News & Events

The United States Stamp Society donated a valuable prize to World Stamp Show – NY2016. The award was a complete error pane of 20 of the $2.00 Bobcat definitive plate number 1111(1) with the engraved black missing. As a result, the $2 denomination and initials USA are missing from all 20 stamps. The multicolor lithographed & engraved stamp, designed by Chuck Ripper, was issued June 1, 1990.

Listed as #2482a, each of the 20 stamps are valued at $200 in the 2016 edition of the Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps & Covers.

The United States Stamp Society had an active presence at the big show.

Two new books were released on opening day, Saturday, May 28 at 1PM… The Encyclopedia of United States Stamps and Stamp Collecting, Second Edition and The Durland Standard Plate Number Catalog 2016 Edition. Guest speaker was Jay Bigalke, editor of the American Philatelist. The Encyclopedia was available during the show at the USSS booth and can be purchased from the website store.

USSS Events at World Stamp Show – NY 2016

Saturday May 28, Opening Day
1:00pm Book Release:
Encyclopedia of United States Stamps and Stamp Collecting – Read More
Durland Standard Plate Number Catalog, 2016 Edition

2:00pm Jeff Shapiro – presentation on “Prexies and World War II”

Sunday, May 29
1:00pm Annual Membership Meeting of the Society

Monday, May 30
1:00pm Rod Juell will speak on “The Men who made the Stamps of the 1920s”
7:00pm USSS fellowship dinner – location to be announced

Tuesday, May 31
1:00pm Rod Juell – presentation “Collecting United States World’s Fairs”

Wednesday, June 1
1:00pm Bob Rufe – presentation “The Beginning of Priority Mail – U.S. Special
Handling: 1925-1959”

Thursday, June 2
1:00pm Jay Stotts – presentation “The 25-cent Niagara Falls Stamp of the Fourth
Bureau Issue”

Friday, June 3
1:00pm John Hotcher – will speak on “Collecting Errors, Freaks, and Oddities”

Saturday, June 4
11:00am Roger Brody- presentation “The Jamestown 1907 Commemorative Issue”

The Society booth, staffed throughout the show, provided members with a place to gather and visit.

David Crotty is recipient of the 2015 Hopkinson Memorial Literature
Award, given annually for the best article or series published in The United
States Specialist during the past yea r. The award, which includes a plaque
and honorarium , is for his ” Compute r Vended Postage Barcodes on Your
Mail.” The article appeared in the April, 2015 issue.
Crotty’s article meets all the established criteria for the Hopkinson Award
– original research ; a meaningful subject for United States specialists; a clear
and comprehensive presentation ; and thorough, comprehensive references to
prior publications on the subject – which assure its enduring value. Besides
those aspects it has the added bonus of novelty.
By exploring a built- in security feature embedded in a new postage
stamp technology that the Postal Service itself cannot yet fully exploit, Crotty
has broadened our app roach to studying stamps beyond the routine philatelic
sequence of preliminary designs, essays, proofs, production techno logy, issued
stamps, varieties , and later modifications. Going forward we will need to
add contemporaneous aspects that anticipate future developments for their
promise to be fully realized.
The Walter W. Hopkinson Memorial Award was established in 1953 in
honor of Walter W. Hopkinson, by his wife, Mrs. Constance B. Hopkinson.
The award honors Hopkinson’s interest in philatelic scholarship and the
dissemination of research and knowledge through the Society ‘s publications.
Hopkinson was a pl ate number specialist as well as a vigorous supporter and
long-time member of the Bureau Issues Association, as the Society was then
known. The first award was given in 1954, and it has been presented annually
thereafter. The award consists of an engraved plaque with the Society’s sea l,
and an honorarium.
The selection committee was comprised , as usual , o f the three most
recent awardees: Ken Lawrence (acting as chair), Richard Nazar and James
Robinson.
A list of previous winners of the award is posted on the Society’s website:

here