Entries with a touch of humor or irony stand the best chance of winning the contest.

Plane crash covers often are so badly damaged that they can’t be delivered as is.

Also this week, uses of postage due stamps that do not indicate due collection, and a review of a mixture of foreign stamps worth $200.

Since 1999 the show has been held at the Crystal Community Center in Crystal, Minn.

The stamp designs depict a seeing-eye dog, a therapy dog, a military working dog and a rescue dog.

At 4 a.m. on June 25, 1950, the North Korean Peoples’ Army crossed the 38th parallel that divided the two Koreas, with the object of unifying the country under communist rule.

Janet Klug, who embraced the hobby when she was 6, has been described as a lifelong stamp collector who never met a stamp she didn’t like.

The first day of issue coincides with the U.S. Postal Service’s planned postal rate increase that will see the cost of a first-class letter rise from 63¢ to 66¢.

Also this week, taking a tour of Wikipedia’s philately portal and a word search puzzle featuring names of fruits and vegetables appearing on stamps from Japan.

Modern essays and proofs are scarce in philatelic hands. Most reside in the files of the United States Postal Service and the National Postal Museum.

There were several themes that tickled the funny bones of Linn’s readers.

Sometimes, a random road trip takes you off the beaten path.

The U.S. migratory bird hunting and conservation stamp, commonly known as the federal duck stamp, is issued annually by the Fish and Wildlife Service

Because they saw little use, some postal cards and airmail postal cards are much more valuable in used condition than in mint condition.

Included in the kit is a book, Endangered Species, that has information on all 20 species pictured on the new stamps.

Having these numbers handy will allow you to easily locate these stamps in the Scott catalogs and learn about their production and values.

The U.S. Postal Service and its predecessor, the U.S. Post Office Department, have long considered any stamp with unauthorized markings to be canceled.

The show theme honors the 175th anniversary of the arrival of the Five Civilized Tribes to Oklahoma.

Three different certificates with three different opinions. How should a collector handle such a situation?

All of these stamps will be issued after a planned July 9 postal rate increase that will bump up the first-class letter rate from the current 63¢ to 66¢.