GREEN BAY PHILATELIC SOCIETY 2016 Baltic Terrace, Green Bay, WI 54311 President: Darryl Ruprecht 468-6348 Vol. 32 No. 10 December, 2012 Vice President: Dave Burrows 468-7566 Secretary: Ray Perry 469-8925 Editor: Ray Perry 469-8925 Treasurer: Kirk Becker 680-1063 Publisher: Darryl Ruprecht 468-6348

DECEMBER MEETING – Merry Christmas WHERE: BROWN COUNTY SENIOR CENTER WHEN: December 20, 2012 (third Thursday of every month) TIME: Open 7:00 pm, Business Meeting 7:30 pm

PROGRAM: Christmas Party, Philatelic Scavenger Hunt, and Silent Auction Reminder: We need volunteer members to pick up a key from the Senior Center by 4:00 pm on the day of the

meeting. December’s volunteer is Dave Burrows.November Meeting

Members took turns introducing themselves to each other and giving a brief description of what they collect. Old Business: Chicagopex ’12: Collin reports that we have enough one page exhibits for our club’s one frame exhibit. Einstein Project: Dave Burrows reminded folks that the event will be on January 12, 2013 unless there is a home Packer playoff game that day in which case it will be moved to January 13, 2013. Please set those days aside so you can help out with staffing the booth. New Business: APS Donation: Ray reported that we have once again qualified for a free APS membership based on the number of APS members we have in our club. He also reported that the APS, like most non-profit organizations, is hurting financially right now and suggested that we consider a donation to APS to help them with some of their expenses. Your editor also encourages anyone that is not a member of APS to consider joining. It is a worthwhile organization and with your membership you will receive a well written monthly magazine. Anyone that has any questions about APS, feel free to contact me at the number above or at one of our club meetings.

Junior Club Meeting: Dave Burrows noted that there will be a junior club meeting at the Kress Branch of the library in DePere on Saturday, November 17, 2012. Dave and Dave Devroy have put a lot of effort into better publicizing this meeting than the last one and they are optimistic that there will be a better turnout. We look forward to hearing about your successes at the December meeting. November Program: The first part of November’s program was a multi media presentation titled “A Potpourri of Philately” that was directed, produced, and delivered by none other than our own Dave Burrows. The program covered some philatelic and historical information on Dave’s home area in the Untied Kingdom, some info on some British stamps, and some info on several Slania engraved stamps. I thought that the program was well done and would encourage Dave to pursue more of these in the future. I’m sure this project took Dave quite a lot of time and effort and would ask that everyone join me in thanking Dave for the work he put in on this project – THANKS DAVE. The second part of the program was a silent auction. There were a large number of lots just from club members and I don’t think that there were any club lots. With the difficulty we have had in contacting Sedona Stamps to order our next club lot, should we consider just going with club member’s lots? What does everyone think? Please let us know at the next meeting or if you can’t make it to that meeting, please give one of the club’s officers a call at their

phone number shown above and make your voice heard before the December meeting.

December Program First and most important, we will have our annual Christmas party. Ken Coakley will bring a coffee pot. Ray will bring decaf coffee, creamer, sugar, sugar substitute, and cups. Darryl will bring the punch. Everyone else please bring cookies, candy, snacks, hors d ‘oeurves, or some other goody. One last thought here, how about if everyone tries to bring a guest. Wouldn’t it be great to have several new prospective members at the meeting? The second part of the meeting will be a philatelic scavenger hunt put together by Randy Younger. Shown below are the questions. Bring a sheet of paper with the question number and the actual stamp or the Scott Catalogue number for the stamp that represents your answer to each question. Here are the questions:

1. This stamp was originated for shipping orchids from a popular vacation spot.

2. This stamp has an 1875 Indian Head Cent on it.

3. This stamp has the oldest operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes.

4. This stamp has “I have great feelings for the one that bore me”.

5. This stamp portrays a person that wrote the words for the song that is referred to as the Negro National Anthem.

6. This stamp portrays a pilot that had a fatal crash preparing for an air show just before achieving a dream of opening own flying school.

7. This stamp portrays a couple that purchased this vehicle as gifts for each other for their anniversary in 1994.

8. This stamp has cover of May 1943 California Arts and Architecture Magazine on it.

9. In the book “Hit and Run”, the character John Paul Keller recounts three U.S. stamps that are permanently in his memory, looking for the one of these three stamps that has a Polish statesman and soldier on it.

10. This is the first stamp to commemorate this president. When this president was inaugurated, thousands of his supporters descended upon the White House and caused chaotic revelry, the President and his family were forced to evacuate for their safety.

Thanks again to Randy Younger for putting this scavenger hunt together.

Ray’s Ramblings Last month I wrote about some of what I liked about Czeslaw Slania engraved stamps. Specifically the detail in the stamps. This month I will write about some recent postal history. I am relatively new at collecting postal history, but am learning from some of the articles in Linn’s by John Hotchner and Anthony S. Wawrukiewicz or in American Philatelist by Wayne Youngblood. There is definitely a lot to learn. I recall the program put on earlier this year by Bill Robinson and how he stressed that cover collecting is similar to stamp collecting in that one should collect what they enjoy collecting. I have found a number of interests, among them are advertising covers with the cachet

on the left side of the envelope, covers from forest products companies, Wisconsin post office cancellations (both dead and still active), interesting markings on covers, or different philatelic uses of stamps. Other postal history items to collect are significant dates (your birthday, anniversary, dates of historical events), interesting postmarks (cities with some significance in the name, topical postmarks, sayings, etc.) There is a whole world of things to look for and collect and I’ve just scratched the surface. Here are a few examples:

Note the nice postmark from Oconto Falls, WI dated January 29, 2010.

The above is an interesting advertising cover from Ribbon of Hope Foundation. They help breast cancer patients with financial, emotional, and informational needs regardless of age, race, gender, or religion. Note the cover is franked with a breast cancer semi-postal stamp (Scott #B1). This is an interesting combination of advertising and stamp use.

Check out this one and see if you can determine what appealed to me about it:

Give up? Could it be the city name – Perry, Florida in a nice cancellation dated December 21, 2010? Here is another interesting cover with an interesting marking “Stamp void if coated, covered, defaced, or reused. Return to sender.”

I don’t know how well this will show up on the copy, but this stamp was on a light yellow paper backing as if from a different envelope. It is closely cropped and fixed on this envelope – this is a big no no as far as USPS is concerned. They caught the reuse and hence the marking. Isn’t it ironic this was sent to a church and franked with a patriotic flag stamp? I removed the return address for obvious reasons. The next cover that I have is one that I recently acquired from the Northwoods Philatelic Society (the Iron Mountain Club). They have designed a couple of cachets and postmarks for fund raising efforts. The most recent was to benefit the new animal shelter in Quinnesec, MI which held its grand opening on August 4, 2012. They franked the specially cacheted envelopes with a stamp from the

2010 “Adopt a Pet” issue (Scott #1451-60) and a 1 cent Tiffany Lamp (Scott #3749A) stamp issued in 2008 to make up the 1 cent rate increase which occurred between the issue of the Adopt a Pet stamps and the opening of the Almost Home Animal Shelter commemorated in the cachet.

I am particularly interested in the yellow lab adopt a pet stamp as our family had a yellow lab (Misty) as a pet for 13 years and she would frequently give us the same quizzical look this dog is giving. I applaud the Northwoods Philatelic Society for their community mindedness and willingness to sponsor these periodic fund raisers as a service to their local community. I believe that this one raised around $200.00 for the new animal shelter. If anyone is interested, I think that some of these covers are still available from either the Northwoods Philatelic Society or from Almost Home Animal Shelter. This next cover is interesting in that it is underfranked and not marked for postage due. It is franked with a 42 cent stamp. It was postmarked on May 28, 2009. The rate increased from 42 cents to 44 cents for regular first class mail on May 11, 2009.

For some reason I received several of these underfranked pieces of mail from this rate increase. These are the only ones that I ever noticed over the years and now with the forever stamps it is unlikely that we will see them again, at least on first class mail.

I wanted to celebrate the season too. There are any number of Christmas related cachets and special envelopes, but here is one that my wife and I received back in 2009 franked with one of the 44 cent holiday stamps (Scott #4428).

So here we have the Holy Family (envelope) meeting a nutcracker (stamp), and it is all cancelled with the grinch . As I wrap this newletter up I want to wish each of you and your families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. One last note – dues are due on January 1. They are still only $10.00 per year - Where else can you have so much fun for ten bucks? Please fill out the enclosed membership form and return it to me with your $10.00 dues at 2016 Baltic Terrace, Green Bay, WI 54311 or just bring it to December’s meeting. Remember we need all of you to keep our club vibrant. Thanks.

Stamp Shows (See Across the Fence Post for more details)

Jan. 26-27 MSDA Winter Stamp Show, Comfort Inn (formerly Wingate), 600 Milwaukee Ave., Prospect Heights, IL March 23 Baypex ’13, St. Matthew Multi Purpose Center, 2575 South Webster, Green Bay, WI

Schedule of Events Shown below is the program schedule for the current year: December Scavenger Hunt, Christmas Party, Silent Auction January Silent Auction February Slide Show (topic to be determined) March Baypex ’13 Final Plans, Silent Auction April Show and Tell, Silent Auction May Election of Officers, Silent Auction June Joint Meeting with Appleton in Green Bay, Silent Auction (no business meeting) July Silent Auction (no business meeting) August Silent Auction (no business meeting)