APS Stampshow '18 Columbus Ohio USA 9-12 August 2018

[DJCMH]

In just under a month the largest stamp show this year in the USA will be opening its doors here in my hometown, Columbus Ohio. The APS Stampshow is the premier national exhibition within the USA each year and this year looks to be a great show with the APS teaming up with the American Topical Association to hold a joint show together for the first time in the history of either group.

Full details can be found at https://stamps.org/STAMPSHOW-SS?gclid=CjwKCAjw1ZbaBRBUEiwA4V ... KsQAvD_BwE but here are some of the highlights :

Over 160 different exhibits spread over more than 900 frames will be on display. Included are the thirty exhibits competing for the annual Champion of Champions Award given the best exhibit from among those that won at one of the regional APS stamp shows over the past year.

Over 100 dealers in the exhibition bourse from around the USA and beyond. The USPS will have a concession area and the exhibition will host the first day ceremony for the new Dragons stamps on Thursday 9 August. Auctions will also be held by Harmer-Schau on each of the four days of the exhibition.

The Dragons stamps to be released on 9 August 2018

Several fun interactive events planned for children and adults throughout the four day event, and the APS will have its excellent introductory stamp collector help center for those interested in learning more about the hobby, especially in their Youth Center. Among the highlights, the APS will be exhibiting a copy of the Inverted Jenny and a free frank envelope from George Washington. Also this year the APS is organizing a "Ye Olde Passport" where one can gather commemorative cancels from the various philatelic societies.

Over 40 different philatelic societies will be holding their annual meetings during the convention, and many of these meetings will be open to the public. The APS is also organizing several talks on a variety of philatelic subjects during the course of the event.

Here is the pdf of the daily event schedule and the show layout

Event Schedule : https://stamps.org/userfiles/file/shows/stampshow/Schedule.pdf

Show Layout : https://stamps.org/SS-Floor-Plan

And of course best of all (in my opinion), the show is being held here in Columbus! For those who only think of Columbus, even if it comes to mind, as Ohio State Football and nothing else, there is so much more to this city and I am so happy it once again has the opportunity to host the Stampshow and show itself off. A little taste of which you can see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y72eT-XTg3U

I happen to have a vacation week scheduled for the week of the show (I go back to work full time starting this Sunday 15 July at 05:00, lucky me ) and plan to be at the show all four days. Just curious how many others plan to come and of course if you have any questions about Columbus please please feel free to ask

[DJCMH]

Two weeks til the show, anyone else planning to attend?

[Brit-Col]

Not I.

I've been to three APS shows: the one in Sacramento, the one in Portland, and the one last winter in Birmingham.

In all three cases I did most of my buying from dealers who also attend the local shows near me. So I may as well save travel expenses and spend the money on stamps. (Although to be fair in two of the cases I had family and/or friends in the area so it wasn't only about the shows.)

Having said that, if an APS show comes to your city or you live somewhere remote where a large show is never held reasonably nearby, then it is worth attending.

BC

[realmanshow]

Just wondering if anyone is coming to the APS Stamp Show in Columbus, Ohio, this weekend.

I was planning on bringing my trade stockbook.
Let me know if you are planning to attend, and if you are interested in any MNH or CTO USSR

[Global Administrator]

Well Gene is for sure.

[jadrake]

I am going to be there Friday and Saturday all day. Driving up from Philly tomorrow with the family. I figured it was only 7 hours a way and I have a ton of Hilton Honors points to spend. They'll take in the zoo on Friday and likely join me for part of the Saturday morning for the kids stuff etc.

Looking forward to the discussion on German colonies! and seeing a few dealers I have not seen in a while. Bringing ALL of my German reference books to the hotel (I am across the street so easy walk) so depending what I see will dictate what I go get!

Sunday I am doing Schmidt's German restaurant for lunch and then homeward bound!

[DJCMH]

Just arrived show opens in 15 mins nice crowd at open will post pictures this evening. Anyone at the show want to say hi just look for the big guy in the Stampboards tee shirt (thanks Glen for arranging that )

[DJCMH]

As promised - pictures from the Exhibition (Day 1)

A pic of me as I left this morning. Want again to thank Glen for sending me the teeshirt, had several people ask about the website over the course of the day.

Got there about 30 mins before show opened and glad I did as the registration line was still bearable. About 15 mins later the lines exploded in length and I'd wager there were 500 people entering the exhibition at the start, maybe more.

The theme of this year's show is Dragons, and the APS and the USPS are doing some wonderful things to keep in theme, which of course will make it even more fun for children who come to the exhibition.

As you entered the exhibit you were greeted by a person in period costume offering you the Passports they have developed - you can get special cancellations from various society booths and the USPS for the passport to have as a keepsake.

Probably the dominant feature as you walked into the exposition was the USPS booth, which was in full Medieval Dragon mode

And even at open at 10AM there were lines to purchase the new issue Dragon Stamps.

and there were other activities at the USPS booth

including a fun Virtual Reality setup that had you "fly" with dragons.

[DJCMH]

At Noon the USPS held the official first day ceremony for the Dragons stamp

It was standing room only for the event, as they seem to have misjudged how many would turn up and the seating was limited. I ended up standing against the back corner (which actually was probably better than sitting to see the event happen)

I think they may have run short of Ceremony programs as well. I had to chase the lady distributing them down to get one as she was only handing them out to people in the seats, saying she couldn't reach those of us standing on the sides. I did get one though!

Dignitaries made some opening remarks, including American Philatelic Society Executive Director Scott English.

He also introduced the "mascot" of the exhibition - Perf The Dragon. Such a great touch for the kids attending!

(I later got a selfie with Perf )

And finally the unveiling of the stamps (sorry a bit blurry!)

[DJCMH]

The exhibit portion of the exhibition is HUGE. Over 1300 frames!

It's a good thing I have four days to go through it all, it's gonna take that long to do it justice!

The bourse is also huge, well over 100 dealers, plus booths for a half dozen postal administrations and a large number of societies. Didn't get any good pics of the bourse area today, will try again tomorrow, but did get one pic of someone many of you on here will recognize.

Torsten Weller of Abacus Auctions.

[DJCMH]

I also went to a couple of the forums/discussions being held at the exhibition today.

The first one I went to was the official release of the new Railway themed album from Scott. This is the first thematic album by Scott and is sort of a "test of the waters" for them to see how the demand is for such a product.

(Apologies for the dark image) - Besides being Scott's first thematic album, this release is also the first Scott album to be printed IN COLOR on a white page stock. It's a pretty album overall. It's the first of what will likely be a 4-5 album set, this first volume only covers the Americas (minus the Caribbean). It retails for US$110 which sounded pricey to me but given that it is in color that probably meant higher production costs.

Also, some of the editorial decisions Scott made seemed interesting - the biggest one being that all the spaces are for single stamps - it does not include Souvenir sheets and stamps issued in se-tenant format are only shown as separate singles. The album package includes 20 matching blank pages for collectors to be able to include items such as ephemera, souvenir sheets etc that go along with a topical collection. Will be interesting to see how well this does for Scott.

The second talk I went to was done by Linn's Stamp News as a town-hall type meeting to discuss with collectors how best Linn's can work with the collector community going forward. Some interesting ideas, talking about reaching out further to stamp clubs to promote their activities, and in particular making greater use of digital and social media. One collector suggested they should make more use of Youtube to put together a series of professionally made "Stamp Collecting 101" type videos that a lot of those in attendance agreed with.

One thing I mentioned was that if Linn's wanted to have more interaction with collectors in the 35-55 age group (which is an area Linn's is looking to expand its subscriber base) then they need to interact more with the various Philatelic forums such as Stampboards and Stamp Community, which have thousands of visitors each day, many of whom are NOT members of organized clubs and for whom, in many ways, the forums have become their "Stamp Club". Another line of discussion brought up by a young lady in the room was the need for Linn's and Scott to improve their apps, which gets nothing but an "AMEN" from me, they really need to be made much more mobile-user friendly.

You could tell there was a bit of a generation split in the room, with the few of us who were under 55 bringing up a lot of ideas revolving around digital and social media, while many of the older generation seemed to think that this was somewhat like chasing windmills. I mentioned another important tool was to use social media such as Facebook (which Linn's uses sparingly) and one older lady went into a tirade about how evil Facebook was and that she would never use any sort of digital media that required her to log in.

I will say the people from Linn's holding the discussion did seem to recognize that the future of the hobby is in the digital sphere and will be moreso as the years progress, which is a positive thing. Not sure if that means we'll see someone from Linn's on here on a regular basis is another question, but at least the recognition of the changing nature of the world of philately is there. At the same time, they realize that a large part of their current subscriber base prefer the old hardcopy newspaper and do not get involved in the digital world at all. How they bridge that gap in generations over the next decade will likely determine the future of Linn's, and indeed the hobby as a whole.

[DJCMH]

Finally here are some images from the exhibits I looked at today that caught my eye. Today I focused on the exhibits competing in the American Topical Association Exhibits. The ATA is holding their convention this year jointly with the APS (which is a first, and should probably have been done years ago, it definitely seems to have increased the crowds!)

Again sorry for the quality of some of the images, the lighting is not the best for taking pics, especially if you have an older cellphone like mine.

There were two thematic exhibits focusing on Ancient Egypt. The first one took a more mutli-faceted approach and covered not only the political history, but also the culture and society. The second one was much more of a traditional political narrative of the rise and fall of Ancient Egypt from the earliest dynasties to the end of the Roman era.

Another great exhibit revolved around American Post Offices named after different species of Animals. Was really comprehensive covering everything from mammals and birds to reptiles and sea life. Love the autographed Ermest Hemingway postcard that was connected to the town of Marlin, Texas

And something I never expected to see in a thematic exhibition - really rare stamps like the Geneva Doubles. Part of an exhibit of "Stamps and Stamps That Depict Them"

[DJCMH]

One of my favorite exhibits in the thematic section, this exhibit was devoted to early depictions in of Mickey Mouse in postal history and postcards. Lots of great vintage Disney material.

From vintage to contemporary as nearby was an exhibit organized around the theme of Harry Potter. A really fun exhibit that I had seen at the local Columbus show COLOPEX a few weeks back.

[DJCMH]

A fun exhibit focusing on the Puffin, including artwork and proofs of the iconic Lundy stamp

Finally a really cool exhibit of prop stamps used in cinema.

All in all a really fun day today at the exhibition, and the Thematic exhibits were really amazing, especially seeing the ability of exhibitors to find what would seem very tangetial aspects to their theme to really develop the story behind the exhibit they are creating.

Three more days, hope I get through all the exhibits and still have some time in the bourse!

[Canada stamper]

Thanks for the pics Gene, I really wish I could be there. I remember some of those thematic exhibits from the ATA National Topical Stamp Show last year. The fellow who had the Mickey Mouse exhibit also had a Donald Duck exhibit! The town postmarks with animal names is a really great exhibit.

Jean

[Ubobo.R.O.]

This puffin approves!

[DJCMH]

Day 2

Spent the first part of the day at the bourse. While my budget was limited (those six months on medical leave on only half income did quite the number on my reserves) I was determined to buy a few things to try and fill some gaps in a couple collections.

The bourse is HUGE. It extends the entire length of the exhibition hall, and it is six aisles worth of booths wide. Everything and anything philatelic one can imagine available for purchase. Some dealers seemed to constantly be busy while others, not so much, but it does appear that the decision to have both the APS and the American Topical Association hold their conventions together has helped to increase crowd size for the show overall.

One of the neat things about the bourse at a show as big as Stampshow is that you get to put faces with names you often see in the philatelic press here in the USA in particular. From Gary Posner to Patricia Kaufmann to Henry Gitner and dozens others, the bourse is in someways a "who's who" of the American retail and auction philatelic trade.

But it wasn't just traditional dealers and auction houses having tables in the bourse

Online retailer Hipstamp has a booth there as well.

And one more dealer that many of you on here will recognize

Michael Eastick from Melbourne. I need to give Michael a HUGE thank you. One of the stamps I had on my definitely want to buy to fill a hole in collection was the 63c value from the Australia "Living Together" series. I had tried six different dealers and come up dry. Stopped at Michael's booth, asked if he had any more modern Australia with him as I was looking for that 63c value, and turns out he had bought a recent Australia accumulation at the show. He graciously took the time to see if there were any 63c Living Togethers, and he hit gold. He then gave me the stamp free of charge. Totally made my day and was very generous of him to take time to help me for a stamp that in Oz is probably cheap as chips but I was not finding here in the USA.

[DJCMH]

Just near to the bourse was the Kids area, and while at the time I took the picture there were no kids in the area, it did look like it has some great activities for kid, including a multimedia section.

I went to two more talks/forums today. The first one was an interesting presentation called "Identifying and Collecting Fakes and Forgeries." By the title alone I was assuming it was going to be a general talk about fakes and forgeries worldwide but the presenters turned out to be working on a project to identify the various fakes and forgeries produced of US Nineteenth Century Local Post stamps. Turns out that many early leaders of philately in both the USA and Europe also dabbled in the production of forgeries and reproductions, as in the early years of philately such items were seen as a way to cheaply fill holes in collections.

Even the august J Walter Scott, the father of American philately, indulged in such activities early in his career until he realized that wealthy potential collectors of stamps feared that the items they were buying as originals were themselves fakes. This would lead to Scott changing his tune, ending his own practice of making forgeries and reprints, and using his journals to denounce the practice. Overall an interesting talk.

The other talk i attended was one I quite anticipated - The head of the Stamp section at eBay doing a town hall meeting with collectors and dealers.

I am going to do a full summary of the meeting in the thread I started over in the Online Auctions subforum https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=82939 but for now I'll just say I was expecting this to be akin to Daniel facing down the lions, especially as before the talk started he said that he had been Stamp manager for only a year and that he himself was not a stamp collector. But overall he handled himself well, and the audience (and it was quite full at least at the start) were not as blood-thirsty as I had expected. The ebay guy did a few mea culpa for some of the complaints that users, especially those who sold items on ebay, had about certain practices, but overall it was a decent forum and I think the eBay representative got a good understanding of what in particular sellers on ebay are concerned about (there were a lot more eBay sellers than buyers at the forum)

[DJCMH]

Much of the day was spent going through more exhibits. I got to the halfway point today, and it is just simply amazing both the wide variety of display you will see and how something simply eye-popping will just come into view completely unexpectedly. The exhibits I viewed today were the first part of the Stampshow open competition, and within that category similar groups were placed together - so for example first day cover exhibits, or revenue exhibits were in their own section, which I appreciated.

One of the first exhibits I saw was one that caused my eyes to pop. There in the first section of one-frame exhibits between an exhibit on Soviet Antarctic Stations and an exhibit on letters from Poland to Franklin Roosevelt, was an exhibit on the 24c Jenny Airmail. And it was not just an exhibit of the normal issue, it also had

Was not prepared to see one of the icons of philately tucked away in a one-frame exhibit!

The exhibit also had this beauty

Another interesting one-frame exhibit was one focusing on the use of the first stamp of the Confederate States in the different state capitals, ranging from just a few months in Confederate-zone Kentucky to past the surrender at Appomatix for Austin Texas and Tallahassee Florida.

Probably my favorite exhibit in the First Day Covers section was "Women of the Black Heritage Series" which told the stories of each of the women that have been depicted in the series (save this year's addition of Lena Horne) through First Day Covers.

Probably one of the most educational exhibits I have seen at the show, and I learned a great deal of things about many of these women.

The section of Revenue Stamp exhibits followed the first day covers and while I do not have a huge interest in Revenue stamps, this piece of one exhibit concerning the varied use of revenue stamps during the American Civil War caught my eye - if I remeber correctly it was a deed to transfer property ownership

[DJCMH]

One of the most unique exhibits I saw today was "Seals, Covers, Documents and Coorespondence : A Political History of Nepal 1785-1911." Some absolutely fascinating documents included in the exhibit.

One interesting fact I learned from this exhibit was how the seals of officials actually came to be used as cancellation devices for postage stamps after their use was introduced to Nepal in 1881.

I saw a couple of great Newfoundland exhibits today, my father had collected Newfoundland so I have a bit of an affinity for their stamps, and one of the exhibits focused on the final definitive series produced by Perkins Bacon for Newfoundland in the 1930s.

This cover caught my eye because of the story behind it, going from Newfoundland to Tasmania and being salvaged from a ship that had been sunk during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II.

There was a great exhibit of the evolution of Trans-Atlantic Airmail services during the Second World War, and how the changing geopolitical situation of the war required redirecting routes often great distances to be able to deliver mail safely.

This cover probably takes the cake, mailed from Switzerland to Melbourne, it had to go the very long way around in order to reach its destination. I believe it took a bit over two months after crossing the Americas and the South Pacific.

[DJCMH]

Another exhibit I really found interesting was one that focused on the postal history of Thailand up to the end of the reign of Chulalongkorn in 1910.

Most eye-catching to me in the exhibit was the array of British Post Office in Bangkok items that the collection included. Those are not inexpensive stamps and to see a large number of them together was quite impressive.

And while most exhibits don't usually invoke a desire to laugh when you view them, I couldn't help but chuckle at this page which shows how to spot real B overprints on Bangkok issues from fakes.

Maybe it is just my sense of humor but I found the caption "color blind" for overprints in wrong color to be really funny.

Another nice exhibit in the Postal Section dealt with the Bantam issues produced in South Africa during the war. Most interesting to me was that in the original planning stage of the stamps, there was an idea to use an image of an African-descent soldier among the designs.

Alas this being South Africa in the 1940s, that idea apparently never made it past the initial design stage.

[DJCMH]

As I reached the halfway point of the exhibits, there were two more exhibits that really caught my attention. The first was an exhibit on the stamps and postal history of the Western Ukraine during its brief existence in 1918-1919

I have a soft spot for Eastern European history so this exhibit really appealed to me showing just how many of the issue were produced "on the fly" under very difficult circumstances and just how rare surviving postal history from ephemeral philatelic entities really is.

The final exhibit that really caught my eye today was an exhibit on the stamps and postal history of the George V issue of the British Post Office in China. This exhibit was really put together nicely, and above all it has some amazing "wow" pieces, of which this one has to win the prize

Apologies for the glare from the lights, but that is a full pane of 200 of the $10 value from the George V series - the highest value. And the exhibit had full sheets of most of the other values as well!

The exhibit also highlighted the vast array of shade varieties that exist on this issue, some values have 5-6 different shades produced over the course of its life.

And finally, saw this cover and thought it was quite nice, so I will end my post with it.

Registered cover from Shanghai to Sydney.

That ends day two for me. Two more days, over 700 pages of frames to still get through!

[warm]

An excellent coverage.

Great read
Thank you

[GlenStephens]

As promised - pictures from the Exhibition (Day 1)

A pic of me as I left this morning. Want again to thank Glen for sending me the teeshirt, had several people ask about the website over the course of the day.

Got there about 30 mins before show opened and glad I did as the registration line was still bearable. About 15 mins later the lines exploded in length and I'd wager there were 500 people entering the exhibition at the start, maybe more.

Superb first hand reports Gene .. makes me (and others I am sure) feel like I was there in person! The APS should put you on the PR team.

Thanks for spreading the stampboards word there ... I'll drop you a line re those boxes.

Glen

[aethelwulf]

At first glance I thought the title page said "The Illogical World of Harry Potter".

There is a SB thread about stamps depicted in movies...

[aethelwulf]

Apologies for the glare from the lights, but that is a full pane of 200 of the $10 value from the George V series - the highest value. And the exhibit had full sheets of most of the other values as well!

And finally, saw this cover and thought it was quite nice, so I will end my post with it.

Registered cover from Shanghai to Sydney.

That ends day two for me. Two more days, over 700 pages of frames to still get through!

Full sheets can be so difficult to display and store. A sheet of 5 bob Bridges is easy to handle; panes like the $10 here, not so much...I saw a full sheet of the Hong Kong 1947 Silver Wedding omnibus before, you would need a special storage album for that...

Hong Kong registered stationery is a specialty area with a good following. There were a range of sizes, from small envelope to long to large, and they were produced from QV era through early QEII.

[MargoZ]

Thanks for the great rundown on the show.
Looking very spiffy in the Stampboards couture 8)

[Al3]

Thanks far sharing.

Your post on the show far exceeds anything else I have seen imcluding from APS or Linn's. APS did share some USPS videos and pics of their fund raiser on Facebook.

[DJCMH]

Day Three

Crowds seemed to be a bit smaller today than the previous two days. This surprised me since I figured the weekend would actually be busier, especially for more local-based collectors to come to the show.

But then perhaps the weather this morning played a role...

Most of the morning it rained buckets and buckets in Columbus as a line of gulley-buster thunderstorms came through. This picture was taken during a lull in the storms, when the rain had actually slowed down. Unfortunately all the rain did have an impact at the show...

as a leak developed in the roof over a section where the exhibits were located. The good news is that the leak was over the empty floor, not over the exhibits themselves, and the staff at the convention center were keeping a very close eye on it to make sure it didn't get any worse or any more leaks started. The good news is after about Noon the weather cleared and it was nice and sunny by the time I left the show.

A couple more pictures from the bourse end of the show. First a couple pictures of the bling that will be awarded over the course of the show to those exhibitors who win special awards.

The top picture shows the entire awards table from all the various organizations and societies awarding trophies and the like during the show. The bottom shows the gold "Champion of Champions" trophy that will be awarded to the best of the best winning exhibitions from among the 32 regional winners over the course of the past year. The big silver cup behind it is the permanent trophy kept at the APS (I believe) with the names of all the winners of the Champion of Champions tournament since it was inaugurated back in IIRC the early 1980s.

The final picture in this post shows the viewing area for Harmer-Schau's auctions. There are live auctions being held each day of the show, starting at 5PM. At times there have been lines at the viewing area. These auctions go on late into the evening, I was speaking to a guy who attended the auction last night - he was bidding on an item that was at the end of the auction, and it was 1AM before they got to the item. He then had to battle a phone bidder for the item, and in the end he won it.

[DJCMH]

I spent most of today looking at exhibits but I did attend a couple of interesting lectures/forums. These have been quite fascinating over the past three days, but one thing I think is a bit of a shame is that the vast majority of visitors to the exhibition seem to just ignore the ones that are open to the public.

The first forum I went to was a lecture about the 1893 Provisional Government Overprints from Hawaii.

I didn't know much about these stamps and so thought it would be an interesting "learn something new" type lecture, and it was. The presenter was an expert on these issues, and his presentation was exceedingly well put together, with very clear powerpoint notes to explain the key points he was discussing. It's a fascinating issue with lots of varieties caused by progressive wear on the overprint setting during the course of the overprinting of the stamps, and has several distinct sets of printings that were produced during the course of 1893 after the Coup by American settlers in Hawaii against Queen Liliuokalani earlier that year. Learned alot, and as a worldwide collector it's always great to learn more about an area of the world you do not have a lot of background with.

The second talk I went to was something completely different.

It was a talk by Graham Beck, the creator of a Youtube channel called "Exploring Stamps," about how digital media can help to introduce people to the hobby.

Link to his videos : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkeSM6aOWfaUPIGb5rPOGyA

His talk focused mainly on what inspired him to create the youtube videos and the challenges he has faced creating his videos. He was very engaging, and his sense of quirky humor is definitely a reason why his videos have actually started to gain a following. And he is getting some results. He has over 2200 subscribers to his channel, and the vast majority of his viewers are between 18 and 55 - the exact target audience that organizations such as the APS are trying to engage with.

One takeaway I got from his talk was how vitally important it is to use the various forms of social media to not only connect with younger collectors online (there are quite large numbers of stamp collectors in the 25-45 age range on both twitter and instagram, for example, and for the slightly older 35-55 demographic Facebook is also quite active, though less so for the Millenial generation (who see it as their parent's app for social media, not their own).

At the Linn's talk the other day one point was raised that there was a lack of good introductory videos on Youtube for stamp collecting. Youtube is in many ways the "go to" place for people looking for how to advice at the first instance. Exploring Stamps does have some Collecting 101 videos, and I suggested to Graham that he should do some more as this was something that had come up in a previous talk here at the show.

The most exciting thing about this talk though was the fact that Graham had been invited to speak by the organizers of the show in the first place. The APS I think really does realize that social media is going to the be the medium by which to try and gain new people to the hobby in general and to the organized hobby in particular. The fact that the APS, Scott and Linn's have several key people in their organizations who are in the late-30s to mid-50s demographic also I think gives the "pillars" of the hobby here in the USA people who do have an understanding of social media and can help in this era of transition in the hobby as the Baby Boomer generation slowly fade from the scene. The hobby in 20 years is definitely NOT going to the be hobby of today and certainly not the hobby of 20 years ago, and I actually feel pretty confident that the leaders of the hobby here in the USA have a good understanding of the tools that will be needed to meet that change.

[DJCMH]

The rest of the show today I spent continuing to work through the exhibits. Below are some pictures of exhibits that particularly caught my eye.

A very large number of the exhibits in the open competition category at Stampshow were usage exhibits, so there was a lot of interesting covers depicting usage of issues to fulfill various current rates at the time. Most of these exhibits were with pre-1945 stamps but there were two that focused on material from the post-World War II era. One was an excellent single frame exhibit focusing on the Canada Parliament Block booklet stamps from the 1980s. I remember these stamps well, but most of the time their use was for domestic Canadian mail. This exhibit highlighted their use for rates and services beyond simple first class mail, and was very interesting.

A second exhibit did a similar presentation for the Switzerland landscape definitive series from the late 1940s and early 1950s. Beautiful exhibit of some very beautiful stamps.

For something a bit more esoteric, one could do little better than this exhibit focusing on usage of the Postage Due Stamps of Peru from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some very stunning covers of multiple frankings, including this massive one require postage due to be collected on an item that the exhibitor calculated must have weighed close to two kilograms.

Finally a very interesting exhibit regarding the postal services of German-occupied Ukraine during World War II. Especially poignant were the items mailed by the local Ukrainian population to loved ones being held in various labor camps set up by the Germans both in the Ukraine and to serve as laborers back in Germany.

[DJCMH]

This exhibit focused on the reflection of the "Falklands Question" between Britain and Argentina from the early nineteenth century until today.

One item in the exhibit that caught my eye was this piece of British postal stationery that has been used by the Argentine administraton during their brief occupation of the islands in 1982. I knew of the story of how the stocks of postage stamps had been destroyed by British postal officials before they were captured by the Argentines, but did not know that some of the postal stationery had not been destroyed and had been used by Argentine forces in the islands to send mail back to Argentina. Fascinating.

Another usage study, but this time of a very discrete moment in history, the height of the German hyperinflation during the last month of the use of the old Reichsmark in November 1923 before the introduction of the Rentenmark to stabilize the German economy at the end of 1923.

Some of the covers in the exhibit are simply amazing for the face value amount of postage they included. In the final days of the old currency at the end of November 1923 it required well over a TRILLION marks to mail a letter from Germany overseas.

[DJCMH]

One thing I can definitely say about the exhibits at Stampshow this year - they are incredibly diverse in the range of themes covered. From thematics to usage studies, from classical era to modern, and geographically from every corner of the world (except, at least as far as I have seen - Australia!)

Ethiopia's stamps fascinate me, so this exhibit tracing the evolution of Ethiopian postal history in nineteenth century up to the end of 1919 was something I found really interesting. A couple of items that particularly caught my eye

This large franking needed for an item sent from i believe Harer to Djibouti at quadruple base rate.

There was also a prisoner of war cover from an Ethiopian run POW camp for captured Italian soldiers during the 1895-1896 war that would see Ethiopia defeat the Italian invasion, but I could not get a good picture of it due to its location in the frame relative to the glare caused by the overhead lighting.

Another interesting exhibit was one covering the postal history of Guernsey during the German occupation in World War II, from the use of bisected stamps as the limited supplies of low value stamps began to run low (as shown above) to the creation of Guernsey's occupation stamps after 1942 to meet local postal needs.

So I'm about 3/4 of the way through the exhibits with one day left to go. Tomorrow I tackle the cream of the crop - the exhbits competing for the "Champion of Champions" title for 2018.

[towradji]

Excellent series of reports on this show.

I have enjoyed the thread

[DJCMH]

Well so much for best laid plans. Woke up this morning feeling quite under the weather, so have decided to give the last day of the show a pass so I can recover, as I have to be at work tomorrow at 5AM. It's been a wonderful show though, and am glad I had the opportunity to attend at least three days of it.

Amazing to see the incredible diversity of collecting interests on display in the exhibits, and just shows why this hobby is so wonderful - get bored with one aspect of it there are always dozens of other areas of collecting interest one can explore.

Glad everyone has enjoyed my reports!

[aethelwulf]

So I'm about 3/4 of the way through the exhibits with one day left to go. Tomorrow I tackle the cream of the crop - the exhbits competing for the "Champion of Champions" title for 2018.

The first big international I attended, where I stopped to view all the exhibits, I made the 'mistake' of starting at the far end of the room, and spent a lot of time going through youth collections, thematics...and at the end of the first day realized that the Court of Honour was at the far other end, followed by traditional philately and postal history. After that, I made sure to start with the 'best' things, in case I didn't have time for everything.

[DJCMH]

So I'm about 3/4 of the way through the exhibits with one day left to go. Tomorrow I tackle the cream of the crop - the exhbits competing for the "Champion of Champions" title for 2018.

The first big international I attended, where I stopped to view all the exhibits, I made the 'mistake' of starting at the far end of the room, and spent a lot of time going through youth collections, thematics...and at the end of the first day realized that the Court of Honour was at the far other end, followed by traditional philately and postal history. After that, I made sure to start with the 'best' things, in case I didn't have time for everything.

I did take a quick look at the Champion of Champions exhibits on the first day, but not in depth, just in case something did come up and I couldn't get to it by the end. Now I am glad I did though I didn't get pics of those exhibits. Some amazing exhibits and individual items.

Lesson learned though - check out the rarities first thing!

[chalten]

This exhibit focused on the reflection of the "Falklands Question" between Britain and Argentina from the early nineteenth century until today.

One item in the exhibit that caught my eye was this piece of British postal stationery that has been used by the Argentine administraton during their brief occupation of the islands in 1982. I knew of the story of how the stocks of postage stamps had been destroyed by British postal officials before they were captured by the Argentines, but did not know that some of the postal stationery had not been destroyed and had been used by Argentine forces in the islands to send mail back to Argentina. Fascinating.

Indeed nice cover, pity you only took that photo, anyway to contact the exhibitor?

Three comments:

- the FI stamps found on in the Post Office were not destroyed but put in safe care. Actually many do not know that the Darwin set was to be issued on April 19, FDC covers had already been prepared and stamped, but were actually never issued on that date.

After the war/occupation, the Darwin set was issued and FDC covers were stamped July 5.

- covers posted using FI stamps between April 2 and July 13, were accepted but would not be postmarked on the stamp but elsewhere on the cover. Stamps would be crossed using a biro.

- Stationery used was not only this, but also several official (both sides), donated by Argentine companies... this was a problem, mainly in the early days and after the UK initiated the blockade in May. Some are more rare than others.

Years back a thread was created just to review aspects of this short chapter of postal history:

https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=16951

Hope the above helps.
best

[DJCMH]

Indeed nice cover, pity you only took that photo, anyway to contact the exhibitor?

I will see if I can find my Exhibition Guidebook and if I find any information I'll send you a PM.

DJCMH

[chalten]

Indeed nice cover, pity you only took that photo, anyway to contact the exhibitor?

I will see if I can find my Exhibition Guidebook and if I find any information I'll send you a PM.

DJCMH

Thanks, that would great!

[Global Administrator]

Great photos Gene .. see where a few varied pix can lead the discussion!

Chalten has a very fine collection of the Malvinas/Falklands War conflict covers.

We were fortunate to meet up with Martin in Buenos Aires on one of our many visits there - over some Quilmes beer, Malbec Red, and Espressos!

[chipg]

Indeed nice cover, pity you only took that photo, anyway to contact the exhibitor?

I will see if I can find my Exhibition Guidebook and if I find any information I'll send you a PM.

DJCMH

Thanks, that would great!

Here is a link to the Palmares for the exhibit: https://classic.stamps.org/userfiles/file/wsp/stampshow18.pdf

You can find the name of the exhibitor in this list and if you Google his name and the word "Stamps" you'll find a number of listings for his email contacts.

[DJCMH]

Indeed nice cover, pity you only took that photo, anyway to contact the exhibitor?

I will see if I can find my Exhibition Guidebook and if I find any information I'll send you a PM.

DJCMH

Thanks, that would great!

Here is a link to the Palmares for the exhibit: https://classic.stamps.org/userfiles/file/wsp/stampshow18.pdf

You can find the name of the exhibitor in this list and if you Google his name and the word "Stamps" you'll find a number of listings for his email contacts.

Thanks for finding that, my copy of the show program is buried somewhere here and I can't find it