2010 Vermont State Stamp Show

Every year the Vermont Philatelic Society holds its annual meeting at the Vermont State Stamp Show, which is hosted by one of the 7 stamp clubs in Vermont. This year the Washington County Stamp Club in Montpelier celebrates its 50 anniversary and has graciously agreed to host the VPS and the VSSS. The show and meeting will be on Saturday, June 5 at the Montpelier Elks Golf Club just off Rte 2 on the road to St. Johnsbury.

There will be 20 dealer tables plus exhibits.

The USPS might have a table at the show, but that is still being firmed up. However, there will be a special pictorial cancel to honor the show with the WCSC sponsoring two cachets: one showing the Vermont Capitol and the other showing the Montpelier 1st Baptist Church where the stamp club holds its monthly meetings.

Next year, we are scheduled to travel to Bennington for the 2011 VSSS.

West Haven Doane: New Early Date

Doane cancels are named after Edith Doane who studied this type of cancel in the mid part of the 1900s. Doanes were an attempt by the USPOD to standardize the types of cancels used by smaller post offices beginning about August 1903. There are 3 types of these cancels, sorted by the bars: Type 1 has 5 solid bars, Type 2 has 4 pairs of thin line while Type 3 has 4 thick parallel bars. Currently there are over 21,000 post offices recorded with Doane cancels. Vermont has 145 recorded post offices in the latest edition of the catalog edited by Richard W. Helbrock and Gary Anderson (2002).

The example from West Haven (Rutland County) is a new earliest use from that post office. The previous earliest use was October 22, 1906. One the reverse is a East Poultney Doane which is also the earliest reported use from that post office. The "1" in the bars means that the West Haven post office had business which amount to less than $100.00.

West Haven was a post office in 3 distinct periods: 1809-1888, 1888-1907, and 1907-1912. The DPO scarcity rating for the above cover "6" (very scarce) with a value of $50-$100 dollars. The Doane catalog rating is "3" (scarce). The Doane catalog doesn't list monetary values.

3 New Pictorials

I have just received information about 3 upcoming Vermont pictorial cancels: Newport (celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Milk Train between Newport and Boston), Bethel (shows the old High School) and Chittenden (the Annual Fishing Derby).

All 3 cancels can be obtained by sending a stamped addressed envelope to the postmasters of the respective towns.

PAID 3 in Circle

One of the reasons that I like collecting postal history is that there are innumerable ways of collecting.

Irasburgh 1854?

Lately I have become interested in cancels from the 1851 period on stampless mail that show PAID 3 in a circle. I am currently researching this area for a future article for The Vermont Philatelist but I thought you might like to see some of the material currently in my collection.

I just added some very nice examples that I purchased from Elwyn and Anne Doubleday. They are disposing of an old time collection which seems to have been built with quality as the #1 goal. The cancels are exquisite and sharp.

Orwell 1851-1855

Hydeville 1853-54

Vermont Post Office Pictures

For the past year I have been traveling through Vermont taking pictures of its post offices.  The goal is to be able to document all 270+ post offices.  

I think that the Fair Haven (Rutland County) post office is the most unusual design that I have photographed so far.  Definitely a modern design.

Coventry (Orleans County) is a small post office located in a private home.  But I love the gingerbread design on the eaves and on the side porches.  Such an inviting post office.

When I return home, I print the picture on envelopes and send to the post office for copies of their postmark.  Currently, I have about 90 such envelopes and hope to do at least another 90 this summer while it's easy to get around the State of Vermont.

New Pictorial Cancels in April

There are 2 pictorial cancels being used in Vermont in April.

the 1st is from Norwich and honors Hannah Kearney, a Norwich native who won the Gold medal in Ladies Moguls at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games in British Columbia this past February. A similar cancel was used the same day at Hanover, NH where Kearney went to High School.

The other is from Vergennes and is used at the Boy Scout Camporee held at Button Bay State Park to honor the 100th Anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America.

All the 2010 pictorials used so far are listed at my website:

http://www.glennestus.com/VTCancels/2010cancels/vt2010.html

Brookfield (Orange County) Vermont Cancel

One of the more popular postal history collecting interests are cancels that show County Names and/or Postmaster Names.

Vermont postal historian Bill Lizotte did a recap of all such Vermont cancels in the August 2009 issue of The Vermont Philatelist. In his listing Brookfield (Orange County) is one of the rarer examples from Vermont. Yesterday at the Stamp Show in Quechee, I purchased the above Return Registered-Letter Receipt. This is the only example of this postmark known. It was originally reported in The Vermont Philatelist in August 1970. As a matter of fact, lightly penciled on the back of the receipt is a notation that the example is unique and had been reported to the VPS.

This item fits into 2 of my collecting interests: County/Postmaster cancels as well as Star Cancels.

If you interested in County/Postmaster cancels, the Vermont Philatelic Society website has a complete recap of all the current information: http://www.vermontps.org/CountyPostmaster/VTCountyPostmaster.html