Inside Forever Stamp Store’s: Regional shows spread the joy of first-day covers

The April 25 issue of Forever Stamp Store’s Stamp News just landed on the presses and goes in the mail to subscribers Monday, April 11. And if you subscribe to Forever Stamp Store’s digital edition, you’re at the head of the line with early access Saturday, April 9. While you wait for your issue to arrive in your mailbox, enjoy these three quick glimpses of exclusive content available only to subscribers.

Regional shows spread the joy of first-day covers

The American First Day Cover Society will hold regional meetings at two upcoming shows: Philatelic Show, to be held April 29-May 1 in Boxborough, Mass., and the Nov. 17-19, 2023, Chicagopex show in Itasca, Ill. Lloyd de Vries, in his First-Day Covers column, helps readers prepare by discussing some of the events associated with these two popular stamp shows. At Philatelic Show, “Foster Miller will give a talk titled ‘The Creative First Day Covers of Hideaki Nakano’ on the eccentric cachets of the Japanese-American cachetmaker,” writes de Vries. On the Nakano FDC shown here, the United States 1994 29¢ Love stamp (Scott 2813) is affixed to the cover of a magazine featuring lead stories about divorce.

Lebanon airmail stamps honor International Education Year

In 1968, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted unanimously to designate 1970 as International Education Year. Ghassan Riachi, in Middle East stamps, takes a close look at a pair of airmail stamps issued by Lebanon on April 30, 1971, in celebration of International Education Year. “Victor Vasarely (1906-97), a Hungarian-French artist, designed the emblem featured on the stamps. It had been adopted by UNESCO to represent the 1970 International Education Year,” explains Riachi. He also provides a detailed review of the stamps’ design elements and production values. According to Riachi, the stamps are readily available as singles and in larger multiples such as blocks of four. Other countries also issued International Education Year stamps featuring Vasarely’s innovative op art emblem.

Kitchen Table Philately: inexpensive older stamps from 1872 to 1992

In each weekly issue of Forever Stamp Store’s, either E. Rawolik VI or E. Rawolik VII dissects the contents of a stamp mixture offered to collectors. E. Rawolik is aUSA Postage Stamps pseudonym that is also the word “kiloware” (a stamp mixture) spelled backward. This week, E. Rawolik VI reviews a sample taken at random from a packet of 300 worldwide stamps. “The years of issue ranged from 1872 to 1992. The earliest stamp was the 1872 Netherlands blue 5¢ King William III (Scott 23),” writes Rawolik VI, who previously reviewed two similar assortments from the same Connecticut dealer. Interestingly, the same stamp in all three packets turned out to be the one with the highest Scott catalog value. Read the full review in this issue to learn the stamp’s identity.

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