Inside Linn’s: U.S. 1998 Space Shuttle stamp goes first class instead of Priority Mail

By Charles Snee

The Nov. 11 digital-only issue of Linn’s Stamp News will be available to subscribers Saturday, Oct. 26. While you wait for your issue to arrive in your inbox, enjoy these three quick glimpses of exclusive content available only to subscribers.

Space Shuttle stamp goes first class instead of Priority Mail

In Dollar-Sign Stamps, Charles Snee takes a closer look at two covers that show a dollar-denominated stamp mistakenly used as a stamp denominated in cents. One of those covers, illustrated here, features a United States 1998 $3.20 Space Shuttle stamp used in error as a 32¢ stamp.

‘Via Air Express from the U.S.A.’

Wayne L. Youngblood, in The Odd Lot, provides a detailed review of the procedures TIME magazine used to deliver issues to overseas subscribers using its Air Express service. TIME contracted with several printers in different countries to produce the magazine in English on lighter paper stock that could be shipped in bulk to the destination country and remailed from there utilizing local postage rates.

Tip of the week: U.S. Silas Wright customs fee stamps

Stamp Market Tips columnists Henry Gitner and Rick Miller suggest collecting the set of eight United States Silas Wright customs fee stamps (Scott RL1-RL8). “The stamps were issued to indicate the collection of miscellaneous customs fees,” Gitner and Miller write. “Issued in 1887, their use was discontinued on Feb. 28, 1918.”

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