Wednesdays During Summer Seminar

Precancels by T.G. Rehkop

Precancel collecting is a field large enough to suit the fancy of any collector whether you choose bureau prints or some of the 42,502 types listed in the Precancel Stamp Society’s Town & Type Catalogue of the United States and Territories.

The idea of precanceling stamps dates back to the very beginning of using stamps as prepayment of postage, with the earliest documented U.S. precancel produced in 1844 by Hale & Co. As you study U.S. precancels under the instruction of T.G., you’ll live their history and discover their many facets. Enjoy examining their many types: U.S. bureaus, locals, classics, electrotypes, printed dateds, handstamp dateds, silents and more. Don’t miss this opportunity to discover a new collecting specialty.

T.G. was introduced to stamp collecting sixty years ago by his grandmother, who started him on a worldwide stamp collection. He has been a member of the Precancel Stamp Society since 1982 and is currently the secretary, as well as a past president and vice-president. Additionally, T.G. is the Precancel Society’s database manager. He is also the publisher of the 8th edition of the Town and Type Catalog that was released in March 2019 and the Catalog of United States Bureau Precancels that was released in April 2020. Rehkop is a veteran precancel instructor, having taught at the APS Summer Seminar several times. 

Sign up on C3a here for this course, held Wednesdays June 9, 16 and 23 from 1:00 PM-2:15 PM EDT

Series of 1917 Documentary Stamps and Their Overprints by Ron Lesher

Did you know that there were three printings of the 1917 documentary stamps? The cents values of the Series of 1917 documentary stamps were initially printed by Huebner-Bleistein of Buffalo, New York. When Congress objected, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) took over the offset printing of these stamps. In 1924, BEP introduced the use of high etch plates to produce these stamps. Under Ron’s direction, you will learn how to identify these three printings using actual stamps and their overprinted varieties (Future Delivery, Stock Transfer, Silver Tax, Cigarette Tube, Tobacco Sale Tax and Narcotic). It is known that not all listings exist in the Scott U.S. Specialized for all three printings, so data collected during this course will be used to request an expansion of these listings.

Ron’s column “The Tax Collector” has appeared in most issues of The American Stamp Dealer & Collector since its inception in 2006. He has been a collector of U.S. federal and state revenues for about 60 years. Of special recent interest is the inadequate cataloging of the cents denominations of the Series of 1917 documentary stamps and the six other categories of revenue stamps that were created by overprinting these general documentaries (future delivery, stock transfer, silver tax, cigarette tubes, tobacco sale, and the handstamped and press printed narcotic tax stamps) that were in use from 1917 to 1940.

Sign up on C3a here for this course, held Wednesdays June 9, 16 and 23 from 4:00 PM-5:15 PM EDT