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MONTHLY JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN PHILATELIC SOCIETY
Shangri-la Found! Found! A Wonderland of Revenues
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AMERICAN PHILATELIST THE
April 2023
Table of Contents
VOLUME 137 • NO. 4 • WHOLE NO. 1,467
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304 A PHILATELIC SHANGRI-LA
BY MICHAEL MAHLER Stamps confirming mandated payments attached to bonds from the Gilded Age – particularly those from railroads – lay hidden for many decades. The author explores several documents displaying these somewhat innocuous, but important, stamps.
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GOING FOR THE GOLD
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316
TRACKS OF WAR
BY LAWRENCE FISHER The author was stuck for several years on an exhibiting plateau, showing a good exhibit but one that he wished so much more for, like a higher score from philatelic judges. He takes the reader on the step-by-step journey of the analysis and changes in the thematic exhibit that finally brought him his long-awaited gold award.
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BY WILLIAM J. STIER A lot of humanity gets lost during the fog and mayhem of war. Philately can help clear that fog, though. The members of one extended family from northeast Florida caught up in the Civil War are tracked and remembered thanks to the correspondence that has survived more than 150 years since the war’s end.
Thank 327 You PAGE
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, U.S. POSTAL CARD
BY WAYNE YOUNGBLOOD The prestamped postal card – an unsealed and unfolded piece of paper with a postage indicia printed on it – had its origins in Austria, but started 150 years ago in the United States. Our columnist digs into the history of this important postal product that took short personal and business messages across the country and world for much less than the price of a letter.
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OUR DEEPEST GRATITUDE
BY APS STAFF The annual development report and recognition issue is now available. Highlights include: a report of 2022’s successes and growth opportunities; a sincere thank you to our many volunteers; and listings of the names of every contributor who made the APS and APRL’s work possible last year.
ON OUR COVER Designed by Chad Cowder, a close look at material from Michael Mahler’s “Philatelic Shangri-la.”
Other Features 360 358 368 296 371
APRL Notes Books & Catalogs Classified Ads Editing Philately Index of Advertisers
290 AMERICAN PHILATELIST / APRIL 2023
298 364 354 380 382
Letters to the Editor Membership Report National Postal Museum New U.S. Issues New World Issues
294 293 372 384
Our Story President’s Column Show Time Worldwide in a Nutshell
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Philatelic Shangri-la: Discovery of a Spectacular Philatelic Field Hidden for a Century New York Stamp Taxes on Bonds, 1910-1920 MICHAEL MAHLER
I
magine the discovery, in some Himalayan or Amazon fastness, of a previously unknown enclave, with a complex social structure unlike that of any known society. Let us further stipulate that its populace must be, both on average and in its extreme examples, at least arguably the most physically attractive specimens of humanity. Such a discovery would be a sociological, anthropological and popular sensation, headlined on virtually every media outlet. Imagine next the philatelic analog, the discovery of a subfield hidden for a century, governed by an unprecedented, complex system of rates, comprised of what are at least arguably the most visually attractive items ever to bear stamps. To an informed, aware audience this would surely rank among the most significant philatelic events of this or any generation. The purpose of this article is to point out that just such a discovery has
Figure 1. An 1894 bond with Mortgage Endorsement orange stamp affixed in 1917. Above, a close view of the stamp. 304 AMERICAN PHILATELIST / APRIL 2023
Figure 2. An 1887 bond with Secured Debt $5 stamp affixed in 1912. At near left, a close view of the stamp.
Figure 3 shows a 1911 £100 bond of the Imperial Chinese Government Hukuang Railways with Secured Debt $1 affixed in 1917, and Investments $1 in 1918. Then as now, bonds were the physical representation of gilt-edged investments, and as such were security instruments, produced by companies like the American Bank Note Co. and its competitors, typically finely engraved with engine-turned borders, large vignettes and other features designed to deter counterfeiting. At the same time they served as prominent public faces of the issuing companies, and their attractive designs were chosen to project prosperity and inspire confidence. During America’s Gilded Age — roughly 1870-1900 — as illustrated by the examples shown here, as in other aspects of society, bonds became extravagantly ornate and colorful, perhaps not to everyone’s taste, but certainly a spectacular setting for the stamps under discussion.
in fact occurred, of bonds subject to New York’s Mortgage Endorsement, Secured Debt and Investment stamp taxes of 1910-20.
Most beautiful? Staking the claim As for the visual appeal of these bonds, the examples shown here speak for themselves. Figure 1 shows an 1894 $1,000 bond of the New York and Putnam Railroad Co. with Great Britain embossed transfer tax stamps struck in 1894 and Mortgage Endorsement orange stamp affixed in 1917. Figure 2 shows an 1887 $1,000 bond of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad Co. with Secured Debt $5 affixed in 1912. Note the Great Britain 1891 transfer tax adhesive; as explained below, the use of such foreign stamps would play an essential role in the creation of these New York issues.
Bringing bonds under the philatelic umbrella A salient point here is that until the discovery of this subfield, with a single brief exception, bonds in the U.S. were not known to have been subject to a stamp tax after 1872 — when the broad slate of Civil War era documentary taxes was rescinded — until a new federal tax was imposed in 1932. The sole exceptions were the relatively few bonds bearing U.S. Spanish-American War era documentaries affixed upon issue in from 1898 to 1902. To repeat the claim made at the outset, the New York bond taxes bring under the philatelic umbrella what are at least arguably the most visually attractive items ever to bear stamps.
Stamps of mystery (I) Yet, for a century these exceedingly beautiful pieces and the stamps they bore were virtually unknown to philatelists. Brewster C. Kenyon, whose Documentary State Revenue Stamps of the United States was written while the Investments APRIL 2023 / AMERICAN PHILATELIST 305
BY DANIEL A. PIAZZA CHIEF CURATOR
NPM Notebook
Digital Highlights Bloom at National Postal Museum
T
he winter weather is beginning to break here in Washington, D.C. I already have daffodils in my front yard and green buds are visible on the famous Japanese cherry trees along the tidal basin. The capital is emerging from hibernation, but the Smithsonian National Postal Museum (NPM) has not slept over the winter! It has been a very active time for us, especially online. Here are a few highlights of recent NPM content available online, in reverse chronological order: I was recently interviewed for an episode of Our American Stories, a radio program with more than 4 million
Figure 1. The folded letter titled “Au Citoyen” (“To Citizen”), which was sent to James Monroe when he was sent as an emissary to France by President George Washington. 354 AMERICAN PHILATELIST / APRIL 2023
listeners that is broadcast to more than 230 radio stations. The 17-minute episode, titled “How the USPS Came To Be,” is available here: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/ podcast/history/how-the-usps-came-to-be. Director Elliot Gruber spoke to the Collectors Club of New York on January 4. His presentation, “Director’s Cut – Treasures of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum,” can be viewed at https://www.collectorsclub.org/videos/. In December, the museum marked the 50th anniversary of baseball star Roberto Clemente’s 1972 death in a plane crash while on a humanitarian mission to Nicaragua with an author’s reading of the children’s book Clemente! by Willie Perdomo. Afterward, Perdomo and Robert Clemente Jr. participated in a Q&A moderated by NPM’s Maureen
Figure 2. National Postal Museum conservator Scott Devine installs the Black Empress in the rarities hall at Monacophil, November 23, 2022.
Leary. See the video here: https://aps. buzz/ClementeNPM. The 12th Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposium, co-chaired by my colleague Dr. Susan Smith and Scott Tiffney, librarian and director of information services at the American Philatelic Research Library, was held December 8-9 at the National Postal Museum. The paper presentations were also broadcast online. For a list of the topics discussed and brief biographies of the presenters, visit https://aps. Figure 3. Philatelic curators visiting at Monacophil 2022 are (from left) Pascal Rabier, curator buzz/12BlountSymposium. The 19th annual Maynard Sund- emeritus, Musée de La Poste (Paris); Perrine Bisson, conservator, Musée de La Poste (Paris); Stuart Aitken, curator of philately, The Postal Museum (London); Nicola Davies, head of collections, the man Lecture, also organized by Smith, Spear Museum of Philatelic History at the Royal Philatelic Society London; Dan Piazza, of the NPM; featured Rowan University professor Andreas Hahn, head of the Archive for Philately (Bonn); and Monika Nowacka, head of philatelic collections at Musée de La Poste (Paris). (Photo courtesy of Pascal Rabier) emeritus and well-known polar philatelist Hal Vogel, and was held November 1 via Zoom. The topic was “Polar Philately and the Wilkes Antarctic Expedition.” To be updated when the videos become available online, please contact Susan directly at SmithSu@si.edu. Curator Lynn Heidelbaugh’s recent book, Between Home and the Front: Civil War Letters of the Walters Family (Indiana University Press, 2022) was featured in an episode of C-SPAN’s American History TV. The episode was Figure 4. Myagmarjav Selenge, of Mongolia, points to Mongolia’s entry in the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery’s “One Stamp of Every Country” exhibit, the $1 high value from the 1924 filmed at the NPM and features Lynn Sceptre of Indra set. and her co-author, Tom Paone, discussing this collection of previously unpubSummer Seminar philatelic research course lished letters from the museum’s collection. You can watch I am honored to have been invited back to teach the it online here: https://www.c-span.org/video/?522860-1/ four-day course on philatelic research during this year’s letters-home-front. APS Summer Seminar, June 12-15. It is geared toward helpI was featured in an August 2022 episode of the ing writers, exhibitors, and collectors begin or complete a Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s podcast, “Porresearch project, with morning sessions devoted to sources and techniques followed by free time in the afternoon to traits,” hosted by director Kim Sajet. We talked about stamp take advantage of the APRL’s resources or for one-on-one portraits based on originals in the gallery’s collection and research consultations with me. To register, visit https:// depictions of FDR and Benjamin Franklin on stamps. stamps.org/SummerSeminar. Please also feel free to contact You can hear the episode at https://open.spotify.com/ me directly with any questions about the course before you episode/7cVgvuIpHrKAqeWmLZf408. register! APS members may not be aware that the USPS produces its own informative podcast, titled “Mailin’ It!” My colleagues, curators Alison Bazylinksi and Lynn Heidelbaugh, were recently featured in episodes 16 and 17, respectively. Alison discussed the history of USPS uniforms and Lynn spoke on military mail. Head here to listen: https://uspsmailin-it.simplecast.com/episodes, and while you are there be sure to check out the two chats on modern U.S. stamps as well (episodes 7 and 32).
Monacophil 2022
The National Postal Museum had a strong presence at the international philatelic event Monacophil 2022 November 23-26 in Monte-Carlo. Among the items the NPM exhibited at Monacophil 2022, was a folded letter (Figure 1) titled “Au Citoyen” (“To Citizen”), which was directed to James Monroe on October 19, 1794. In 1794, to avoid being drawn into the war beAPRIL 2023 / AMERICAN PHILATELIST 355
Worldwide in a Nutshell BY BOB LAMB • AP Columnist
GREAT BRITAIN Status: Constitutional Monarchy Population: 67,081,000 (2020 est.) Area: 94,251 sq. miles Currency: 1 Pound = 100 pence, £1 = US$1 = £0.84
W
hen Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 BC, he brought the sophisticated Roman postal system with him. Within a century, Roman engineers had united its province of Britannia with an extensive network of post roads and way stations reaching as far as Devon in the south, over much of Wales and northward beyond Hadrian’s Wall. The road network radiated like spokes from London. Because its inland location Scott 1 on the Thames protected it from the tides, London was the preferred port for Roman navigators who were accustomed to the almost tideless Mediterranean. London became the province’s administrative center. The Roman mail service was not available to the public except by favor. Besides oral messages, the Roman mail carried messages written on papyrus, wood, parchment or wax tablets. The Roman province of Britannia lasted until the fifth Scott 3285a Scott 175 century when it was overrun by Germanic tribes like the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. In the late ninth century, Alfred the Great united the English tribes to fight the Danes. The Norman Conquest in the 11th century brought a strong centralized kingdom to England and, with it, the need for an extensive system of royal messengers to link the crown with his English domains and the lands it still held in Europe. The official mails were intended to serve the king’s needs. Merchants and others used servants, travelers and hired messengers for their correspondence. To cope with the growing administrative burden of a centralized administration Henry VIII named the first “master of the posts” to oversee the mails. He sought to strengthen the government monopoly over the mails, in part, to monitor correspondence of those he suspected of plotting against the state. This need was felt even more strongly by Elizabeth I when religious strife after the break with Rome bred numerous plots to depose the monarch and restore the old faith. As England’s economic interests spread worldwide and the industrial revolution fueled the British economy, the need for businessmen and financiers to have a reliable postal system grew proportionately. In addition, the availability of paper after the 15th century stimulated social letter writing. Despite repeated efforts at reform and the occasional attempts to establish municipal or private mail services, the British post remained expensive and unreliable. The demands for reform grew. In 1837 Rowland Hill published his pamphlet on postal reform, which advocated the use of adhesive postage stamps to prepay postage. Scott 477 In the two years after Hill’s pamphlet appeared, the British Parliament received more than 2,000 petitions with more than 250,000 signatures supporting Hill’s ideas. The public demand culminated in the issuance of the Penny Black on May 6, 1840. This represented the dawn of a revolution in modern communications and serendipitously provided the basis for a wonderful hobby. In recognition of its pioneering role, Great Britain is the only country allowed to produce Scott 394 postage stamps identified by the monarch’s image rather than the country name. 384 AMERICAN PHILATELIST / APRIL 2023