Highlights from two March stamp shows included first-day events and a faux game show

Philatelic Foreword by Jay Bigalke

Two stamp shows in March were fortunate to host first-day of issue ceremonies, and Linn’s Stamp News was honored to play a role in them.

The United States Garden Delights forever stamps were issued at the March 15-17 Garfield-Perry Stamp Club March Party stamp show, as were a United Nations set of Flag stamps.

Charles Snee, Linn’s Stamp News senior editor, served as the master of ceremonies for both events. Linn’s also produced the ceremony programs for both events.

An audience of about 90 people filled the room for the Garden Delights ceremony, according to the show organizers. Among the speakers were Scott English, executive director of the American Philatelic Society; Tonya Ware, manager, customer service operations for the United States Postal Service; and Rob Swindell, president of the Black River Audubon Society of Elyria, Ohio.

The show stated that attendance was up by approximately eight percent from the previous year, and I would like to think that part of it was from having the first-day ceremonies at the show.

At the awards banquet, the Garfield-Perry Players performed a humorous skit featuring famous historic philatelic experts competing in a game show. Those portrayed were John W. Scott (played by Ray Beer), John Luff (Bill Ullom), Stanley Ashbrook (Tom Bieniosek) and Jacques Minkus (Jere Dutt).

In a post-show press release, the Garfield-Perry Stamp Club said that the “star-studded case of historic philatelic experts kept people laughing throughout.”

Also in March was the St. Louis Stamp Expo show held March 22-24 in Missouri. While Linn’s wasn’t able to attend the show, it did assist in producing the ceremony program for the Wedding Celebrations stamps that were issued there.

An article here by Steve Bahnsen reports on some of the highlights of that ceremony.

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