USPCS announce overhaul of website
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE USPCS Announces Major Enhancements to Website Additional resources now available to members and general public
October 15, 2005…The U.S. Philatelic Classics Society today announced that its award-winning website, www.uspcs.org, has been enhanced in two different directions:
- Additional resources are now available to the general philatelic public
- A separate, members-only domain with additional resources has been added.
Public Website Enhancements:
The USPCS website should be bookmarked by any student of US stamps and postal history. Anyone visiting the website has access to:
- Approximately twenty scholarly articles about U.S Postage Stamps from the earliest postmaster provisional issues through the large banknote era of the 1880s and postal history from the stampless period forward.
- Information about USPCS publications, including the society’s quarterly journal, The Chronicle, and the upcoming book on the US 1851 issue
- Information about the USPCS exhibit photocopy service which contains copies of over 80 award-winning philatelic exhibitions
- A listing of the inventory of the USPCS Stamp & Cover Repository & Analysis Program (SCRAP) which includes over 1000 faked or counterfeit stamps and covers. Over 100 of these items are illustrated on the website.
- Links to other philatelic websites and other resources that may be of use to philatelists.
New Members’ Domain:
On November 1, 2005, the USPCS is adding a Members’ Domain to the website with additional resources available only to society members in good standing. The first iteration of the section will include:
- The most current information on the earliest documented usage (EDU) of each postal issue from Scott catalog number 1 to number 299 courtesy of Alan Berkun, widely recognized as the expert in EDUs for early U.S. issues. Scans of many of these EDUs are linked to this section of the website.
- Full copies of Chronicle issues 1 - 44, plus indices, spanning the period from 1948-1963 and long unavailable to most collectors.
- A section for special exhibits with full color scans of the pages of award winning exhibits
- A section for research and studies in progress, allowing the circulation of works in progress.
- A member directory and collecting interests section, facilitating communications between members
“The USPCS website helps us to meet all of our goals as an organization – to promote interest and knowledge of the classic issues of the United States, to encourage philatelic research and the exchange of information, and to build and increase a sense of community among our members,” said Wilson Hulme, President of the Society. “These enhancements makes the USPCS website one of the premier philatelic resources on the Internet,” he continued.
The Members’ Domain will be expanded over time, as members and other individuals participate by sharing their exhibits and research. The first exhibit, “U.S. - France Mails by Steamship, 1838 - GPU”, has been provided by Richard F. Winter. This fabulous study, covering four different rate periods and encompassing over 85 exhibit pages, provides a great deal of information on this complicated subject.
The “Studies in Progress” section debuts with a very detailed analysis of the U.S. 11-E2 1851 essay, put together by Roy Weber and several other collectors. This section contains both a well-organized PowerPoint presentation and a lengthy summary of the study group’s findings. Collectors of the 3¢ 1851 issue will not want to miss reading this fascinating study of a very rare stamp essay, the story of its acquisition on eBay, and the detective work involved in tracing it back to its maker.
About the U.S. Philatelic Classic Society
The U.S. Philatelic Classics Society is the only organization that studies in depth the stamps and postal history of the United States from the Colonial era to 1900. Our 1000+ members include both collectors and students. Many have written articles that have been published in our award winning quarterly magazine, The Chronicle of the U.S. Classic Postal Issues, and in other publications. Information about the USPCS, membership, its publications, and articles of interest to collectors and students of the classic period of U.S. philately, can found at the society’s website at www.uspcs.org.
