Inside Linn’s: A pleasant mix of stamps and travel in England

By Charles Snee

The Feb. 5 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. 

Visiting the Royal Philatelic Society London and a stamp store

“One of my favorite parts of travel is blending my hobby into it,” writes Chris Lazaroff, in a visually engaging feature story in the Feb. 5 issue of Linn’s Stamp News. “I always try to go to the local post office, and, if I’m lucky, find a brick-and-mortar stamp store.” Prior to taking a cruise out of Dover, England, Lazaroff and his wife, Denise, spent two days Exploring London and Dover. Highlights included visits to the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker St. in London and the headquarters of the Royal Philatelic Society London. He also managed to locate Dover Stamps, a small stamp shop in Dover, owned and operated by Keith Shepherd. During his visit to the shop, Chris attempted to find a specific example of the famous 1840 Penny Black in Shepherd’s stock. Was he successful? The answer is revealed near the end of article.

Eisenhower booklets and experiments with dull gum

In Modern U.S. Mail, Richard L. Beecher traces the evolution of water-activated gum on United States definitive stamps picturing Dwight D. Eisenhower that were first issued in August 1970. As Beecher explains, the first Eisenhower booklet stamps “were printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing on its workhorse Cottrell press and had shiny gum.” Not quite a year later, on March 1, 1970, “with little or no advance notice, the same stamps were issued on an experimental basis with humidity-resistant dull gum, which eliminated the need for interleaving paper,” Beecher writes. He goes on to describe later releases of Eisenhower booklet stamps with dull gum and concludes by noting that a number of Cottrell press booklet stamps were issued with dull gum, along with various sheet and coil stamps.

Word search puzzle: stamps issued in 1954

Linn’s regularly publishes three games to entertain readers: Trickies, a word scramble puzzle by Joe Kennedy; a word search puzzle by D.E. Rubin; and Philatelic Lexicon, a crossword puzzle by David Saks. In this week’s issue, Rubin tasks readers with finding 23 words associated with stamps issued in 1954. To set the stage for the coming search, Rubin mentions several 1954 events, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that declared segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional.

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