a “Philatelic Forward” lead article, editor-in-chief Jay Bigalke announced that issue No. 5000 [right], with a cover date of August 26, 2024, and which went online about two weeks earlier, was the last printed issue. Sister publication Scott Stamp Monthly, which only resumed as a separate publication last year, will continue to be available as a hard-copy (that is, a printed magazine), as well as digitally.

Amos Media CEO Rick Amos, in a memo to staffers quoted in Linn’s, attributed the decision to the shift in readership from print to online and to increasing costs, which Amos called “unsustainable.” He promised that Linn’s would continue to report philatelic news, although some Linn’s features may move to SSM. He also said that new options and features are being developed for the Linn’s website.

Take our polls asking Print subscribers if they will continue to subscribe.

There is currently no mention of the change on the non-subscription part of the website, other than the lack of a printed-copy option in subscriptions.

Linn’s had currently been producing some issues as digital-only while others were available in both formats.

Two quick polls for Linn’s subscribers. Please only vote if you are currently a Linn’s subscriber:

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Lawrence Article Wins AFDCS Ward Award

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You can click on the photographs for larger views.

“The Greatest American First Day Cover” by Ken Lawrence is the 2023 winner of the American First Day Cover Society’s annual Philip H. Ward, Jr., Memorial Award for

Excellence in First Day Cover Literature. The article appeared in the February 2023 issue of The Chronicle of the US Classic Postal Issues. It is the story of a July 2, 1847, cover sent from New York City to Indianapolis, franked with the 10-cent George Washington (Scott 2), one of the first two U.S. stamps. It was first discovered in 1972 and is currently on display at the National Postal Museum. [Photo here courtesy of the NPM.]

All articles in First Days, the official journal of the AFDCS, automatically are considered for this award, but articles and works in other publications may be submitted for consideration. A complete list of past winners can be found on the AFDCS website at www.afdcs.org/ward.html

Lawrence’s articles have won the Ward competition twice before and shared in a third. One of those articles also was awarded the U.S. Stamp Society’s Barbara Mueller Award. He is a recipient of the Charles J. Peterson Philatelic Literature Life Achievement Award, and served as a vice president of the American Philatelic Society and trustee of the American Philatelic Research Library.

Although he has been writing about FDCs for 40 years, “this article is probably the most important one I have written,” he says. Although the official first-day-of-issue for Scott 1 and 2 is July 1, there is no evidence they were placed on sale until the next day, when this cover was mailed.

Philip Henry Ward, Jr., began servicing first day covers in 1909. An electrical engineer by trade, he wrote on new issues for The American Philatelist, Mekeel’s Weekly Stamp News and The Weekly Philatelic Gazette in the early 20th century.

The American First Day Cover Society is a not-for-profit educational organization. In addition to First Days, the AFDCS also publishes handbooks and catalogues, and promotes the collecting of both modern and “classic” issues and cachets, as well as exhibiting FDCs. It offers awards for outstanding first day cover exhibits and an annual contest for cachetmakers, and is a co-host of the annual Great American Stamp Show.

For more information about the AFDCS, visit www.afdcs.org, e-mail afdcs@afdcs.org or write the AFDCS at Post Office Box 27, Greer, SC 29652-0027.

Kelley New Editor at U.S. Specialist

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A short announcement on the website of the U.S. Stamp Society says that Andrew Kelley of Denver will take the reins at the philatelic organization’s journal, effective with the March 2024 issue. He replaces Martin Kent Miller, who has been the editor since 2019. No reason was given.

Kelley recently received the Society’s 2023 Hopkinson Literature Award. His article “Authenticating Scott 530c — Triple Impression on the Three Cent Offset” appeared in the May 2023 issue of The Specialist.

The U.S. Stamp Society was founded in 1926 as the Philatelic Plate Number Association, but was known as the Bureau Issues Association from 1930 to 2000. Its members specialize in collecting U.S. stamps.

March-April First Days Magazine Is Available

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The March-April issue of First Days, the journal of the American First Day Cover Society, is now available for download for society members and should be in their mailboxes any day now.

A veteran FDC collector tells how his interest all-but-started with hearing the heart-wrenching words, “there were so many more boxes that we didn’t have room for, so we burned them.” The issue also contains a chronicle of the adventure of servicing unofficial-location FDCs (“UOs”) in the days before the interstate highway system — and during the winter in Vermont!

Michael Dodd discusses what to watch for if you come across FDCs of the 1967 British Discovery & Invention stamps. Another article describes first day covers honoring a Filipino stamp organization’s most famous member. You know him, but you don’t know the cachetmaker profiled by Gerald H. Strauss, at least, not as a cachetmaker.

Gary Dickinson’s “Canadian Cachets” series looks at a major cachetmaker’s recycling efforts in the 1940s. Michael Lake tells of the close connection between an ArtCraft variety and the stamp affixed to it.

Also in the March-April issue is the debut of a new series, “Technology and Techniques,” and Mary Ann Bowman’s youth column solicits ideas on using topical FDCs to interest children in our hobby.

Even the ads are informative: In one, a collector asks for scans of MacArthur and Nimitz FDCs missing from his website, while another seeks Stanley Steamer covers.

Not yet a member of the AFDCS? Go to www.afdcs.org/join.html