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Shift Hunter Letters

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The Shift Hunter Letters are available now on USSS Resources.

Looking for some philatelic fun, or perhaps a challenge? The United States Stamp Society continues to upgrade our website with additional resources. Just added to widen your knowledge of United States stamps are the “Shift-Hunter Letters.”
Your Society is happy to bring you the SHIFT-HUNTER LETTERS, now posted on the USSS website. Check your stamp collection to see how much fun there can be in spotting the printing shifts on your US stamps!

How did this all get started? Clayton W. Bedford (1885-1933), one of the original members of the Bureau Issues Association, now the United States Stamp Society, was a very active philatelist living in Akron OH. He organized the “The ‘Shift Hunters,” a group of collectors interested in examining early U.S. stamps for printing plate flaws, scratches, dents, extra speck of metal, and shifts of the impression, etc. which would show up on the postage stamp to make it a collectible “minor variety”. The group began the pioneer publication known as the SHIFT-HUNTER LETTERS

Bedford was the true go-to expert on minor plate varieties and chaired the original Plate Varieties Committee of the newly formed Bureau Issues Association. While the formal name of this passion is “plate varieties” it quickly took on the nickname “flyspeck philately,” as these folks were looking for such tiny marks and deviations, usually not noticed by the average eye. It is certainly a branch of our hobby which epitomizes our catch phrase “the thrill of the hunt.” Part of our colorful US stamp history tells the story of the fly that landed on the plate during the printing process, his splattered blood and body making a great variety on the stamp being printed at the time.

Ninety-one issues were published from August 1929 to February 1936 by an Organization of Students of Plate Research Problems. Originally the letters were published as individual mimeograph and lithographed newsletters, and later incorporated into the pages of the The Bureau Specialist. The image above shows the cover pages of letters # 1 and #91.

The complete run of the 91 letters has been digitized as searchable PDFs for viewing or downloading and are available on Resources section of the USSS website. (https://www.usstamps.org/resources/).

If you are interested in further study of Plate Varieties, our Society has published two excellent books:

1. The Bureau Specialist, Volumes 1-3, 1930-32; 450 pages, volume, contents include early reports on U.S. offset plate varieties and copies of some of the later Shift Hunter Letters. This book is available on the USSS website Store

2. Encyclopedia of Plate Varieties on U.S. Bureau – Printed Postage Stamps, Loran C. French, Bureau Issues Association, Inc., 1979, 338 pages. This, no longer in print, is available from philatelic literature dealers.

Have fun….go through your collection today and get out that fly swatter!

Fourth Bureau Issues Committee to Present at The Collectors Club “Society Series”

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Fourth Bureau Issues Committee to Present at The Collectors Club “Society Series”

[Rod Juell] will present “United States Fourth Bureau Era” at The Collectors’ Club webinar meeting on July 14. The two part program will begin with a high level over-view of all of the stamps issued during the years 1922 through 1932. This will set the context for the second part of the program – a “sneek-peak” at a new book to be published next year by the United States Stamp Society, celebrating the Fourth Bureau Issue during its centennial year. This book, currently in the final stages of layout, is expected to be the definitive work on these stamps for a generation to come.

National Postal Museum’s Inaugural Book Club Event

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National Postal Museum’s Inaugural Book Club Event
June 21 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Postmarks and Paperbacks is an online book club for lovers of books, letters, and the art and history of communication. It meets quarterly to discuss postal-themed books, including a range of selections drawing from epistolary novels, popular history books about the USPS or philately, and novels in which letters, the post office, or stamps play a central role. We think you’ll be surprised and delighted by the range of books this encompasses, so dive in and read along with us…

Register Now

Hotchner Awarded Neinken Medal

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The Philatelic Foundation will award John M. Hotchner its 2020 Neinken Medal for distinguished service to philately. Originally scheduled to be held at a ceremony and reception at The Collectors Club in New York on October 27, 2020, it instead will be held in October 2021 because of COVID-19 which has shuttered much of New York. A collector since the age of five, he has been a devoted leader, writer, and active participant in the advancement of organized philately at the international, national, and local levels.

John served on the B.I.A. Board of Governors and was a prolific contributor to The United States Specialist. In addition to his numerous articles on stamp perforation, he served as Chairman of the Errors, Freaks, and Oddities Committee for many years.

Hotchner served on the Board of the American Philatelic Society for sixteen years including a term as
its President, as a member of the National Postal Museum’s Council of Philatelists for twenty years, as well as a dozen years as a member of the Postmaster General’s Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee. A co-founder of the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors, he served as a Board member for 32 years including two terms as its President. Accredited as a national chief judge and international judge in both stamps and literature,

John has served for many years on the APS’ Committee on Judging Accreditation including a term as its Chairman. In 2017, he was invited to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists. On the local level, he has served as president of the Virginia Philatelic Federation. He was a founder of national specialty societies for Auxiliary Markings, AMG Philately, and for Mourning Stamps and Covers.

Hotchner currently serves as a contributing editor of Linn ‘s Stamp News, responsible
for its popular “U.S. Stamp Notes,” a weekly column, and as a monthly columnist for The American Stamp Dealer & Collector, and US. Stamp News as well as a quarterly columnist for a number of philatelic publications. As an exhibitor, his exhibits have garnered both national grand and reserve grand awards.
PF Chairman Robert G. Rose commented on the choice of Mr. Hotchner as the recipient of its Neinken Medal. “John has done it all, and always at the highest level of achievement, as a collector and exhibitor, as writer
and judge, as a philatelic expert and, as a board member and president of philately’s leading organization.

Kenneth Zierer Wins Literature Grand Award at Sarasota

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Ken Zierer has won the first WSP sanctioned Article Literature Award at the Sarasota National Stamp Show. Ken’s article “The Dubious Origins of the Scott Listed Variety #424e” received one of the seven Large Gold medals awarded to the 32 submitted articles. The article, published in 2018 in three parts, in the May, June and July issues of The United States Specialist can be found by browsing the digitial Specialist. The competition, the first ever for philatelic articles at a World Series of Philately (WSP) show was judged by Peter McCann, Chief Judge, Patricia Walker and Patrick Walters. It would appear from the favorable reaction by the collectors at the Sarasota event, that this new form of article competition, might become a semiannual event at WSP shows.

 

 

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