More about U.S. 2014 Stamps

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We’re promised we’ll hear about the 2015 program in October at the New York ASDA show.

Glade Creek Grist Mill: New Priority Mail stamp, $5.75 new rate. One of West Virginia’s most photographed landmarks, 1976 re-creation of the original. Constructed of parts from three historic mills. Sometime in October.

Third in the Holy Family series, Christmas Magi, three wise men on camels, purple background, guiding them is a big dazzling star. November 19th at St. John’s Episcopal in Washington.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: commemorates TV show. November 5th or 6th, location unknown, probably NYC. Four designs total. Booklet of 20.

Winter Fun: booklet of 4 designs, playful, very artsy, not specifically Christmas. Ice skating, bird watching, making snow angels, making snowmen. Will be issued at ASDA October 23 in NYC.

Silver Bells Wreath: New round Global Forever stamp. Olive green (?) background, silver bells, red ribbon. Also at ASDA on October 23.

Celebrity Chefs: James Beard is one of the 5. Julia Child not yet confirme. Trying to get people guessing who the other three might be via social media. September 26 in Chicago at the gourmet food show (Park Grill). One other will be announced via “in-store messaging.” (Might be someone named Lombardo.)

Wilt Chamberlain: Artwork just finished, so not shown to us. May be issued in December, probably at home game of Philadelphia 76ers. Will be a unique size, “different from anything we’ve ever done….vertical and a little oversized.”

2015 Lunar New Year: Aiming for 2nd or 3rd of January.

No Pioneers of Graphic Design this year. York is coming out, but not sure when – definitely not this year.

There is ONE MORE ISSUE in 2014, but “our partner” wasn’t ready.

There will be a reprint of the Breast Cancer Research Semi-Postal at the end of September.

Five stamped envelopes in three sets (10 each) for the Christmas season: Poinsettia, two of the Winter Fun designs (cardinal, snowman), two versions of snowflake stamps (from 2013). Only as #10’s. First Day Postmarks will be available. End of September. May look at issuing them at stamp shows.

Poinsettia 2014 Reprint

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Just announced by the USPS in the Postal Bulletin released the same day as the stamp!

poinsettia2014On August 21, 2014, in Hartford, CT, the U.S. Postal Service® will reissue the Poinsettia (Forever® priced at 49 cents) First-Class Mail® stamp, in one design, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) booklet of 20 stamps (Item 688600).

The stamp will go on sale nationwide August 21, 2014.

The Poinsettia stamp features a bright, cheerful rendering of America’s favorite holiday flower. Introduced in 2013, the stamp is being reissued in 2014. The stamp art depicts the rich red and vibrant green leaves surrounding the flower — the cluster of small, rather modest cup-shaped structures in the center. The red “petals” that we think of as the flower are actually modified leaves called bracts. The art reference for this stamp was a potted poinsettia. Designed by art director Ethel Kessler, the Poinsettia stamp features the work of William Low.

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, 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:

Poinsettia 2014 Reprint
Hartford Post Office
MOWU
141 Weston Street
Hartford, CT 06101-9998

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 October 21, 2014.

There is one philatelic product for this stamp issue:

  • 688617, First-Day Cover, $0.93.

 Technical Specifications:

Issue: Poinsettia Stamp
Item Number: 688600
Denomination & Type of Issue: First-Class Mail Forever
Format: Double-Sided Booklet of 20 (1 design)
Series: Holiday Celebrations
Issue Date & City: August 21, 2014, Hartford, CT 06101
Art Director: Ethel Kessler, Bethesda, MD
Designer: Ethel Kessler, Bethesda, MD
Typographer: Ethel Kessler, Bethesda, MD
Artist: William Low, Huntington, NY
Modeler: Donald Woo
Manufacturing Process: Offset/Microprint “USPS”
Engraver: N/A
Printer: Banknote Corporation of America/SSP
Printed at: Browns Summit, NC
Press Type: Alprinta, 74
Stamps per Booklet: 20
Print Quantity: 160 million stamps
Paper Type: Phosphor Tagged, Overall
Adhesive Type: Pressure-sensitive adhesive
Processed at: Banknote Corporation of America, Browns Summit, NC
Stamp Orientation: Vertical
Image Area (w x h): 0.77 x 1.05 in./19.55 x 26.67 mm
Stamp Size (w x h): 0.91 x 1.19 in./23.11 x 30.22 mm
Full Pane Size (w x h): 5.74 x 2.38 in./145.80 x 60.45 mm
Colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
Plate Size: 800 stamps per revolution
Plate Numbers: “S” followed by four (4) single digits
Marginal Markings: • Plate numbers in peel strip area • © 2014 • USPS in peel strip area

Post-Americover 2014 Thoughts

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I must be forgetting something significant: I have an hour or so before I have to leave for APS StampShow in Hartford (stopping in Westchester to visit my mother on the way), and… I’m all but packed. But it gives me some time to ruminate (think deep, wise thoughts) on the just-completed Americover 2014, the annual show, convention and fun-fest of the American First Day Cover Society.

I spent most of the four days (three of the show, the tour the day before) answering questions. The most prevalent was, “Where is the show next year?”

“We don’t know yet. We ran into a glitch with the hotel we thought was eager to host us again. We have to check out other venues now.”

“Well, have you considered…” and then the person would throw out a bunch of cities, big and small, practical and not.

Funniest of all were the people who would ask me about next year on Thursday, and then ask me on Saturday if we’d set the new venue yet.

But Americover Programs Chair Foster Miller got a question this past weekend that takes the prize: “What time is the 11 o’clock seminar?”

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Besides answering questions, there is an awful lot of work that goes into Americover during Americover. If I start naming names, I’ll leave out someone deserving of recognition, but I do want to mention a few who are often overlooked: Kerry Heffner handles exhibits, from soliciting them to coming up with the prizes to mailing the exhibits back to their owners, complete with palmares (list of awards) and those prizes.

Cynthia Scott handles all the “back room” processing before the show opens: Registration, event ticketing, and putting together the name tags and other goodies in your registration packet.

Howard Tiffner is bourse chair, which means he corrals and then herds the dealers and is in charge of setting up and taking down the bourse and exhibits area. One of the great things about being a stamp dealer is the independence to operate exactly how you want…unless you’re the bourse chair trying to make all those dealers happy.

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Some dealers always have good shows, no matter how much or how little they make. Others always have bad shows, no matter how much or how little they make. After awhile, you learn to spot who is who.

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Several years ago, as Publicity Chair, I put out a press release announcing the following year’s show, starting with “After another successful Americover….” Someone jumped on me: “How can you say that?! You call that a successful show?! Sales were off, traffic was slow, it rained all weekend, and I lost money at the casino each night.”

I replied that no one had died, no one got in a fist fight, no one was arrested for stealing, and no bull defecated in our bourse area (as happened at Americover 2000). I call that a successful show, I said.

Many years ago, as a high school senior, I was handling publicity for the adult band-boosters association raising money to send our band to Europe for a week. The job included writing an article for the local paper after each meeting. One week, the chair and vice chair, an attorney and a physician, got into a screaming argument for… well, it seemed like an eternity. And that was about all that happened at the meeting, since everyone else couldn’t wait to leave.

“How am I going to write this up for the paper?” I thought. “I can’t tell what really happened!” And then it hit me:

“After a spirited discussion…”

Photos from Americover 2014

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Wednesday evening, many of those attending Americover 2014 gathered in the lobby of the DoubleTree Somerset to renew old friendships:amcvr14_040aFrom Thursday’s tour:

amcvr14_006aParticipants in the Americover 2014 pre-show tour enter Washington Press headquarters in Florham Park, N.J.

amcvr14_011aOtto Thamasatt, John Hayner and John Friedrich show off their ArtCraft tour envelope souvenirs.

amcvr14_016aThe postmaster of Florham Park himself applied cancels to the tour souvenir envelopes, with stamps provided by The Washington Press.

amcvr14_021aThe jam-packed tour included a quick visit to The Collectors Club on East 35th Street in New York.

amcvr14_032aAmericover 2014 tourists join others at the fountain on the World Trade Center site. In the light blue shirt near the center is Mark Thompson (Tennessee); to the left is Alan Warren (Pennsylvania). To the right is Carol Peluso (New York). Further to the right in the black polo shirt is Frank Kohut of Maryland and next to him in medium blue is Bob Lewin (California).

amcvr14_035Americover 2014 tour guide Henry Scheuer (green hat) discusses the events of September 11th with participants in the tour. Through the trees at the top center of the photo is the building where Henry was working that day.

amcvr14_037aAmericover 2014 chair Pete Martin goes through a box of covers at Champion Stamp Company, the only remaining street-level stamp store in New York.

amcvr14_047aHere’s a view of the Stamp Fulfillment Services seminar at Americover 2014. That’s right, no one from the U.S. Postal Service showed up. No one from the USPS called to say no one would be there.

Snark Attack At Bailar, Purist Collectors

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NOLA.com/Times-Picayune writer Jarvis DeBerry makes fun of stamp collectors who are unhappy with the commercialization and pop-culturization of the U.S. stamp program.

It’s a well-written piece that shows a knowledge of the subject: DeBerry notes Monday’s USPS announcement that its losses continue to mount. (That doesn’t mean I think DeBerry is correct, just that he read up on the subject before writing it.)

Make sure you take a look at the poll embedded in the article.

DeBerry’s column is an amusing read, and an insight into how outsiders view stamps, stamp collecting, and the choice of subjects for U.S. stamps.

USPS: Revenue Up, Losses Continue

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[press release]
U.S. Postal Service Reports 2.0 Percent Revenue Increase, $2.0 Billion Loss in Quarter 3
· Shipping and Package Services Revenue Up 6.6 Percent
· January Price Increase Offsets Continued Volume Loss in First-Class Mail, Driving All Mail Revenue Up $424 Million
· Need for Comprehensive Legislation Remains Urgent

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service ended the June 30, 2014, quarter with a net loss of $2.0 billion, compared to a net loss of $740 million for the same period last year. The Postal Service has recorded a loss in 21 of the last 23 quarters, the excepted quarters being the two in which Congress rescheduled the Retiree Health Benefits prefunding payments.

Revenue continues to improve as a result of the Postal Service’s January mail price increase, successful sales and marketing initiatives, and continued success in growing the package business. Total operating revenue of $16.5 billion increased by $327 million, or 2.0 percent, compared to the same period last year.

Shipping and Package revenue was up 6.6 percent. Standard Mail revenue was up 5.1 percent, driven by a 0.9 percent increase in volume and the January 2014 price increase. First-Class Mail volume was down 1.4 percent, but the January price increase offset this decline, resulting in a 3.2 percent revenue increase.

“We’re seeing momentum in our package business and continued use of direct mail as an advertising medium,” said Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Donahoe. “We’ve been effective in developing and marketing our products, and we’re improving how we leverage data and technology—all providing a higher return on mail for many customers and causing them to take a fresh look at the Postal Service.”

Total operating expenses for the third quarter of 2014 were $18.4 billion, an increase of $1.5 billion from the same period last year, driven mainly by the Workers’ Compensation fair value adjustment. Compensation and benefits expenses increased by $15 million, or 0.1 percent, compared to the third quarter of 2013, as contractual pay increases were offset by work-hour reductions and more efficient use of available labor flexibility.

“Due to continued losses and low levels of liquidity, we’ve been extremely conservative with our capital, spending only what is deemed essential to maintain existing infrastructure,” said Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Joseph Corbett. “To continue to provide world-class service and remain competitive, we must invest up to $10 billion to replace our aging vehicle fleet, purchase additional package sorting equipment, and make necessary upgrades to our infrastructure.”

Corbett also said that the organization will be unable to make the required $5.7 billion retiree health benefit prefunding payment to the U.S. Treasury, due by Sept. 30, 2014. Comprehensive postal legislation is necessary to eliminate this liability and provide a basis for the Postal Service to return to long-term financial health.

This quarter’s results were improved as a result of implementing the exigent price increase, which the Postal Regulatory Commission has ruled as a surcharge to be collected only until the Postal Service recovers a total amount of $3.2 billion of incremental revenue, estimated to occur in the second half of 2015. The Postal Service has petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the PRC’s order on the exigent price increase. Among other things, the Postal Service’s position is that the PRC improperly and artificially limited the amount of relief to which the Postal Service was entitled as a result of the Great Recession.

Following is a summary of third quarter results of Operations compared to same period last year.
· Total mail volume of 37.7 billion pieces compared to 37.8 billion pieces

o Shipping and Package volume increased 7.7 percent.
o Standard Mail volume increased 0.9 percent.
o First-Class Mail volume declined 1.4 percent. This was the 32nd consecutive quarterly decline for First-Class Mail volume.

· Operating revenue of $16.5 billion increased $327 million or 2.0 percent.

Operating expenses before non-cash workers’ compensation and Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund expenses of $16.5 billion increased from $16.3 billion, a 1 percent change.

Complete financial results are available in the Form 10-Q, available at http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/welcome.htm

Israel: Tel Aviv – Global City stamp

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From Israel Post; this stamp will be issued September 9, 2014
Tel Aviv – Global City

isr_telavivOn April 11, 1909 a few dozen people gathered on a sand dune to the northeast of Jaffa in order to allot plots of land for a new neighborhood called “Ahuzat Bayit”. Akiva Aryeh Weiss, the chairman of the lottery vowed they would build the “New York of Eretz Israel”. The founders of Tel Aviv were undoubtedly visionaries who dreamed large dreams despite the small odds.

Today, more than 100 years after the founding of Tel Aviv, the city is the gateway to Israel. It is an urban economic and cultural center on a global level. The city is now at the height of a groundbreaking strategic process to establish itself as one of the world’s twenty leading cities.

A “global city” is a leading city that constitutes an international business center which directly and tangibly affects world affairs. Tel Aviv has been strategically positioned as “the Startup City”, encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation in order to give it a relative advantage over other cities.

This move is the fruit of collaboration among the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, the government of Israel, the business sector, cultural and artistic institutions of Greater Tel-Aviv and most of all – the residents of Tel Aviv-Yafo. The goal is to improve the quality of life that the city offers its residents and visitors by attracting international resources and investments. The Tel Aviv Global Administration was founded as part of this strategy.

Tel Aviv-Yafo, the first Hebrew city and now a global city as well, will continue to be a profoundly Israeli city, all the while being a global leader in the fields of economics, tourism, culture and society. It serves not only as a source of pride for its residents, but also contributes greatly to Israel’s global image, economy, financial stability and cultural, academic and social achievements.

Ron Huldai
Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo

Technical Specifications:
Stamp Size (mm): H 30 / W 40
Plates: 954
Stamps per Sheet: 10
Tabs per Sheet: 5
Method of printing: Offset
Security mark: Microtext
Printer: Cartor Security Printing, France

Israel: Benjamin von Weizl stamp

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[from israel Post; this stamp will be issued September 9, 2014]
Wolfgang von Weisl

isr_weislDr. Benjamin Zeev (Wolfgang Johannes) von Weisl (1896, Vienna – 1974, Gadera) was a Viennese physician and a decorated WWI artillery corps officer, an international author and journalist and a renowned orientalist, as well as a Zionist leader, one of the founders of the Revisionist movement and a pioneer in the struggle for Eretz Israel.

Von Weisl was one of the most colorful and original figures in the history of the Zionist movement. Legends swirled around him and stories of his adventures and his intellectual heritage could fill volumes.

Zionism had only one meaning for von Weisl: living in Eretz Israel, participating in building the country and ensuring its independence in order to realize the greatest project in history – the return to Zion. He immigrated to Israel in 1922, calling on the Jews: “You see these mountains? There beyond the mountains lies your homeland. Pack up and go. Legal or illegal, go to the land of your forefathers. Before it is too late.”

From 1992-1948 von Weisl served as the first instructor in the Haganah’s first officers’ course. He travelled throughout the Arab countries, meeting with kings and sheiks in an attempt to persuade them to recognize Zionism. He was a pioneer in the struggle for the Western Wall, edited and founded newspapers, served as a delegate to Zionist conventions; a chairman of the HaTzohar revisionist party, he was arrested on “Black Sabbath” along with other leaders of the Yishuv and went on a hunger strike lasting 28 days on behalf of the Prisoners of Zion. All of these and more were milestones en route to his single and sole goal: the Jewish State.

The stamp depicts two of the many adventures of his life:

On Purim 1929 Jews and Arabs from all around the country as well as neighboring countries celebrated the Carnival in Tel-Aviv. When the whirring of the engines of the Zeppelin airship was heard in the skies over Eretz Israel, the traffic stopped and the crowds cheered at the sight of the latest technological wonder. Dr. Wolfgang Zeev von Weisl, the physician aboard the ship and the representative of the German newspaper conglomerate “Ullstein Verlag” poured 30 kilos of confetti from the ship, a contribution to the Purim merriment and then toasted the “State of the Jews” with a glass of Carmel Mizrahi wine, with German ministers, members of parliament and an Egyptian journalist who was onboard.

In 1948, at the age of 52, he participated in the battles to liberate the Negev. A column of Egyptian tanks was moving forward, threatening to cut off the Negev towns and was only a few kilometers away from the road to Tel-Aviv, which remained open and undefended. Von Weisl, who commanded an artillery battery of two of the four cannons that were allotted to the defense of the whole Negev, climbed a tall tree, binoculars hanging around his neck, and bellowed orders from the treetop. One shell exploded by the front wheel of the lead Egyptian tank. The tank stopped and the entire column of armored vehicles turned around and fled. Von Weisel said a “She’Hecheyanu” blessing and sent a postcard to his wife: “I aimed. God hit”.

His dream – to be a soldier in the founding army of the Jewish State – came true.

Niva von Weisl
Granddaughter of Benjamin Zeev von Weisl

The background of the stamp features a photo of Tel-Aviv in the 1930’s, courtesy of the U.S. Library of Congress.

Stamp tab and First Day Cover – photos of Benjamin Zeev von Weisl, courtesy of Niva von Weisl.

Technical Specifications:
Stamp Size (mm): H 30 / W 40
Plates: 956
Stamps per Sheet: 15
Tabs per Sheet: 5
Method of printing: Offset
Security mark: Microtext
Printer: Cartor Security Printing, France

Canada’s 2015 Stamps

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From the July-August issue of Details magazine, the Canada Post philatelic catalogue:

new multi-year series, Provincial Birds (no month given)

January
canflag453Lunar New Year/Year of the Ram
200th anniv of Sir. John A. Macdonald (Canada’s first prime minister and a leading figure in the formation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867.

February
50th anniversary of the Canadian Flag
Responsible Pet Ownership

March
Pansies (annual flower series)

April
Canadian Photography (third in the series, specific subject not announced.)

May
100th anniversary of John McCrae’s In Flanders Fields, a poem from World War I
More UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Canadian dinosaurs & other prehistoric creatures

June
FIFA Women’s World Cup, which is being hosted by Canada in 2015 from June 6 to July 5.
Canadian Weather Extremes (launch of a new series)

September
Canada Post Community Foundation fund-raising stamp
Haunted Canada (continuing series)

October
NHL Heroes (third in a series)
Madonna & Child
Deck the Halls

We will update this page as new information becomes available.

Israel: Simchat Torah Flags stamps

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[from Israel Post. These stamps will be issued September 9, 2014]
Festivals 2014 – Simchat Torah Flags

isr_simchatAs far back as the 17th century the children in Ashkenazi communities would come to the synagogue on Simchat Torah night waving flags. The Simchat Torah flags were part of a popular material culture of paper products such as Mizrach hangings, marking the east as the direction for prayer, and paper cutouts. Along with the homemade flags, paper flags were printed with images of traditional Jews and included pictures expressing the Sukkot and Simchat Torah holiday experience.

Eretz Israel, 1930’s
In the early 20th century these flags began featuring Zionist motifs which were incorporated into the traditional look. “For the Torah shall come forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” was printed as the title of the holiday flag printed here in Eretz Israel in the 1930’s. At the center of the flag stands the Holy Ark with images of Moses and Aharon leaning on it, and in front the four sacred animals who express “bold as a tiger, and light as an eagle, and runs like a gazelle and brave as a lion to fulfill the will of the Father in Heaven”. On the left stand three children, one of whom was characterized as a Yemenite youth with curly sidelocks – a biblical symbol updated for the modern Return to Zion. On the right stands a European boy wearing a cap and holding a blue and white flag, with the symbol of the “Maccabi” sports club on his shirt – an expression of the new Jew, the muscular man who rejuvenates the legacy of the Maccabees.

Israel, 1950’s
In the 1950’s the European tradition of decorating became the tradition among Jews from all ethnic groups. The yearning for the Tomb of Rachel and for the Western Wall became the scenes that decorated the Holy Ark – two cardboard doors, through which one could usually see a picture of Torah scrolls. A group of boys and girls who were stooped over the Torah emphasized the essence of the equal Israeli ethos, which suited most of the Israeli public.

Israel, 1960’s
The victory in the Six-Day War in 1967 presented and emphasized Simchat Torah in the image of the IDF as a savior. “Rejoice and be joyful on Simchat Torah” in the form of IDF soldiers carrying Torah scrolls and dancing around the Holy Ark. The people’s love for their soldiers, their adored heroes became the essence of the flag’s look.

Dr. Haim Grossman
Researcher of Israeli Culture

The three flags that appear on the stamp are from the Haim Grossman collection.

  • The 1950’s flag – drawn by Zvi Livni.
  • The 1960’s flag – drawn by Arie Moskovitz.
  • Photos of the flags by Pini Hamou.

Technical Specifications:
Stamp Size (mm): H 30 / W 40
Plates: 951, 952, 953
Stamps per Sheet: 15
Tabs per Sheet: 5
Method of printing: Offset
Security mark: Microtext
Printer: Cartor Security Printing, France