Let’s Get Technical — Enriching your Special Collections with Philately

By Susan J. Martin (Chair, Collection Development and Management, Associate Professor, Middle Tennessee State University) <Susan.Martin@mtsu.edu>

Column Editors: Kyle Banerjee (Sr. Implementation Consultant, FOLIO Services) <kbanerjee@ebsco.com> www.ebsco.com www.folio.org and Susan J. Martin (Chair, Collection Development and Management, Associate Professor, Middle Tennessee State University) <Susan.Martin@mtsu.edu>

Introduction

When you think of stamp collecting, you might think of an old gentleman in a spare room filled with binders and boxes of loose stamps. You may not think of postal stamps enhancing a special or research collection. However, philatelic materials (postage stamps, covers, revenues) can enhance your special collections in a myriad of visual and contextual ways. In Special Collections at Middle Tennessee State’s James E. Walker Library, we have incorporated a broad spectrum of philatelic materials into our Distilling, Fermenting, and Brewing Collection. In what follows, we introduce the acquisition, management, and discovery of philatelic materials for a library audience.

Background

The library at MTSU was established with the university’s founding in 1911. The James E. Walker Library services a diverse community with over 500,000 print volumes and over 38,000 e-journals and databases. Founded in 1999, the library’s Special Collections department is relatively new and has modest collections focusing on early Tennessee imprints, Eudora Welty, pop-up and moveable books, and the Margaret Lindsley Warden Collection for Equine Studies. Its newest collection, the Distilling, Fermenting, and Brewing Collection, supports research and interest in the university’s Fermentation Science program, as well as supports sociocultural, economic, and historical research in a variety of subjects, such as the temperance movement, Prohibition, moonshining, and smuggling. To make our distilling collection unique and truly reflect the subject, we delved into philately by collecting revenue stamps. We quickly expanded to collect worldwide postage stamps, covers, and postcards that depicted alcohol and its related topics

Why add Philatelic Materials?

Postal and revenue stamps, covers, and postcards have their own unique histories, as well as illuminate the social, cultural, economic, and political aspects of the topic. For example, revenue stamps are a physical representation of the amount of taxes levied and paid for an alcoholic product. The products and events depicted on commemorative postage stamps provide insight into their importance. Philatelic materials provide wonderful examples of visual design and have their own style, set of artists, and techniques. Each postal stamp is its own work of art and craftsmanship. Collecting philatelic materials is flexible and relatively affordable. You do not have to invest a lot of funds to start collecting. You will want to provide some structure to your collecting. Philatelists tend to collect by time-period, or by country, or topically.

Since our collection aims to cover all aspects of alcohol and liquor, agriculturally, historically, socially, and economically, revenue stamps were a natural match, and we began there. Revenue stamps illustrate and document an important economic aspect of liquor, beer, and wine — the control and taxation of the products. The revenue stamps are nice companions to our textual resources, such as business ledgers and federal documents.

We expanded to add in postage stamps. We collect any depiction of alcohol which includes ingredients, production, transportation, advertising, history, temperance, and negative effects, such as drunk driving and alcoholism. We then added in postcards. Our postcard collection is also broad in scope. Some of the more interesting cards are ones depicting the agricultural aspects, such as hop harvesting or production, such as brewing and distilling equipment.

Stamps and postcards are accessible and understandable materials. Everyone has seen and used them. Incorporating them into a special collection encourages researchers to think differently about these items. It also provides additional opportunities for donations.

Ordering

There are several main methods for acquiring philatelic materials.

• Firm

• Approval

• Auction

• Gift

You can firm order through specialized stamp companies, post offices, and dealers. Approval plans are available through many of the larger vendors, as well as through some small dealers. As a library, where and how you purchase will depend on your institution’s procurement requirement and regulations. It is important to purchase from reputable dealers to avoid forgeries and fakes. The American Philatelic Society (APS) maintains an extensive, searchable database of recommended dealers. Local philatelic clubs would also be able to provide information about reliable local vendors. Like the second-hand book trade, the philatelic trade has its own aggregator selling platforms with Hipstamp and Delcampe being the most prominent. If you can purchase from an internet dealer, you should check to see if they are a member of the Internet Philatelic Dealers Association (IPDA).

At JEWL, we tend to use the services of a large commercial vendor, Mystic Stamp Company, and a few specialized dealers, Eric Jackson Revenue Stamps, Oldpostcards.com, and Refried Jeans Postcards. We also purchase through the APS Stamp Store and on Hipstamp. You do not have to spend a lot of money to obtain a nice collection. While some stamps do fetch a high price, many are available under $1.00 per item.

Reference

As with other types of materials, philately has its own tools of the trade. You will need to obtain some basic reference sources, as well as the proper storage containers and handling tools to protect and preserve your collection

Dealers and collectors use stamp catalogues to identify, verify, and value stamps. Depending on what your collection contains, you may need more than one catalogue. The major worldwide catalogues are Amos Media’s Scott’s, Stanley Gibbons, Michel, and Yvert et Tellier. While these four provide worldwide coverage, each has its own coverage emphasis and strength. Scott’s Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue is commonly used in the United States and includes a U.S. Specialized volume. Stanley Gibbons is more commonly used for the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth countries. Michel’s strength is covering Germany, and Yvert et Tellier focuses on France, her current and former colonies and territories.

Each catalogue has its own publication schedule, arrangement, and coverage. For example, the Scott’s Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue is 13 volumes arranged alphabetically by country with the United States located first in volume 1a. Scott’s also puts out a Specialized volume covering United States revenues, covers, hunting permit (duck) stamps, as well as stamps issued by the Confederate States of America and the United Nations.

Within each volume, stamps are arranged by issue date. Each stamp is assigned a unique number “Scott’s #” which you will see referred to by collectors and dealers. Other information available includes color, type, postage value, and current market value at the catalogue publication date.

At JEWL, we have invested in the Scott’s U.S. Specialized Catalogue and are slowly purchasing the other volumes so we can have worldwide coverage. One of our areas of collecting is revenue stamps; so we opted to invest in a copy of The State Revenue Stamps Catalog, Revenue Stamps and Related Materials of the States of the United States of America, edited by Dave Wrisley and published by the State Revenue Society.

Stamp catalogues are expensive. To save money, you may opt to purchase an older, second-hand edition of a catalogue or even forgo them. If you decide to forgo purchasing a catalogue, there are some ways to obtain the information you will want for the identification, description, and discovery of your materials.

You could utilize a commercial dealer, such as Mystic Stamp Company or Kenmore Stamp Company. They maintain their own purchasing platforms that provides photographs of the stamps, as well as year and Scott number. Of the two, Mystic provides the most robust amount of information. For most of its stamp inventory, Mystic provides the Scott number, issue date and city, quantity printed, printed by, printing method, number of perforations, and color. You could also utilize Colnect, a website designed for managing personal collections. Colnect provides specialized information on worldwide stamps, including major catalogue numbers.

Care, Handling, and Storage

Stamps and related materials are made from paper and need proper care and storage. While there are many options for storage, there are some basic tools that you should have in your philatelic toolkit.

• Stamp tongs: Used to safely handle stamps

• Perforation Gauge: Assists with counting perforations (ridges on the edge of the stamp)

• Magnifiers: Used to see the small details on a stamp

• Watermark Detector: Used to identify watermarks on stamps to aid in identification

• White gloves: Used to safely handle covers and postal stationary

At a minimum you should have a pair of stamp tongs and a magnifier.

There are many options for storing stamps: albums, stock books, stock pages in a binder, glassine envelopes, and dealer cards. You will need to consider what is right for your collection and budget. We store our stamps in dealer cards and in a box. Our postcards are kept in protective sleeves and in an archival quality box purchased from Gaylord. Covers and larger stamps are stored in stock sheets in binders.

Inventory Control and Discovery

There are various ways to arrange and make philatelic materials discoverable for researchers. How you opt to do it depends on your library’s set up and preferences. You can catalog in MARC and add your holdings into OCLC and your library management system. Stamps make a wonderful digital collection on your platform of choice with a metadata scheme. Other options include creating a finding aid, spreadsheet, or LibGuide. Which method you opt to use depends on your library’s expertise, staffing levels, and patron needs.

Currently, we are discussing the best way to move forward in making our philatelic collection accessible. Acquisitions tracks the orders in the orders app in FOLIO, our library services platform, but does not create inventory. We assign an accession number to each stamp, postcard, or cover and record it along with detailed information about the item along with locally created subject headings in an Excel spreadsheet. We have two options with the spreadsheet; we could create MARC records and load directly into our discovery layer or create a basic searchable database and locate it on the Special Collections page of our website.

Philatelic Literature and the Community

There is a robust selection of philatelic literature native to the philatelic community. Many of the journals and trade magazines are published either by the various philatelic societies or by commercial entities. These journals and magazines are available in print and online, but libraries should be aware that online access is geared toward the individual and not to an institution. If a library wishes to pick up one or two basic journals, we recommend the American Philatelic Society’s American Philatelist and Linn’s Stamp News

The philatelic community is worldwide and very active. There are many places to seek out information on the field, learn about best practices, and connect with fellow philatelists. We recommend that you check out the Digital Philatelist who maintains an extensive list of the online and social media world of philately.

Selected Recommended Resources and Websites to Get Started

• A Guide to Stamp Basics. The American Philatelist. v. 136 no. 3 March 2022.

• Beck, Graham. “Storing Stamp Collections: What you need to know.” Exploring Stamps. https://youtu.be/ ZXKqOlStP1o

• Colnect. https://colnect.com/en

• Digital Philatelist. https://thedigitalphilatelist.com/

• Myers, Charles F. “I inherited a stamp collection, now what?” 4th edition. http://www. inheritedstampcollection.com/index.htm

• Stanley Gibbons. “Stamp collecting for beginners: Mounting stamps.” YouTube. https://youtu.be/ befDKbqQD54

• Stanley Gibbons. “Stamp collecting for beginners: How to read an SG Stamp Catalogue.” YouTube. https:// youtu.be/q82K_hgX0ug

• Tyska, Ted. “Stamp Albums: Cheap, Free, and Do-ItYourself Part 1 and Part 2.” Ted Talks Stamps. Episode 28. YouTube. https://youtu.be/RTdzvvLBjYM and Episode 29. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Ju69HR9HNR4

Conclusion

We will continue to expand our philatelic holdings for our distilling, fermenting, and brewing collection, and we hope to add selected postal materials to enhance our other special collections as well. We hope to see others explore this area of ephemera in their collections.

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