Refresher Course

Helping Scouts obtain stamp collecting merit badge

By Joseph H. Bloom

Many readers of Linn's Stamp News no doubt are aware of the popular topical subject of Scouts on stamps, but how many are aware of the interest of Boy Scouts in stamp collecting?

The Boy Scout stamp collecting merit badge

To become an Eagle Scout, the highest rank offered by the Boy Scouts of America, a young man must earn 21 merit badges: 12 required and nine optional.

Among the more than 100 choices of optional badges is a merit badge for stamp collecting.

To be approved to receive any given merit badge, a Scout must demonstrate his proficiency (against a prescribed list of requirements) to the satisfaction of an expert volunteer who serves as a merit badge counselor.

For more than 20 years, I have had the privilege of serving as a duly appointed counselor for the stamp collecting merit badge.

The requirements for earning the stamp collecting merit badge, shown in the accompanying box, are both comprehensive and rigorous. The Scout candidate must master a considerable amount of knowledge and hands-on skill, covering many aspects of the hobby.

To assist aspiring candidates, the Boy Scouts of America publishes a stamp collecting merit badge pamphlet, which runs some 40 pages long, and which can be purchased for $2.40 by an interested party at a Scout shop.

Of all the requirements, the ones that seem to cause the greatest difficulty are portions of No. 3, showing one example of 10 types of stamps or covers.

Not many boys who have come to me have ever seen an overprinted, surcharged or semipostal stamp, probably because among U.S. issues overprints are rare, and surcharged and semipostal stamps are nonexistent.

To deal with the issue of overprints, I show -- and explain the why and wherefore behind -- the U.S. Kansas-Nebraska issues of 1929 (Scott 658-79) or the Philippines 1944-45 Victory and Commonwealth overprints (Scott 463-92).

I like to see a candidate be able to use a magnifying glass, a perforation gauge, and watermark fluid in connection with requirements No. 5, demonstrating three tools.

I try to encourage use of the magnifying glass by challenging my candidate to find the secret date on stamps from the Canada 1935 King George V dated die series, Scott 217-27.

To test a boy's proficiency in the use of a perforation gauge, I typically ask him to differentiate among three similar-face-appearance U.S. Washington heads; for example, the 1¢ green (Scott 405 vs. 424 vs. 542).

The Australian 1-penny green trio of Scott 64, 67 and 114 serve as a good test of working knowledge of watermark detection.

Not surprisingly, the majority of collections brought to me in fulfillment of requirement No. 8 are either United States (usually mint singles, but not infrequently plate blocks or first-day covers, or some combination thereof) or general worldwide.

Sad to report, current interest in the stamp collecting merit badge appears to be low. In my last five years as a counselor, I have seen only a handful of applications annually, and this in an area of generally well-educated, affluent households.

Part of the declining interest may reflect a decline in interest in stamp collecting among young people in general.

But as long as there is a single boy out there in my area who is interested in earning his stamp collecting merit badge, I will continue to serve as a counselor, for there is great reward from working one-on-one with a potential lifelong stamp collecting enthusiast.

Joseph Bloom, a free-lance medical writer and assistant Scoutmaster, collects postally used stamps of the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Australia.