Society Calendar
- 2022 Annual meeting PIPEX, April 29-30, May 1 – Embassy Suites by Hilton
Portland Airport, 7900 NE 82nd Avenue, Portland, OR - 2023 Annual Meeting NOJEX, Meadowlands, NJ
Hopkinson Memorial Award 2024
Congratulations to Jan Stotts for being selected to receive the Walter W. Hopkinson Memorial Literature Award for the best article or series of articles published in The United States Specialist during 2024. The award is presented annually and consists of an engraved plaque and honorarium. This year, the award will be presented during the Society’s Annual Meeting at March Party 2025.
The Hopkinson Selection Committee selected the seven part series written by Stotts. The particulars of his series are:
The Great Americans Issue of 1980-1999. (June) Part-I, overview; (July) Part-II, Cottrell Press Printings; (August) Part-III, Dorthea Dix stamp; (September) Part-IV, Floating Plate Block Issues; (October) Part-V, I-8 Currency Press Issues; (November) Part-VI, A Press Reconfigured Format; (December) Part-VII, A-Press Dollar Sheetlets
The Hopkinson Memorial Literature Award selection committee normally consists of the winners of the award for the past three years. This year’s committee members were Andrew Kelley(2023), James (2022) and Greg Ajamian, Robert Rufe, and Harry Brittain (2021), with Greg, Bob and Harry serving as committee co-chairmen.
The award has been presented since 1954 in honor of Walter W. Hopkinson, a long-time supporter of the Society and specialist in plate numbers. His wife, Mrs. Constance B. Hopkinson, established the award based on his appreciation of philatelic scholarship.
Stotts’ interest in the United States Fourth Bureau Issue led him to join the Bureau Issues Association (BIA). He contributed a 13-part series of articles for its journal, The Specialist, for which he was awarded the society’s 1989 Walter Hopkinson Award for Literature.
Stotts was appointed to the BIA Board in 1991, a position he has held continuously with the exception of his tenures as president of the society. He was appointed to the presidency of the BIA in 1992 and served in that capacity through 1997. After the society changed its name to the United States Stamp Society (USSS), he was appointed as the society’s president and served in that capacity from 2000 through 2002, when he was again appointed to the board, a position which he still holds.
Stotts has been an avid exhibitor since 1980 and an accredited APS judge since 1989. He served on the national Committee on Accreditation of National Exhibitions and Judges (CANEJ) of the APS for eight years (1990-98) and he was a contributor to the seventh edition of the Manual for Philatelic Judging and Exhibiting. His Fourth Bureau Issue material has earned five national grand awards and the 1995 BIA Walter Hopkinson Award for Exhibiting. He was recognized for excellence in philatelic judging in 2019 when he was awarded the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors’ Bernard Hennig Award.
With the approach of the 100th anniversary of the issue of the Fourth Bureau Issue in 2022, he and the Fourth Bureau Issues Committee of the USSS began work on a published legacy resource for the issue. Jay served as editor and the society published the 500-page book, The United States Fourth Bureau Issue 1922-1938, which earned grand awards for the literature competitions at both Chicagopex 2022 and the Great American Stamp Show 2023. The book sold out in 15 months.
In addition to the positions he fills with the USSS, he currently serves as the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors’ director of its Exhibit Critique Service.
A list of previous winners of the award is posted on the Society’s website: here
Registered Mail Study Group – Newsletter
Again, we have added a few new subscribers, and an updated Members List is included with this mailing. The list only includes the names and contact information of those on our mailing list who are agreeable to being contacted about their registered mail interests. To make the future Newsletter more interesting, we want to encourage either short contributions, or suggestions for topics to be presented, from our readers.
If you have a special project that you would like to share, please consider preparing a short one-page summary and please send it along for inclusion in our next issue of the Newsletter.
The objective of the Registered Mail Study Group is to collect, organize, and disseminate information related to all aspects of the U.S. registry system to include, but not be limited to, labels, stamps, markings, and regulations. The Group has undertaken several projects, including a census database of known covers bearing registry exchange office lables, and a bibliography of literature related to all aspects of U.S. registered mail
All issues of the Registered Mail Study Group Newsletter can be found under the “Resources” menu.
Mike Ludeman
Chairman, RMSG
mike@ludeman.net
2024 Annual Meeting at NOJEX
Nicholas Lombardi, Bob Rufe, and Roger Brody staff the USSS
Society Table at NOJEX.
The 2024 Annual Meeting of the United States Stamp Society was held at the NOJEX stamp show in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, from April 26th through the 28th. The official business of the Society was conducted at the Board of Governors Meeting
on Friday afternoon and the Annual General Membership Meeting on Saturday. The Board of Governors discussed a variety of issues at their meeting, including the possibility of having to raise our annual dues. Our dues have been set at $25 per year for as long as anyone could remember even though the cost of producing and mailing The United States Specialist each month has risen substantially. A number of different possibilities were put forth and will be studied by the Board during the upcoming year. The annual dues will remain at $25 for the 2025 year. Although Treasurer Dave Sugar was unable to attend the meeting, he provided a summary of the Society’s financial position and the Society is in good financial shape. This is due in large part to the generosity of the membership in terms of both annual and estate donations, so please consider a donation when it comes time to renew your membership or review your will.
Speaking of publications, it was noted that due to a great demand for the Durland 2020 catalog which was sold out some time ago, the Board had authorized the reprinting of 100 copies which should last us until the next edition. That edition would normally have been done in 2024, but it was decided to wait until 2026 for the next edition which we will release at the Boston 2026 International show and will also coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Society. The Annual General Membership Meeting was held on Saturday afternoon. The meeting began, as is customary, with each attendee introducing him or herself and letting everyone know where they were from. In addition to informing the members of what had transpired at the Board of Governors meeting earlier, it was noted that the First Bureau Issue Study Group is in need of a new Chairperson. If you would be willing to help out with this, please let me know.
One of the highlights of our Annual General Membership Meeting is the presentation of the Walter W. Hopkinson Literature Award for the best article or series of articles, which appeared in The United States Specialist during the previous year.
Our 2023 award winner, Andrew S. Kelley, was on hand to accept the award for his article “Authenticating Scott 530c–Triple Impression on the Three Cent Offset” which appeared in the May 2023 issue of The Specialist.
Unfortunately, no one who was to receive their membership anniversary pin was in attendance. It was noted that this year we had six members who will receive their 50 year pins, sixteen who will receive 25 year pins and twenty-seven who will receive 15 year pins. The list of these members appeared in the March issue of The Specialist. All of these pins will be mailed to the recipients. On behalf of the Board of Governors, thank you all for being such loyal members of the Society.
The exhibit frames at the show were filled with a wide array of material from our Society members.
The Society’s prestigious Hugh M. Southgate Award was won by Greg Shoults for his exhibit “Washington & Franklin Coils: The Development of the Third Bureau Flat Plate & Coil Waste Issues of 1908–1915” which also won the Grand Award for the entire show, as well as the Statue of Freedom Medal, and the NOJEX Best US Exhibit award. Louis Caprario took the Reserve Grand with his exhibit “Pre-Prohibition Beer Stamps 1866–1919”. Other Society members whose work appeared in the frames
included Louis Fiset, Larry Haber, Terence Hines, Marvin & Judith Platt, Andrew S. Kelley, Michael Clark, David Mayo and Stephen Suffet. In total, our members accounted for 46% of the exhibit frames.
Our Society table was staffed continuously throughout the three days of the show. Members stopped by to purchase books, exchange information, or just to rest up. We signed up several new members as well as others who renewed their memberships. Special thanks go out to Roger Brody, Bob Rufe and Jerry Davis for helping man the booth at different times.
Members visiting the USSS booth are listed in the November issue of The Specialist.
—Nick Lombardi
President
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