Category Archives: Publications

Financial Woes for Major Publisher?

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by Lloyd A. de Vries

Amos Media, the largest philatelic media publisher in the U.S., appears to be having financial difficulties. Amos publishes the Scott Postage Stamp Catalogs, Linn’s Stamp News and Scott Stamp Monthly, as well as publications for other hobbies.

In early December, Amos Media advised print subscribers via email that printing of SSM would resume with the December issue and the catalogues would be shipped in early 2025. The company blamed a “business dispute” with its printer.

In a discussion in The Stamp Collecting Forum started by veteran philatelic writer Ken Lawrence, readers reveal they have not received their printed copies of Monthly for several months and columnists report no payments for their articles since June. In addition, printed editions of the Scott catalogues that were due for release on or after September 1 are on back-order, with no date of delivery. Digital editions are available.

Printed editions of Coin World magazine, also published by Amos, also are not available. In a post on a coin collectors forum, a customer service representative was quoted as saying that no date was available for the resumption of printing.

Abruptly in mid-August, Linn’s Stamp News announced it was immediately halting the printing of its weekly newspaper and it would only be available online. The announcement said SSM would continue to be printed and mailed to subscribers who had chosen that option.

Amos Media chairman of the board Rick Amos (left) apologized for the lack of communication with its readers.

“We’ve had an issue with our printer and several times over the past month we thought it had been resolved. It now has and Scott Stamp Monthly will return soon,” he told The Virtual Stamp Club in an email on November 22, which was in response to a query from The VSC. “We are waiting for the date in which the December issue will be mailed to subscribers. Once we do the dates will be published on our website and sent via email to our subscribers.”

Although Amos told The VSC that “no decision has been made yet if we will still print the October and November issues,” an email to subscribers in early December said those issues, plus September 2024, will not be printed. Print subscribers will have their subscriptions extended and advertisers will receive at 30% credit toward future advertising (but not a refund. (We point out that ads did appear in the digital editions.)

“We are pleased to announce that the Scott Stamp Monthly December issue will be mailed during the week of December 16th,” said the message, signed “The Linn’s and Scott Team.” “Furthermore, the Scott Specialized and Classic catalogues will be mailed sometime in January and February 2025.”

Contributors (freelance writers) have not been paid since June and have not heard from Amos Media about this matter.

The Scott books are the major catalogues for stamp collectors in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The first Scott catalogue was a 21-page pricelist in 1886 by New York City stamp dealer John Walter Scott. Scott Publishing was acquired by Amos in 1984 and the operations moved to Sidney, Ohio, near Dayton. Today, the catalogue is six volumes plus related specialty catalogues and thousands of pages and costs nearly $700 from the Amos website (list price $1,034.92).

The major catalogue publisher for British Commonwealth issues, Stanley Gibbons, also has been in financial trouble, reorganizing in December 2023 to relieve itself of a debt burden. (The Linn’s Stamp News story is here.)

No More Printed Linn’s Stamp News

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Linn’s Stamp News, the major weekly news publication of U.S. philately, is now only available as a digital (online) product. In a “Philatelic Forward” lead article, editor-in-chief Jay Bigalke announced that issue No. 5000 [right], with a cover date of August 26, 2024, and which went online about two weeks earlier, was the last printed issue. Sister publication Scott Stamp Monthly, which only resumed as a separate publication last year, will continue to be available as a hard-copy (that is, a printed magazine), as well as digitally.

Amos Media CEO Rick Amos, in a memo to staffers quoted in Linn’s, attributed the decision to the shift in readership from print to online and to increasing costs, which Amos called “unsustainable.” He promised that Linn’s would continue to report philatelic news, although some Linn’s features may move to SSM. He also said that new options and features are being developed for the Linn’s website.

Take our polls asking Print subscribers if they will continue to subscribe.

There is currently no mention of the change on the non-subscription part of the website, other than the lack of a printed-copy option in subscriptions.

Linn’s had currently been producing some issues as digital-only while others were available in both formats.

Two quick polls for Linn’s subscribers. Please only vote if you are currently a Linn’s subscriber:

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Lawrence Article Wins AFDCS Ward Award

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You can click on the photographs for larger views.

“The Greatest American First Day Cover” by Ken Lawrence is the 2023 winner of the American First Day Cover Society’s annual Philip H. Ward, Jr., Memorial Award for

Excellence in First Day Cover Literature. The article appeared in the February 2023 issue of The Chronicle of the US Classic Postal Issues. It is the story of a July 2, 1847, cover sent from New York City to Indianapolis, franked with the 10-cent George Washington (Scott 2), one of the first two U.S. stamps. It was first discovered in 1972 and is currently on display at the National Postal Museum. [Photo here courtesy of the NPM.]

All articles in First Days, the official journal of the AFDCS, automatically are considered for this award, but articles and works in other publications may be submitted for consideration. A complete list of past winners can be found on the AFDCS website at www.afdcs.org/ward.html

Lawrence’s articles have won the Ward competition twice before and shared in a third. One of those articles also was awarded the U.S. Stamp Society’s Barbara Mueller Award. He is a recipient of the Charles J. Peterson Philatelic Literature Life Achievement Award, and served as a vice president of the American Philatelic Society and trustee of the American Philatelic Research Library.

Although he has been writing about FDCs for 40 years, “this article is probably the most important one I have written,” he says. Although the official first-day-of-issue for Scott 1 and 2 is July 1, there is no evidence they were placed on sale until the next day, when this cover was mailed.

Philip Henry Ward, Jr., began servicing first day covers in 1909. An electrical engineer by trade, he wrote on new issues for The American Philatelist, Mekeel’s Weekly Stamp News and The Weekly Philatelic Gazette in the early 20th century.

The American First Day Cover Society is a not-for-profit educational organization. In addition to First Days, the AFDCS also publishes handbooks and catalogues, and promotes the collecting of both modern and “classic” issues and cachets, as well as exhibiting FDCs. It offers awards for outstanding first day cover exhibits and an annual contest for cachetmakers, and is a co-host of the annual Great American Stamp Show.

For more information about the AFDCS, visit www.afdcs.org, e-mail afdcs@afdcs.org or write the AFDCS at Post Office Box 27, Greer, SC 29652-0027.

Kelley New Editor at U.S. Specialist

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A short announcement on the website of the U.S. Stamp Society says that Andrew Kelley of Denver will take the reins at the philatelic organization’s journal, effective with the March 2024 issue. He replaces Martin Kent Miller, who has been the editor since 2019. No reason was given.

Kelley recently received the Society’s 2023 Hopkinson Literature Award. His article “Authenticating Scott 530c — Triple Impression on the Three Cent Offset” appeared in the May 2023 issue of The Specialist.

The U.S. Stamp Society was founded in 1926 as the Philatelic Plate Number Association, but was known as the Bureau Issues Association from 1930 to 2000. Its members specialize in collecting U.S. stamps.

March-April First Days Magazine Is Available

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The March-April issue of First Days, the journal of the American First Day Cover Society, is now available for download for society members and should be in their mailboxes any day now.

A veteran FDC collector tells how his interest all-but-started with hearing the heart-wrenching words, “there were so many more boxes that we didn’t have room for, so we burned them.” The issue also contains a chronicle of the adventure of servicing unofficial-location FDCs (“UOs”) in the days before the interstate highway system — and during the winter in Vermont!

Michael Dodd discusses what to watch for if you come across FDCs of the 1967 British Discovery & Invention stamps. Another article describes first day covers honoring a Filipino stamp organization’s most famous member. You know him, but you don’t know the cachetmaker profiled by Gerald H. Strauss, at least, not as a cachetmaker.

Gary Dickinson’s “Canadian Cachets” series looks at a major cachetmaker’s recycling efforts in the 1940s. Michael Lake tells of the close connection between an ArtCraft variety and the stamp affixed to it.

Also in the March-April issue is the debut of a new series, “Technology and Techniques,” and Mary Ann Bowman’s youth column solicits ideas on using topical FDCs to interest children in our hobby.

Even the ads are informative: In one, a collector asks for scans of MacArthur and Nimitz FDCs missing from his website, while another seeks Stanley Steamer covers.

Not yet a member of the AFDCS? Go to www.afdcs.org/join.html

Writing On Newfoundland Award Winners Announced

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[press release]
CCC Announces 2021 Pratt Award Winners

CHICAGO, Feb. 21, 2022 – The Collectors Club of Chicago is pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 Pratt Award, which recognizes articles or other publications related to the philately of Newfoundland as judged by the Pratt Award Committee as being significant and of academic merit. It is awarded in the year following its publishing.

The 2021 recipients are the following (listed with their award-winning works):

    • Anthony B. Thompson, of Sweden, for “Newfoundland’s Moiré Patterned Bookend Paper 1937-1940” in the first quarter 2021 BNA Topics whole number 566.
    • John M. Walsh and Robin J. Moore (both residing in Canada) for two articles: “Newfoundland: Discoveries in the Design Sizes of the 1933 Gilbert; 1937 Long Coronation and 1938 Royal Family Issues” in the January 2021 issue of Maple Leaves whole number 359 and the follow up article: “Newfoundland: Discovery Design Sizes Found on the 5 Cent, 2 Cent Die ii, 4 Cent Rose Lake and 8 Cent Values of the 1932 Perkins Bacon & Co Issue. (Further Proof of Their Different Printing Press Uses and Capabilities)” in the July 2021 issue of Maple Leaves whole number 361.

The CCC Pratt Award is named for Robert H. Pratt, the eminent Newfoundland stamp and postal history collector, researcher, and author. Since 1997, the award has been bestowed upon the author(s) of the best-judged article(s) or book(s) published on Newfoundland philately.

The annual award is US$1,000, which is given to one or more winners. If there are multiple winners in a year, they share the prize. For 2021, a single researcher authored one winning article, and the other was co-authored.

[According to the club’s website, “Initiated in 1997, the CCC Pratt Award is named for Col. Robert H. Pratt, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the pre-eminent Newfoundland stamp and postal history collector, researcher, and author.”]

Further details about the award and past winners are available here.

Founded in 1928 and re-established in 1944, the Collectors Club of Chicago is a group of award-winning philatelists focused on increasing knowledge and education of stamp collecting and postal history. The club owns and operates a philatelic library and clubhouse in downtown Chicago and has hosted speakers from around the United States.

Chicago Club Book on Polish Airmail History

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[press release]
CCC Publishing Poland and Contiguous European Pioneer Aerophilately Handbook

The Collectors Club of Chicago is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of the CCC’s 36th handbook chronicling specialized philatelic subjects: The History of Airmail in Poland and Its Contribution to Airmail Services of Europe ( 1914-1939), by Dr. Jerzy W. Kupiec-Węgliński. A Synopsis and Table of Contents in the Polish and German languages accompany this English edition.

The monograph, prefaced by Oxford-based Nobel Prize nominated historian Norman Davies, focuses on the development and operations of airmail services on the Polish territories throughout 25 years of turbulent European history during the 20th century. It begins with events originating in WWI, during October 1914-March 1915, in a remote area of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire’s Galicia Province, in the small town of Przemyśl. It concludes with the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, and the outbreak of WWII. It is an in-depth encyclopedic history of the development of air post not only in Poland, but also in all of Europe and beyond.

The substantive material is presented in 12 chapters. The first chapter highlights the 1914-1915 airmail effort by the Austrian Army from the besieged by Russian forces city of Przemyśl. The following chapter includes comprehensive descriptions and illustrations of the airmail postal route in 1918 from Vienna to Kiev, via Kraków and Lviv.

Further chapters detail the development of domestic airmail operations, as well as joint services by Polish and foreign carriers to other countries and continents, air rallies, “crash” (interrupted) mail, and the Zeppelin mail from mainland Poland and the Free City of Danzig to Americas.

The handbook is hardbound in an 8½”x11″ format, and includes 424 pages containing over 700 illustrations. The book is available from the CCC website ( www.collectorsclubchicago.org/handbooks-available-for-purchase for $US79.50 postpaid to U.S. and A.P.O. addresses (Europe for €65 plus Shipping & Handling), with PayPal being accepted for payment. Shipping to other destinations will be serviced on a per order basis.

About the Collectors Club of Chicago:
Founded in 1928 and reestablished in 1944, the Collectors Club of Chicago is a group of award-winning philatelists focused on increasing knowledge and education of stamp collecting and postal history. The club owns and operates a philatelic library and clubhouse in downtown Chicago and has hosted monthly speakers from around the United States.

U.S. Navy Censorship Markings 1940-1945 Handbook

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The Collectors Club of Chicago is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of our thirty-fifth handbook chronicling specialized philatelic subjects: U.S. Navy Censorship Markings (1940-1945), by James Moses.

The book is hardbound, and includes 330 pages of data supplementing a large void in the documented study of U.S. WWII censorship. It contains more than 575 listings of naval censor markings that include a number previously unreported. The book describes and illustrates each mark and location(s) of use, and often a brief story behind the men, ships, and bases of those who sent or received censored letters.

The book is available at the introductory pre-printing price of $68, including shipping and handling. After March 1, the book will be available at the increased retail price. Orders can now be placed on the CCC website [link], with PayPal being accepted for payment.