A French collector coined the term philately, but the word actually comes from the Greek ‘philo’ lover or fond of ‘ateleia’ free of payment or tax. Philotely is actually the more correct rendering.

The “First Day of Issue” cancellation, that we all know today, was first used in 1937. The stamp that received it was the Ordinance of 1787 Sesquicentennial issue.

The first country to issue postage due stamps was France in 1859. One of the reasons was to keep postmasters and letter carriers from cheating the public with fraudulent charges for extra postage due.

The Scott Catalog for US stamps does not use numbers 520-522. This is because those numbers first listed the first three airmail stamps, which are today C1-C3 before airmail stamps received the “C” as part of their number and their own section in the catalog. The editors never went back and reused these numbers after the move. Oops?

The APS Summer Seminar in Philately first began in 1980. Contrary to the belief of some, it never was actually named Stamp Camp. However, in 1990 the term Stamp Camp first appeared in The American Philatelists. This lasted until 1994 after which the named just stopped being used. The name still lingers today as many still refer to Summer Seminar as Stamp Camp.

The 3-cent 1869 pictorial wood burning locomotive stamp, Scott #114, which was the workhorse for the mail at the time due to the 3-cent letter rate, was chosen in the advance to commemorate the transcontinental railroad. The stamp was issued 6 weeks before the completion.

The first non-denominated US stamps were Christmas stamps. Scott #1579 and 1580 were issued on October 14th, 1975.

Many of Nicaragua’s stamps were issued depicting volcanos. Backers of the Panama route used these stamps on mail to the U.S. Congress to dissuade them from building the canal through Nicaragua due to the dangers of the volcanos.

Postage rates are going up again on January 23rd, 2023. A first-class letter up to 1 ounce rises 3 cents to 63 cents, the postcard rate goes up 4 cents to 48 cents, but hey, the additional ounce rate stays the same at 24 cents. At least something didn’t increase!

The APS had no library from 1929 until 1968. Really? Wow. Then Daniel Vooys, one of the founders, got it started back up. Look at the library (APRL) now!