Inside Linn’s: It’s time to get ready for the April 8 total solar eclipse

By Charles Snee

The Jan. 29 digital-only issue of Linn’s Stamp News will be available to subscribers Saturday, Jan. 13. While you wait for your issue to arrive in your inbox, enjoy these three quick glimpses of exclusive content available only to subscribers. 

It’s time to get ready for the April 8 total solar eclipse

Are you looking forward to the upcoming April 8 total solar eclipse that will cast its shadow across the central United States? If so, be sure to take in all that Charles J. Vukotich Jr. shares in his Exploring Astrophilately column. “Total solar eclipses that cross large areas of the United States are rare,” Vukotich explains. “In 2017, a total solar eclipse ran from Oregon to South Carolina. The last similar eclipse was in 1918.” A cacheted cover that Vukotich prepared for the 2017 eclipse is pictured here. According to Vukotich, approximately 20 million people observed the Aug. 21, 2017, eclipse “along the path of totality, the area where the entire sun was blocked by the moon.” Will you be among those who will be captivated by this year’s eclipse?

Tip of the week: Denmark’s Queen Margarethe II stamps

“In her New Year’s address on Dec. 31, 2023, Queen Margarethe II of Denmark announced her abdication, effective Jan. 14, 2024,” write Stamp Market Tips columnists Henry Gitner and Rick Miller. “Her son, Crown Prince Frederick, succeeds her as King Frederick X.” In their tip of the week, Gitner and Miller suggest looking for Denmark’s 2022 souvenir sheet of three 12-krone stamps (Scott 1885) celebrating the 50th anniversary (golden jubilee) of the queen’s reign. “Stamps featuring portraits of the queen at the time of her ascension and at the time of the jubilee flank a stamp bearing the coat of arms of Denmark,” Gitner and Miller write.

Kitchen Table Philately: 74 stamps from 30 countries

In each weekly issue of Linn’s, either E. Rawolik VI or E. Rawolik VII dissects the contents of a stamp mixture offered to collectors. E. Rawolik is a pseudonym that is also the word “kiloware” (a stamp mixture) spelled backward. This week, E. Rawolik VII sorts through a compact packet of 74 stamps from 30 countries and with issue dates from 1898 to 2006. Two stamps from Canada each came in with the highest Scott catalog value, $7.50. According to Rawolik, the mixture included “many stamps not usually found in mixtures. I will add dozens of them to my album.” To learn more about Rawolik’s findings, enjoy the full review in this issue.

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