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September 2016 Sno-King Stamp Club Philatelic News

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Sno-King Stamp Club

Philatelic News Everett, 2nd Wednesday, 7:30 PM – 9 PM

Snohomish County PUD

2320 California Street

Edmonds, 3rd Friday, 7 PM – 9 PM

South County Senior Center

220 South Railroad Avenue

Volume 22 September, 2016 Number 8

Online at: http://sno-kingstampclub.freehostia.com/ copies of these newsletters available there, too!

Everett Meeting - Wednesday, September 14th, 7:30 PM

- As World War II loomed, tiny Switzerland was forced to prepare for a possible invasion by its powerful northern neighbor, Nazi Germany. It issued stamps, familiar to most collectors, which told the story of its preparations. Steve LaVergne will present a program on the fascinating history of those stamps.

Most meetings also include show-and-tell, along with time to buy and sell stamps

Edmonds Meeting - Friday, September 23rd, 7 PM

• Join us in Edmonds! We always have a nice time visiting and looking through stamps.

Bring along your duplicates to trade and sell.

• Bring some Show and Tell items to talk about. We’d all love to learn something new.

2016 Club Officers

President: Steve LaVergne 206-361-3774; [email protected]

Vice President: Terry Ferrell, 360-863-3019; [email protected]

Treasurer: Ray Anderson, 425-776-4442; [email protected]

Secretary: Ruth Stevens, 206-546-3357; [email protected]

Program Chairman: Webmaster & http: //sno-kingstampclub.freehostia.com/

Newsletter Editor: Kurt Lange, 425-357-0551; [email protected]

Everett meeting dates at the PUD: (2nd Wednesday of each month)

9/14, 10/12, 11/9, (Dec dinner)

Edmonds meeting dates at the South County Senior Center: (on the 3rd

- or sometimes 4th

- Friday of the month) 9/23, 10/21, (none in Nov), (Dec dinner)

http://sno-kingstampclub.freehostia.com/

mailto:[email protected]






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President’s Notes for this Month

As World War II loomed, tiny Switzerland was forced to prepare for a possible invasion by its powerful northern neighbor, Nazi Germany. It issued stamps, familiar to most collectors, which told the story of its preparations. I, as your president, will present a program on the fascinating history of those stamps at the September 14 meeting in Everett. Switzerland's resolve to resist any Nazi invasion required huge sacrifices by the Swiss people. That resolve might have diverted Hitler's aggressions elsewhere. We have tentative programs for the October and November meetings. The December meeting will be the annual holiday dinner. So, we appear set for programs until January. Tentatively, October will feature our third dealer night. Tentatively, the featured dealer will be Art VanBergeyk, longtime owner of Aurora Stamps in Edmonds. Since Art can't haul his entire store to the PUD meeting site, he asks members to suggest material they would like to see. You can e-mail me with your suggestions. On my last visit to Aurora Stamps, Art was preparing a stock of covers for sale at the APS stamp show in Portland. I hope he brings his unsold covers to our October meeting. November will be another club auction. That is also tentative. If some member offers to present a program, I will be willing to defer the auction until next year. As president, I received two donations which I will showcase at future meetings. One Everett woman donated covers, which will be offered for sale at the September meeting. They include foreign aerograms which feature illustrations matching the postal impression. Unfortunately, condition is somewhat ragged. There are USA block-of-four first-day covers from the 1940s. The most appealing items are two Korean covers each plastered with a dozen or so commemoratives. A former collector living in Seattle donated two boxes of philatelic supplies. I will bring them to the September meeting so club members can preview them and decide how to dispose of them. Shall we include them in the November auction? Shall we use them as raffle prizes at the holiday dinner? The donor told me that the supplies include watermark fluid. Editor’s Note – Additionally during this summer, member Sylvia Mierau donated various baggies of stamps to the club from a variety of sources that had put them to use up around the Monroe area. They still have plenty left in them for both U.S. and Worldwide collectors. When I get them passed over to Steve or Ray or somebody, they will make it to a future club “pick and pull” meeting as well. Thanks, Sylvia!

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Congratulations to club secretary Ruth Stevens. She attended the APS meeting at its Portland stamp show. As it turned out, she was part of the agenda. APS presented her with her 25-year membership pin.

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This year's Sea-Pex happens September 9, 10 and 11. Organizers still need volunteers to perform important tasks. I encourage interested collectors to go on to the Sea-Pex web site and contact Jack Congrove or Lisa Foster. I plan to cover the registration desk Friday morning.

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Ever since the Seattle Sonics decamped for Oklahoma City, local hoops fans cast envious eyes at Portland, where the Trailblazers entertain followings of NBA action. Don't expect sympathy from us Oregonians, Portlandians retorted. You guys have stamps shops. We have none. That changed this past February when David Markowitz, a fixture at regional stamp shows, opened the Uptown Stamp Show southwest of Portland's downtown. "Stamp show" might strike folks as an odd name for a stamp shop. There is a reason. Markowitz invited other dealers to come to his location on selected dates and sell their own stock. Sort of like a stamp show with two dealers. Makes sense in a way. Markowitz focuses on stamps issued through 1950. A visiting dealer's stock might complement Markowitz's The store will be open three days a week for a total of 15 hours. Buyers can make appointments outside normal business hours. Markowitz's daughter will manage the shop. Two grandchildren will wait on customers, making the shop a three-generation family operation. The store has a web site. It provides driving and public transit directions to its building. Oddly, the directions begin at Portland's airport, as if the typical customer is going to fly in to do his stamp shopping. It's not as if Markowitz needs the money or has time on his hands. He is the name partner in a boutique law firm which serves commercial clients in legal matters in Oregon and other states. The law firm website boasts Shaquille O'Neal and Andre Agassi as clients. It touts successes such as its victory over General Motors on behalf of a client, a Chevrolet dealership which GM dumped. In another case, it protected the right of a night spot to operate as the House of Blues Club, defeating John Belushi's widow, who maintained her husband's estate had an exclusive right to the name. We wish the Uptown Stamp Show success and hope we can visit any time we visit Portland on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

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We hope you won't use this as an excuse to miss the September 14 meeting, but that evening, Animal Planet will air an award-winning documentary on the selection of the design for this year's duck stamp. The film, "Million Dollar Duck," will air at 9 p.m. Chances are Animal Planet will repeat the program in the same way it repeats episodes of Treehouse Masters and Pit Bulls & Parolees. Viewers with an Animal Planet smartphone app may be able to view it on demand. The film can be bought or rented through Amazon or iTunes. "Million Dollar Duck" is the product of filmmaker Brian Golden Davis, just a few years out of the University Southern California's cinematic arts program, which he attended on a Gene Autry scholarship. He read Martin J. Smith's book, "The Wild Duck Chase: Inside the Strange and Wonderful World of the Federal Duck Stamp


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Contest." Davis was fascinated by the passions of the 300 artists who enter the contest each year. He obtained film rights to the book. The annual duck stamp contest is the other juried art competition conducted by the federal government. It attracts hundreds of entries, even though the winner receives no prize money. Winners do get the opportunity of licensing their designs for mugs, T-shirts and similar mementos. This is no deadpan talking-head philatelic documentary. I was able to view a two-minute trailer on the Internet. The film's production values borrow much of reality TV. The contest format is pure American Idol. The film follows six artists and their designs as a panel of judges rejects the entrants one by one until the last artist standing is pronounced the winner.

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I and three friends enjoyed the first day of the APS stamp show. I patronized dealers I rarely encounter at local shows. All offered sets and singles in 102 cards housed in those familiar red boxes. One Texas-based dealer had a helpful feature. He housed used stamps in yellow 102 cards and used blue cards for his mint offerings. Since I collect only postally used, it made it easy to find stamps to add to my collection. Normally, I have to riffle through dozens of cards in order to locate a few postally used treasured. I hope other dealers catch on and emulate him. While we are on the subject, when is the Federal Trade Commission going to crack down on dealers who present canceled-to-order stamps as used. They are not used. They never sped a bill payment or a marriage proposal through the mails. In most cases, they never set foot in the country whose name they bare. In all likelihood, they were shipped from a European printing firm to an approval dealer in New Jersey.

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Sno-King member Bill Patterson attended the Chicago Collectors Club "Day of Philatelic Camaderie" in July. A Chicago resident, Bill is considering joining the club, which meets in a four-story brownstone in the city's Gold Coast neighborhood. The club's library, the largest philatelic library in the Midwest, occupies three stories. The club owns the building, donated by a member and his wife in 1967. Bill reports that the event featured much discussion, similar to what clubs in Puget Sound country are having, as to remaining relevant. Suggestions range from a "stamps in your attic" program to outreach to home-schoolers. Bill reports that the club meets monthly. Each meeting includes a formal dinner and a guest speaker. A typical meeting opens with a cocktail hour, which hopefully promotes philatelic camaraderie. New members are expected to take their turn as guest speaker. Bill says any collector is welcome to use its library. An appointment is necessary. The club is three blocks from a stop on the elevated Red line. Keep this in mind on your next trip to the Windy City.

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We picked up three issues of the China Clipper, official publication of the China Stamp Society, at the Evergreen show in July. In one older issue, H. James Maxwell, society president, bemoaned E-bay's decision to end its fraud prevention program. As a result, fraudsters were flooding E-bay with forgeries. Maxwell had developed tactics to expose fake Chinese stamps and covers as a member of a Stamp Watch Committee.


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Several years ago, he discovered that he exposed so many fakes collectors were frightened of collecting Chinese stamps. He decided to limit his "Gallery of Forgeries" to selected areas. In the article, he identified E-Bay sellers, by their E-bay username, who frequently offer fakes for sale. Efforts to weed out fakes and forgeries. As a result, E-bay abounds in Chinese material of doubtful authenticity, and buyers seeking genuine stamps have to be extra wary. For example, anssss2020 sells stamps and souvenir sheets which have been chemically altered. Maxwell exposes several purveyors of fakes who changed usernames rather than open new accounts, "so they can keep their stars." China Clipper carried two pages of photographs of fakes offered on E-bay, along with their sellers' usernames. China has a tragic history. Ironically, the civil wars and myriad other historical convulsions make for many fascinating byways of China philately. Sadly, the abundance of fakes discourages collectors from venturing into these byways.

USPS - New Issues for September

September 2 Star Trek

NEW YORK, NY

September 29 Jack O'Lanterns

ANOKA, MN


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Pluto Stamp Aboard NASA's New Horizons Probe Sets Guinness World Record

By Robert Z. Pearlman, collectSPACE.com Editor | July 19, 2016 07:38pm ET

Alan Stern, principal investigator for

NASA's New Horizons probe, which flew

by the dwarf planet Pluto on July 14,

2015, holds up the Guinness World

Record for the farthest distance ever

traveled by a postage stamp. The 1991

29-cent "Pluto: Not Yet Explored" stamp

flew 3 billion miles aboard the

spacecraft. Credit: USPS/Daniel Afzal

When NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew by the dwarf planet Pluto one year ago this month, the mission set a number

of records. The probe was the first to encounter the small world at the edge of our classical solar system, sending back

images that revealed Pluto's surface for the first time.

But beyond its own mission of exploration, New Horizons also served as the delivery vehicle for a 1.5-inch by 1-inch (3.8

by 2.5 cm) relic that set a record of its own.

"The official record for the farthest distance traveled by a postage stamp is 3.26 billion miles [5.25 billion km]," said

Jimmy Coggins, an official adjudicator for Guinness World Records, at a ceremony held Tuesday morning (July 19) at the

United States Postal Service's (USPS) headquarters in Washington, D.C. [Amazing Space and Planet Stamps in Pictures]

"In 2006, NASA placed a 29-cent "Pluto: Not Yet Explored" stamp on board the New Horizons spacecraft on its way to

Pluto and beyond," explained Jim Cochrane, USPS chief marketing and sales officer and executive vice president, in a

statement. "That historic flyby with Plutotook place last summer — July 14, 2015, to be precise — after New Horizons

travelled more than three billion miles in its nine-and-a-half-year journey."


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The newly-affirmed record will extend for at least another 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km), as NASA recently announced

that the New Horizons mission is journeying beyond Pluto to visit a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) known as 2014 MU69 —

considered to be one of the early building blocks of the solar system.

"The New Horizons project is honored to be recognized by Guinness World Records for its achievements," said Alan

Stern, the mission's principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "Among my personal

favorites are being the fastest spacecraft ever launched, the first mission to explore the Pluto system, the mission that

explored the farthest worlds ever visited — and now sending a U.S. postage stamp farthest from Earth!"

The 29-cent stamp was issued by the U.S. Postal Service on Oct. 1, 1991 as part of a set of stamps celebrating the robotic

exploration of the solar system. Designed by artist Ron Miller, the stamp's artwork was based on the very little

information known about Pluto at the time and included the caption, "Not Yet Explored."

"You know it says 'Not Yet Explored,' and I have to say, it was a beautiful stamp. It really inspired us when we were

building New Horizons to explore this last of the classical planets," said Stern at Tuesday's record ceremony. "Well, we

canceled that stamp last July when we flew by Pluto."

To mark the mission's accomplishment, the USPS issued a new set of stamps, appropriately titled "Pluto—Explored!" on

May 31. The two stamps feature an artist's rendering of the spacecraft and an image of the dwarf planet as taken by New

Horizons.

This is at least the second Guinness World Record set by the New Horizons mission. In 2006, the robotic probe was

recognized for achieving the fastest speed at which a craft has departed from Earth, 36,250 mph (58,338 km/h).

To put that into some perspective, it took three days for the Apollo 11 spacecraft to reach the moon 47 years ago this

week. New Horizons flew past the moon's orbit in just nine hours.

"When I started to look at the record, over 3 billion miles, I started thinking about the history of the Postal Service," said

Coggins. "At one point in the early 1800s, to deliver a letter from the east coast to the west coast of the United States, it

took four to seven weeks. In the mid-1850s, with the Pony Express, they found a more direct route and it still took 10 days

to get from St. Louis to San Francisco. That is about 190 miles [306 km] a day."

"To think about this distance, 3 billion miles — that is about 131 [thousand] times around the circumference of the Earth

and it was delivered in less than 10 years," Coggins said. "If the Pony Express was trying to deliver that far, they would be

swapping ponies out for the next 47,000 years before it got there."


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