Yamil Kouri (photo, at left – credit: Melanie Rogers) wins the Champion of Champions at Omaha on Aug. 1-4 with “The First Postal Issues of the Spanish Antilles” and Rob Faux wins the Grand Award and a Large Gold Medal with “Postal History of the 1861 United States 24-cent Adhesive” in the open at Omaha on the first weekend in August.

 

StampShow Omaha

Yamil Kouri won the Champion of Champions at Omaha with “The First Postal Issues of the Spanish Antilles” and Rob Faux wins the Grand Award and a Large Gold Medal with “Postal History of the 1861 United States 24-cent Adhesive” in the open at Omaha on the first weekend in August.  Note that Yamil’s book, “Under Three Flags, the Postal History of the Spanish-Cuban/American War (1895-1898)”, published by the  Collectors Club of Chicago, won the Literature Grand and Large Gold.  

There were several other members who competed with Yamil for the CofC. They included Carol Bommarito with “U.S. Mail To, From and Through GB 1840-1875; Tony Dewey with “A Postal History of the Hartford, Connecticut U.S. Post Office: 1792-1897; Juan Farah for “Great Britain Penny Red Stars, 1850-64 – World’s First Perforated Postage Stamp; Dale Forster for “Filling a Void – Private Mail Service in the Oregon Country”; Alfredo Frohlich with his “Delaware Postal History 1773-1847”; Gary G. Hendren for “St. Louis Street Car Mail 1892-1915; Bob Hohertz for “Revenue Stamped Paper of the Spanish American War Tax Era”; Matt Kewriga with his “Danish West Indies Foreign Mails: 1748-UPU; Nick Kirke for “The Evolution of Outbound Foreign Mail Originating in New York City 1845-1878”; Dan Knowles with “The Development of Confederate States of America (CSA) Postal Service from Secession to Appomattox”; Les Lanphear III for his “U.S. Departmentals, 1873 to 1884”; Nick Lombardi with his “The 1903 Two Cent Washington Shield Issue”; Tim O’Connor for “Postal History of the Original Thirteen Colonies”; and Chuck Wooster for “The Postage Dues Issues of Peru 1874-1948”.

 

In the StampShow Open Competition, Rob Faux won the Grand Award and a Large Gold Medal for “Postal History of the 1861 United Staes 24-cent Adhesive” (Also the U.S. Philatelic Society Medal). Mick Hadley won the Single Frame Grand and Large Gold Medal for “Uses of the 1908 U.S. Coils.”

 

Other members who won Large Gold Medals included Wade Saadi for “Postal Rates and Usages of U.S. Parcel Post Postage Due Stamps on Domestic and International Mail – 1913 to 1928” (also the U.S. Stamp Society Statue of Freedom Award); Gregory Scott Ward with his “Use of U.S. Parcel Post Stamps, 1913-1926”; Larry Nix for his NTSS exhibit “Free to All-America’s Public Libraries 1833-1960”; Tony Wawrukiewicz for “The Sun, Myth, Science, Effects, Culture (NTSS); and Fran Adams for his SF “The Leticia Incident” (NTSS). Tony Dewey won Gold Medals with both “The United Nations Precancel, 1952-1958”; and with the SF “The ‘H’ Rate-Change Stamps of 1998 Depicting Uncle Sam’s Hat”; 

Large Vermeil Medals were won by Ralph Nafziger for “The 3-cent 1935 Imperforate Wisconsin Tercentenary Issue; Robert Thompson for “25 Cent Honeybee – From Design to Postal Usage (also the PNC Coil Collectors Club President’s Awards, and The Errors Freaks and Oddities Collectors Club, 2nd Place); Wayne Youngblood with “Lost Almost: The Los Alamos, N.M. Post Office and WWII”; Ed Andrews for the NTSS Exhibit “Hats, Protection- Identity- Fashion”; and Alfredo Frohlich for the SF “Prisoners of War Mail – Fort Delaware 1862-1863”.

A Vermeil Medal was awarded to Ed Andrews for “Trains, Components-Types-Uses-Renown”.

 

Amercover (First Day Cover Show)

This annual show was held in St. Louis on July 26-28.  Ken Nilsestuen won a Gold Medal for “The Minnesota Territorial Stamp-1949” (also the APS Award of Excellence for 1940 – 1980 Material).  Ralph Nafziger won a Vermeil Medal for “The 3 cent Imperforate Wisconsin Tercentenary Issue”.

 

Balpex

Balpex was held on Labor Day Weekend in Hunt Valley Maryland, a few miles north of Baltimore.  Society members were well represented.  

Mark Schwartz won a Large Gold Medal and the Grand Award for “The First International (UPU) Postal Card and its Forerunners” (also the UPSS Marcus White award for the best Postal Stationery exhibit). Vern Morris won a Large Gold Medal and the Single Frame Grand for “Philadelphia Local Posts 1843 to 1861“ (also the APS pre-1900 Medal of Excellence).

 

Other members winning Large Gold Medals for multiframe exhibits included Hal Vogel for “Revelation of Pioneer Period (early 19th c. To 1954)”; Tony Dewey for “”The United Nations Precancel, 1952-1958”; and Bob Meegan for “United States Domestic Letter Rates from the Act of 1792 to October 1, 1883” also the American Philatelic Congress Award and the BPS Ed Ruckle Memorial Award).  Members winning Large Gold Medals for SF exhibits included Tony Dewey for both “International Education Bureau Labels for the Service of Intellectual Aid to Prisoners of War” and “The War Rate: 1815-1816” (also the Postal History Society award); Mark Schwartz for “The Introduction of the First Standardized Federal CDS”; and Richard Taschenberg for both “The 10c US Envelopes of 1870-1874” (also the USPCS Medal)  and “The 30c Nesbit Envelopes of 1865” (also the AAPE Creativity Award and the BPS Award).

Winning a Gold Medal was Randolph Smith for “Rally ‘Round the Flag: Flag Covers Promoted Confederate Nationalism and Built Unity”.  Robert Toal won a Vermeil Medal for “Lipman’s Postal card Timeline”.  Randolph Smith won a Silver Medal for “Coping with Adversity: Confederate Covers in a Time PF Paper Shortages”.

There was also a special competition judged by one’s peers.  Chip Gliedman took 1st place for “United States as Seen Through Postal History” and 2nd place for “The Children of Gin Lane – The Temperance Movement and Illustrated Mail.” Richard Taschenberg won 3rd place for “A Selection of US Stamped Envelopes”.