[Hugh]

Here's a place where you can update other members of the club on your newest acquisition, what arrived in the mail today or just what you've been working on today. 

Here's what I've been doing tonight.

...

I've been working on this cover. I picked it up this week and was intrigued by it's unusual instructional marking. 

   

It's a May 14, 1947 patriotic cover from Muncie, Indiana to Hill Field a USAAF base in Ogden, Utah. On it there is a boxed purple hand-stamp with:

CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES ARE INSTRUCTED / TO HAVE PERSONAL MAIL SENT TO THEIR / HOME ADDRESS

Hill Field, at its peak in 1943, employed 22,000 civilian and military personnel. When this cover was sent, in 1947, the base was engaged in the preservation and storage of surplus aircraft. Following the creation of the USAF, Hill Field became Hill AFB on February 5, 1948.

This cover appears to have been sent to a civilian employee of the USAAF, OASC. Which I assume is the Ogden Air Service Command (the logistics HQ) the original name of the unit. The sender was probably unaware that, after the war, the unit name changed to the Ogden Air Material Area (OAMA) ... (in July 1946).

A bit of a puzzle is the manuscript (pencil) 'T-4' with the added number '41021' above the address. I'm assuming that it was made by a base postal worker. You can see that the base address was underlined several times, also in pencil. That was, presumably, the reason why the purple hand-stamp was applied. My guess is the T4 / 41021 was added at the same time. The civilian employee's job level and employee number?

What are you working on today?

Cheers, Hugh

[Hugh]

So, yesterday I took the day off from Stamping. Janet and I were headed out to a small concert by folksinger Connie Kaldor in a wonderful old barn north of Kingston. On the way, we stopped at the annual Kingston Symphony book sale. She likes old cookbooks, so I surprised her with a well-used copy (good 'old cookbooks' are always well-used) of The Home Cook Book published in Toronto in 1881. (I couldn't resist when I saw it had a recipe for Chow-Chow. Memories of my youth!).

   

But, here's the thing, the book had an introduction by George Stewart Jr. Janet looked him up and it turns out that George Stewart Jr., just 16 at the time, was the founder, publisher and editor of one of Canada's first stamp journals. The first issue of The Stamp Collector's Monthly Gazette was issued in St. John, New Brunswick on June 1, 1865 -- two years before Canada's confederation. At that time, stamps were still issued by the separate colonies: Canada, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia and Vancouver Island.

   

So, I did some more research this morning. The journal ran for 24 consecutive issues plus an 1867 supplement. If you'd like to explore them, here's an online link to every issue.

www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_04686?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Here's a glimpse of an item from his first issue: 

   

The universe is obviously conspiring to ensure that no matter what we do or where we go, it finds a way to ensure that we keep on stampin' (smile)

PS -- When we got to the concert, they were giving away postcards (sigh). we truly can't get away.

[RICHARD]

I was asked if I was going to send my books in to The APS Quite some time ago. So I'm working on them.

[Webmaster]

If you are shipping these, and there are multiple countries included, it will be an interesting experience declaring the shipment under the new US customs rules. If they are all one country, no problem.

Let us know how you manage. It's a challenging new era, complying with those rules.

However you describe them, make sure your Customs HTS code comes up as 9704.00.0000

Roy

[RICHARD]

If you are shipping these, and there are multiple countries included, it will be an interesting experience declaring the shipment under the new US customs rules. If they are all one country, no problem.

Let us know how you manage. It's a challenging new era, complying with those rules.

However you describe them, make sure your Customs HTS code comes up as 9704.00.0000

Roy

it Philatelic material. The law dose not apply to them. There  has been a discussion about this on Richards Board.  Especially any thing over 100 years old  falls in another category . There has been some people charged and other have not been charged. Now if I was acutely buying it all I would have to pay duties and taxes on them.  And then If its over 100 years old then there should be no charges on them. It depends on how you fill out your mailing paper work. Antique Archive material would have no charge unless you sold it with a bill of sale. I've been sending things to The U.S. freely going for certificates and receiving with no charges, And I've been buying with no charges as long as the company does not apply or declarer there sale. They insure it them self's.  Keep it simple keep it small and will move through with  out charges At a risk of not enough insurance. The APS will not send them back because of HST charges lol So they will send a check instead. It should be interesting.

[RICHARD]

So, yesterday I took the day off from Stamping. Janet and I were headed out to a small concert by folksinger Connie Kaldor in a wonderful old barn north of Kingston. On the way, we stopped at the annual Kingston Symphony book sale. She likes old cookbooks, so I surprised her with a well-used copy (good 'old cookbooks' are always well-used) of The Home Cook Book published in Toronto in 1881. (I couldn't resist when I saw it had a recipe for Chow-Chow. Memories of my youth!).

But, here's the thing, the book had an introduction by George Stewart Jr. Janet looked him up and it turns out that George Stewart Jr., just 16 at the time, was the founder, publisher and editor of one of Canada's first stamp journals. The first issue of The Stamp Collector's Monthly Gazette was issued in St. John, New Brunswick on June 1, 1865 -- two years before Canada's confederation. At that time, stamps were still issued by the separate colonies: Canada, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia and Vancouver Island.

So, I did some more research this morning. The journal ran for 24 consecutive issues plus an 1867 supplement. If you'd like to explore them, here's an online link to every issue.

www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_04686?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Here's a glimpse of an item from his first issue: 

The universe is obviously conspiring to ensure that no matter what we do or where we go, it finds a way to ensure that we keep on stampin' (smile)

PS -- When we got to the concert, they were giving away postcards (sigh). we truly can't get away.

Huge sounds good I will have to try that recipe. Thanks for sharing.

[Webmaster]

its Philatelic material. The law dose not apply to them

Let me know how you make out when you get back from the Post Office. The rules changed on August 29. Americans know nothing about what other countries now have to do to send parcels into the United States. You may have been sending stuff successfully in first class letters, but Canada Post will not accept a parcel for the United States without a customs id number provided by an online app called "Zonos". 

You are correct about the "no duty or taxes", that's why I recommended HTS code 9704.00.0000 which is for philatelic items, including stamps, covers, FDCs etc. But that does not avoid the current necessity of a formal declaration through the app.

Roy

[RICHARD]

I never ship through an ap I always go in because the person on desk will ship cheaper some times. And tell you about the loop holes to avoid more money.

[RICHARD]

Well Hugh..  As you know I'm always working on U.S. Scott 231 for the last 15 years I have over 50 thousand of them. But I need more. I will conclude research this December. Then write a book on all my new findings. The book will contain the progression of the broken hat, New Plate numbers containing broken hats and frame lines A whole new chart of right frame line breaks double broken hat on same stamp cracked plates every where and so on. I might look at progression frame lines but who knows . A stamp wroth collecting and researching. I seams most research was about the hat and types and a lower right frame line breaks. But there are more Upper right frame line breaks and Hat break combos never recorded. Different hat type breaks and the second hat break plus a double hat break on same stamp.

[Carmen]

Hey all, good question Hugh, and the answer to it is one of the reasons I love stamp collecting - there is NO END to the sheer VARIETY of things one can do with a collection from day to day, in no particular order:
- Check my as-yet-undone little "things to do list" (or add to it) in my little black Moleskine "Carmen's Little Stamp Research Book" - I just had to put some duct tape on the spine, and I feel like Indiana Jones with his dad's Grail Diary every time I grab it, so it's subtitled "My Indiana Jones Book"!
- buy/hunt for stamps or have them given to me (example: my friend's father sent me three Costco Tim Horton's Keurig coffee boxes full of stamps and postal sets; another friend's brother has sent me probably 40,000 stamps over the years as well. He got them from a Canada Post employee who had received permission to collect them from all the mail that came into their office.
- receive, catalogue and put away my monthly stamp offering on approval from Arpin (and less fun: paying for it, LOL!)
- sort stamps
- soak stamps
- catalogue stamps (in my case, using EZStamp)
- look at stamps
- research "mystery" stamps (usually in some foreign language I don't recognize) - this has been made MUCH simpler with the advent of Google Lens, that's fer sure
- read the latest issue of The Canadian Philatelist, Topical Time, Canadian Stamp News, or whatever other philatelic mag with a nice cup of tea
- read one of the (many!) back issues from the above, and see what was going on back then
- read a chapter from one of my philatelic-related books - this might inlcude opening some sort of Dictionary of Philatelic Terms at random and seeing what I learn from that page
- look at the childhood collection someone has inherited and passed on to me to see if they have anything interesting in it for them (I always warn them, though, that I am NO Stamp Expert and generally-speaking, childhood collections won't get them retired early!)
- annoy the heck out of everyone around me, starting with my poor husband, by talking about the latest (fascinating to ME, anyway, therefore fascinating, tee hee!) stamp story 
- hop onto the KSC fora and contribute, as I have just now! 

Did I forget anything? I know eventually, "start to clear out and narrow down my collection" will become a thing as well. BUT NOT TODAY.