As in past years, the World Series of Philately for single-frame exhibits culminated at ChicagoPEX with the year’s Champion of Champions. There were a total of 20 entries, of which 8 were from Society members, but this year, a non-member won.

Richard Taschenberg won the Multi-frame Reserve Grand with his “Usage History of the “Pumpkin” Envelopes – How and Where They Were Used” (also Multi-frame Large Gold, UPSS Marcus White Award, and the APC Award).
 
Multi-frame Large Gold was won by three additional Society members:

• Lester C. Lanphear for “U. S. Departmentals. 1873 – 1884” (also USPCS Medal, USSS Medal and the United States Cancellations Club Award).
• Hal Vogel with “American Heroic Age Polar Expeditions”.
• Alfredo Frohlich with “German Prisoners of War Interned in Japan – Their Mail – First World War 1914-1920”.

Multi-frame Gold was won by John Hotchner for “Mail to and from American Prisoners of War During and after the Korean War” and Bob Crossman for “Butterfield’s Overland Mail Company”.
 
Multi-frame Vermeil was won by Gerry Oberst for “Philatelic Art of Jean-Michel Folon” (also AAPE Award of Honor). Bob Crossman also won Multi-frame Vermeil for “The Printings of the First Greek Stamps”.
 

10 exhibits from 9 Society members won Single-frame awards.

Single-frame Large Gold was won by:

• Doug Weisz for “The $5 Hamilton Liberty Series Stamp” (also AAPE Single-frame Grand and Best Exhibit by a Chicago Philatelic Society Member).
• Mark Schwartz for “The Use of Boston’s “PAID in Grid” Cancels: 1851-1859” (also AAPE Single-frame Reserve Grand 2).
• John Hotchner for “Bureau of Engraving & Printing Repairs on U.S. Stamp Production 1914 – The Presidential Era”.
• Rev. Stephen Knapp for “Introducing the ABNCo Bust of Peace” and for “An Essay-Proof History for the One Cent Franklin of 1887”.
• Cheryl Ganz for “German Navy WWI Zeppelin L48” (also the Military Postal History Society Best Single-frame).
 
Two Society members won Single-frame Gold; e.g., Fran Adams for “The Leticia Incident” (also the ATA Best One-Frame); and Wayne Farley for “Confederate “Paid” Uses from West Virginia (1861 – 1864)”.
 
Evangelos Kobotis won Single-frame Large Silver for “Centenary of First Adhesive Stamps”.
 
Bill Johnson won Single-frame Silver for “US Western Mail Routes – 1848 – 1865” (also the AAPE Encouragement Award).
 

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The Literature Grand Award was won by Leonard Piszkiewics for “Foreign Incoming Airmail to the United States 1920–1950s” (also Literature Large Gold).
 
Dr. Bruce Arien Wasserman won Literature Gold for three publications; e.g., “The Airpost Journal”, “The New Zeppelins: After the Hindenburg”, and “The Little Route that Couldn’t: The short life of the Minneapolis to Duluth CAM 9 Spur”.
Bruce also won Literature Large Vermeil for “The Death of the Philippine Clipper”.
 

Literature Vermeil was won for two Society entrants; e.g.,
> John and Ralf Nafziger for “The 1948 Wisconsin Statehood Centennial Issue: Making, celebrating and using the stamp”.
> Gerry Oberst for “Jean-Michel Folon: A master artist and his stamps”.
 
Literature Large Silver was won by Richard G. Lomax for “Preparing for the Great War: West Point Cadet Henry Henley Chapman, Class of 1917: Correspondence Home”.

NOJEX was held September 27-29th at the Hilton in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ – a New York City suburb and an island-hop away from this year’s Ryder Cup contest.
 
Five Society members won Multi-frame Large Gold:

• Dan Knowles with “Handling American Domestic and International Mail 1860-1869: The Decade of Turmoil & Expansion” (also the USPCS Medal) and the US Cancellation Club Award.
• Mark Schwartz with “The New York Post Master Provisional” (also the Errors, Freaks & Oddities 1st Award).
• Larry Lyons with “Hussey’s Post: The First Messenger Service in the U.S. Operating in New York City 1855 – 1889” (also the APS Medal of Excellence Pre 1900).
• Apratim Bhattacharya with “World War II and the Culmination of India’s Revolutionary Struggle”.
• Chip Gliedman with “Imperforate Line Engraved Stamps of Great Britain as Viewed Through Plate Position ‘CG’” (also the Collectors Club of Chicago Award).

Michael Wilson won Multi-frame Large Vermeil for “Pan American Airways Speed Test of 1946”.
 
5 Society members won Single-frame Large Gold awards with members taking both the Grand and the Reserve.
 

Larry Lyons won the Single-frame Grand for “Honor’s City Express Post” (also Single-frame Large Gold).
 
Mark Schwartz won Single-frame Reserve Grand for “Carrier Service at Boston: 1824 to 1863” (also Single-frame Large Gold).
 
Society members winning Single-frame Large Gold were

• Mark Schwartz with “Packet Mail Sent from Essex County, Mass.: 1840 up to UPU”.
• Daniel Ryterband with “The U.S. 1847 Issue: Steamboat Mail” (also the American Philatelic Congress Award).
• Carol Bommarito with “Trans-Atlantic Mail: U.S. – GB Treaty Rates, 1849 – 1867, Adhesive Stamp Usages”.
• Apratim Bhattacharya with “Letters Through Chaos: Navigating Mail Disruptions During the Indian Revolt of 1857 ”. (also the APS Research Award).

BALPEX was held September 5th to the 7th in Linthicum Heights, MD, at the BWI airport. Society member participation was strong as were the award results.
 
Richard Taschenberg took the Single-frame Grand with his exhibit, “The 10 Cent US Envelopes of 1870-1874“. He also was awarded Single-frame Gold (naturally) and the UPSS Single-frame Award.
 
Exhibits from three Society members won Multi-frame Large Gold:

• Richard Taschenberg with “Usage History of the “Pumpkin” Envelopes: How and Where They Were Used” (also the USPCS Medal; the UPSS Marcus White Award and the BPS Best Exhibit by a BPS Member).
• Robert Meegan with United States Domestic Letter Rates From the Act of 1792 to October 1, 1883 (also the BPS Ed Ruckle Award).
• Mark Schwartz with Independent Mail and Express Company Operations at Boston 1843 – 1845.

Two members won Multi-Frame Gold. Randolph Smith won with “Civil War Washington as Seen Through the Drawings of Charles Magnus ” (also the BPS Best Three frame). Robert Toal won with “American Souvenir Company Postcards: Both Sides of the Card” (also the BPS Best Two Frame).
 
Mark Schwartz won Single-frame Large Gold for two of his exhibits; “Carrier Service at Boston 1821 – 1863” and “Use of Boston “PAID in Grid” Cancels 1851-1859 “.
 
Concluding the USPCS member medaling was Robert Toal who won Single-frame Vermeil with his “Colonial Heroes Patriotic Postcards of 1903 “.

Annually, the American Philatelic Society (APS) presents The Luff Award for Meritorious Contributions to Philately by Living Philatelists. The Award was established in 1940 in memory of John N. Luff, APS president from 1907 to 1909, who was considered the most prominent American philatelist of his era.
 
The APS Luff Award is available annually for:
> Distinguished Philatelic Research
> Exceptional Contributions to Philately
> Outstanding Service to the American Philatelic Society.
 
Recipients sign the Luff Award Scroll and are presented with engraved rings and individually prepared mementos.
 
And now, about the winner!
 
When he was eight years old, Mark Schwartz got a Stamp album from his parents, starting a life-long love of the hobby. After college and grad school, he began collecting the postal history of Boston and its North Shore, which should not be surprising since that was where he was born and raised. Mark went to a few shows close to his home in Philadelphia, and built his collections primarily from auctions and dealers at those shows. But it was not until he retired after a 37-year career in the pharmaceutical industry in 2007, that he became thoroughly immersed in organized philately.
 
He first exhibited a single frame called “The Ship Letters of Essex County, Mass.” at the Philatelic Show outside of Boston in 2008, and evidently found it very satisfying and enjoyable. Since then, Mark has shown 23 different exhibits nearly all of which have reached Gold, and 12 which have achieved Grand awards. He won the multi-frame Champion of Champions at Grand Rapids in 2015 with his “Boston Postal History”, and three single frame C of Cs with “The Trade Routes of Salem, Mass.”, “The Retaliatory Rate of 1848” and the “Use of the 1847s from Boston”.
 
In F.I.P. competition, Mark’s multi-frame Boston exhibit was a candidate for the Grand Prix National at the World Stamp Show in 2016. His exhibits range from the very early classical (Boston) to a First Day Cover exhibit of the Virginia Dare commemorative of 1937. Along the way, Mark became an accredited philatelic judge to help others enjoy exhibiting as much as he does.
 
Mark has been extremely active in a large number of philatelic organizations. In the past, he was a Director-at-Large of the American Philatelic Society and a member of its Strategic Planning Committee; the exhibit chair of the Philadelphia National Stamp Expo, Vice President of the Greater Philadelphia Stamp and Collectors Club, a Director of the Postal History Society and a member of the National Postal Museum’s Council of Philatelists. Currently, in addition to being a member of a number of philatelic organizations, he is a Trustee of The Philatelic Foundation; a member of CANEJ; VP of the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors; and a Director of the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society.
 
Mark has increasingly found time to write articles. They have appeared in the Chronicle of the U.S. Classic Philatelic Issues, the London Philatelist, the Collectors Club Philatelist, the 2009 edition of the American Philatelic Congress Book and the India Post. Most recently, Mark won the Tapling Medal in 2019 from the Royal Philatelic Society of London for his two-part article on the New York Postmaster’s Provisional stamp in the London Philatelist. The first series of articles on Boston Postal History appeared in the February 2025 issue of the Chronicle; the second is awaiting publication and the third is nearly completed.
 
If you ask Mark why he does all this, he will tell you that it gives him great joy and satisfaction. He knows that when he wakes up, there is a list of things that need his attention; the people in the hobby are a surrogate family; and many have become close friends. What other hobby could be better?