WILLAMETTE STAMP & TONGS

Transcription

1 WILLAMETTE STAMP & TONGS THE NEWSLETTER OF SALEM STAMP SOCIETY Volume 38, Issue 7 CELEBRATING 78 YEARS July 2011 WEBSITE PRESIDENT S MESSAGE Greetings fellow collectors! A big thank you to all of you who worked or dropped by our booth at the world beat festival. Over 20 members including spouses either attended or volunteered at our booth. The weather was picture perfect and a number of folks inquired about our club and its activities. A special thanks to two of our long distance members; Dave Holley (Idaho) and Kim Brickman (California) who volunteered both Saturday and Sunday at our booth! If you have not made it recently to our monthly Wednesday night meeting, you might want to make plans to visit soon. Our next meeting will be a members auction...remember one person s junk is another person s jewel! The club has been busy with many activities and the camaraderie has been great. Hope to see you soon! Happy Stamping! Bob Reynolds SSS President JULY MEETING, WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2011 A members auction will be the program at our July meeting. See inside for a listing of the lots received so far. If you have lots to include in the members auction, you may bring them to Auction Director, Loren Meyer, on the night of the club meeting, but no later than 7:00 p.m. on meeting night. Also, you must include a separate page with each lot containing a written description of the lot, including its Scott number(s), its starting price, and your name. CLUB DUES FOR 2011 A few members have not paid their dues for 2011, of $10.00 for an individual member, $15.00 for a couple, or $5.00 for a youth member. If dues are not paid by July 31, the member will be dropped from club membership. Salem Stamp Society P.O. Box 202 Salem, Oregon President Bob Reynolds Vice President Raymond Berg Secretary Guy Edmonds Treasurer Jerry Gooley Auction Director Loren Meyer Show Director Gary Tiffin Board of Directors Carl Newswanger Peter McCallum Marc Dochez Alan Maul Newsletter Editor Lucien Klein Webmaster Frans Geerlings

2 NOTICE: THERE WILL BE NO FORMAL JULY BOARD MEETING If you have a matter that needs to be brought to the board s attention before the regular August board meeting on August 23, please contact president Bob or another board member. TERRY FERGUSON Stamp dealer Terry Ferguson, who was a dealer for a time at our Stampex and was a regular dealer at Rose City Stamp Fair at the Oregon Stamp Society, has advanced cancer. The prognosis is not good He has returned home from the hospital and is being cared for by his wife, Janna. She reports that he says that he will beat the cancer, that his determination is clear, and that he has a positive attitude. FLAGS OF OUR NATIONS OREGON FLAG STAMP The official first day of issue site is August 11, 2011, at StampShow in Columbus, Ohio. But there is a rumor that something may happen in Salem on that day, maybe a first day of issue cancellation. No further information is known at this time. What is known is that if you want a cacheted first day cover, Frans and Linda Geerlings are taking orders. Also, Vice President,. Ray Berg, who is the Aumsville Postmaster, provides first day of sale cancellations for all U.S. new issues. TWO OTHER U.S. STAMPS WITH A USIR WATERMARK The $1.00 Prexie stamp on USIR watermarked paper (Scott number 832b) is known to most collectors. A dealer advertisement by Gary Posner, Inc. in a recent issue of Linn s Stamp News called attention to the fact that there is a variety of Scott number 271, the six cents dull brown stamp issued in August 1895, that is printed on paper with the USIR watermark in double lined capitals. Scott number 271 with a USPS watermark also in double line capitals, has a catalogue value of $8.50, in very fine used condition. The same used stamp in very fine condition on paper with a USIR watermark, Scott number 271a, has a catalogue value of $12, According to the Posner advertisement, eight unused and 22 used examples of the 271a stamp are in existence. This means, of course, that only that number of the stamps have been found or reported so far. The USIR watermark is not an easy watermark to identify. Since the regular watermark and the scarce watermark both contain the letters U and S, in order to be identified as a stamp on USIR watermarked paper, the stamp must have an identifiable portion of the letters I or R. The Scott catalogue also states that the eight cents stamp of the same series, Scott catalogue number 272, has a variety printed on the USIR watermarked paper, Scott number 272a. While the ordinary number 272 on USPS watermarked paper has a catalogue value of $2.75 in very fine used condition, catalogue number 272a has a catalogue value of $ In The United States Postage th Stamps of the 19 Century, by Lester G. Brookman, he says that the first copy of the 271a variety was found in He estimated that there may be 100 copies in collectors hands with most being used. In regard to Scott catalogue number 272a, Brookman says: As was the case with the 6 cents (stamp), this stamp (the eight cent stamp) was accidentally printed on Revenue paper. While it is a rare stamp on this paper it is probably found 8 or 10 times as often as is the six cents. Most of the known copies are used but it does exist in unused condition and it has been found in a plate number strip of three. There may be more of the USPS watermarked stamps waiting to be discovered. As stated in the National Postal Museum Arago site: with a little luck, more might be found. Both stamps are shown on the reverse side of the page listing the Members Auction Lots received by the time of publication. Please note that both stamps were first issued in unwatermarked form, Scott numbers 256 and 257.

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4 LETTER SENT BY GREYHOUND BUS AND NOT THROUGH THE U.S. MAIL The cover shown on the preceding page has been sent by Greyhound bus. I mentioned to Kim Brickman, at the club s World Beat Festival booth, that I had recently acquired this cover. He started asking questions about it, including some that I could not immediately answer. So, here is an article on the topic, with as much information as I could find at this time. This cover was sent from an advertising company in Tulare, California, to a person in another advertising company in Fresno, California, in It has a three cents Thomas Jefferson stamp, Scott number 807, paying the then current rate for a first class letter weighing under one ounce, sent to a destination within the continental United States. The United States Post Office Department Postal Manual dated December 1, 1954 states, in paragraph that: The Post Office Department has a monopoly over the transportation of letters for others over post routes. This monopoly was created prior to the adoption of the Constitution and has existed, with varying provisions, continuously from that time to the present. This subchapter...prescribes exceptions to the monopoly.. Paragraph states: a. Letters may be carried by an individual, express company, or any other outside the mails to any point within or without the United States provided the conditions specified in this part are followed. b. Each letter carried outside the mails must be placed in a sealed envelope bearing the appropriate amount of postage. The amount of postage required must be the same as would have been required had the letter been sent through the mails at the first class rate or by air if so carried. The amount of postage need not include registry or insurance fees even if the letter is privately insured. If postage is in the form of stamps, they must be cancelled with ink by the sender. The sender must write the date of the letter on the envelope, or the person carrying it must write on the envelope the date he received the letter. The name and address of the person for whom the letter is intended must be written on the envelope. This cover is cancelled: Pacific Greyhound Lines May Visalia Airport Calif. The sender did not cancel the stamp with ink, as the manual requires, but it can be assumed that the sender caused the stamp to be cancelled with ink by Pacific Greyhound Lines when the stamp was cancelled with the date that Pacific Greyhound Lines received the letter, as required by the manual. The sender did write instructions on the front of the cover: Phone on Arrival at Fresno Fresno ". Pacific Greyhound Lines did not deliver letters to addresses. It was necessary for the addressee to pick up the letter at the Greyhound station. The distance between the Visalia Airport and Fresno is less than 50 miles. The addressee may have picked up the letter the same day that the sender took it to Pacific Greyhound Lines. Covers carried outside the mails can be found. They are unusual and require some searching and patience. I had been looking for a Prexie cover carried by Greyhound for several years. This cover was found at WESTPEX, this year, in a collection of Prexie covers a dealer had purchased from a former Prexie postal history collector. Could a letter be sent in this manner today? Section 608 paragraph of the Domestic Mail Manual, which is available on the Internet in PDF form, makes reference to a section of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) that deals with Private Express Statutes. Section 39 of the CFR, in paragraph 310.2(b), states requirements to be followed to allow a letter to be carried outside the mails. The paragraph and its subparagraphs are substantially the same as the 1954 Manual.

5 Pacific NW Stamp Shows and Bourses 2011 Sat Sun Firm Show Name Location Type Events JULY MEETING Wednesday, July 13, 2011, 7:30 PM, Marion County Fire District 1 Headquarters 300 Cordon Rd NE Salem OR FUTURE PROGRAMS August: To be announced Repetitive events nd Rose City Stamp Bourse - 2 Saturday of the month at OSS clubhouse Portland rd 4828 NE 33 Ave Portland 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Bourse th Collectors Corner - 4 Saturday of the month at OSS clubhouse Portland Bourse 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m major shows Aug APS StampShow Columbus OH Show Salem Stamp Society P.O. Box 202 Salem, Oregon 97308