Identifying rounded and square corners on the 2001 Statue of Liberty stamps
Gene H., a longtime user of the The Philosateleian U.S. Stamp Album, recently wrote asking what the difference is between a couple of self-adhesive die-cut varieties of the 34¢ Statue of Liberty stamps issued in 2001: those with rounded corners, and those with square corners. It’s a good question, and one best answered with a picture.
In this image, the stamp on the left (Scott 3466) has rounded corners, while the stamp on the right (Scott 3477) has square corners.
Statue of Liberty stamps with rounded (left) and square (right) corners
That’s really all there is to it, and it’s a little surprising that the editors of the Scott catalogues decided that such a minor variation justified the two stamps being listed under separate major catalogue numbers. Nevertheless, I hope this helps you to tell the difference.
Purgatory Post commemorates Bement Bridge on latest stamp
Purgatory Post earlier this month released the latest in its series of stamps picturing New Hampshire’s covered bridges. The newest installment in this series pictures Bement Bridge over the Warner River in Bradford, New Hampshire.
Bement Bridge was originally built in 1854 at a cost of only $500.1 By the time the bridge needed a second round of repairs in the late 1960s, however, just that maintenance cost nearly 50 times as much as the original cost of construction! The bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
APC flag error labels surface on mail from New York
I’ve written in the past about Automated Postal Center or Self-Service Kiosk labels, a form of print-on-demand postage that can be purchased from kiosks at USPS locations here in the United States. Errors with designs printed on the wrong paper or even with no design at all are far from unheard of, but it had probably been a couple of years since I’d run across any.
A couple of years, that is, until last week, when I received a note mailed from New York, New York, using one of the preprinted U.S. flag labels with the USPS logo printed on top!
APC U.S. Flag label with USPS logo printed on top on cover
This is obviously an example of the sort of label produced by a machine that has had preprinted paper stock loaded in it, but that has not been reprogrammed by a post office employee to properly print only the barcode and related information.
Interestingly, my correspondent included a SASE bearing another label presumably printed at the same time and location. Whereas the example on the cover mailed to me was a Forever stamp, this one is a $1.15 label intended to pay international postage. It has a full-size barcode with other information printed over the flag.
APC U.S. Flag label with barcode and text printed on top
As I’ve written previously, the market for this sort of material is pretty thin even though the basic labels are listed in the Computer Vended Postage section of the Scott Specialized Catalogue. Nevertheless, these “error” labels are fun items to have when you run across them.
This is the penultimate update for The Philosateleian for 2018. The final quarterly update of the year should be released in December, and then my 2018 annual update for those on the yearly update track will be released in January 2019.
Thank you as always for your interest and support, and happy collecting!
Principality of Thanatos registered cover is a visual treat
Earlier this week, I received in my capacity as editor of The Poster, the Local Post Collectors Society’s journal, a note from Damian Robinson, Postmaster General for the Principality of Thanatos. The Principality, which is part of the micronation scene, is said to exist on a small island off the Scottish coast.
Naturally, this micronation has its own stamps. Mr. Robinson’s letter was inside this envelope, which was itself enclosed and mailed in an envelope bearing appropriate British postage.
Principality of Thanatos stamps on registered cover
Starting clockwise from upper left, the stamps, all of which were issued this year, depict:
£4 A Dream of Spring by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
50p Passionflower
£1 Island of Thanatos
£1 Badger
50p Sun parrots & Occussi-Ambeno gold coin
£2 Graf Zeppelin & Occussi-Ambeno silver coin
I thought the cover was very well done with its registration label and markings on the front. Then I flipped it over and discovered an additional form on the reverse: a receipt for registered mail that I (as postmaster for Philosateleian Post) am apparently intended to complete and return to the sending postal authority. What a hoot!
Receipt for registered mail on cover’s reverse
This sort of material is definitely on the fringes of “traditional” philately, but there’s no doubt that it makes for an interesting side collection, and I’m impressed with the sender’s creativity. I’ll be writing up these stamps for the next issue of The Poster.
