Inside Linn’s: Wyoming’s unusual passport for the 1976 Bicentennial

By Charles Snee

The Oct. 10 issue of Linn’s Stamp News just landed on the presses and goes in the mail to subscribers Monday, Sept. 26. And if you subscribe to Linn’s digital edition, you’re at the head of the line with early access Saturday, Sept. 24. While you wait for your issue to arrive in your mailbox, enjoy these three quick glimpses of exclusive content available only to subscribers. 

Wyoming’s unusual passport for the 1976 Bicentennial

In The Odd Lot, Wayne L. Youngblood digs into the origins of a 1976 Bicentennial item that he recently found. He writes that the item “was a complete mystery to me and shows no readily apparent philatelic involvement.” According to Youngblood, the item is a passport “titled A Bicentennial Passport To Wyoming produced by the Wyoming Bicentennial Commission in 1976.” Sixty-four of the passport’s 68 pages are short profiles of specific Wyoming post offices, and, as can be seen here, each “post office page has a space to affix stamps and receive a postmark,” Youngblood writes. Youngblood discovered more fascinating tidbits about the passport, so be sure to read his entire column.

Domestic short-paid airmail special delivery cover from 1945

“One of my present exhibits considers the uses of United States postage due stamps. As such, I am always on the lookout for new important uses, and I am pleased that I keep finding them,” writes Tony Wawrukiewicz in Modern U.S. Mail. One such use, which Wawrukiewicz discovered in October 2021, is a short-paid domestic airmail special delivery letter that was mailed Nov. 28, 1945, from Norwalk, Conn., to Akron, Ohio. Even though short-paid 5¢, the letter was still eligible for special delivery because the 16¢ value of the affixed 1934 airmail special delivery stamp was still greater than the 13¢ special delivery fee in effect at the time. As Wawrukiewicz explains, “the addressee correctly paid the 5¢ due amount upon receipt of the letter.”

Kitchen Table Philately: U.S. mixture serves up minimum-value stamps

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 VI explores a one-fourth sample from an assortment of 200 used United States stamps, most of which were valued at the Scott catalog minimum of 25¢. “The earliest stamp was the 1893 2¢ Landing of Columbus (Scott 231) in the Columbian Exposition issue. The most recent was the 15¢ Ski Jump (1797) from a set commemorating the 13th Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.,” Rawolik writes. Enjoy the full review in this issue.

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