August 2026

This month, we have 15 more challenging philately questions from club member Fran! Thank you, Fran, and good luck to everyone!
Reference Note: Answers to this month’s questions can be found in the December 2025 through June 2026 monthly issues of The American Philatelist. https://stamps.org/membership/the-american-philatelist

  1. The 1st edition of The American Philatelist was in what year?
  2. How many pages were in Volume 1, No. 1 issue?
  3. How many pages in a typical recent issue of The American Philatelist?
  4. Who invented and developed the perforation gauge shown in the picture below?
  5. The U.S.’s first semi-postal stamp was issued in 1998 and has raised nearly how much for breast cancer research?
    [Select one: $10 million, $50 million, or $100 million]
  6. How many exhibits were eligible to compete in the Champion of Champions (CofC) competition during Boston 2026?
  7. The June issue of The American Philatelist was devoted to what country’s philately? (Name the country)
  8. How can you identify a stamp from the country named in Question 7?
  9. How many 1994-95 “G” Rate Change definitive stamps have been issued?
  10. Three types of major errors exist for phosphorescent tagging on U.S. stamps: untagged errors, tagged stamps that should be untagged, and mis-tagged errors. What are mis-tagged errors?
  11. Phosphorescent tagging was accomplished by applying either ———— or ———— [what are the chemical names] on the stamps. When exposed to short wavelength light, the tagging appeared ———— or ————— respectively in color.
  12. Which country issued the 1st watermarked postage stamp?
  13. Where is the most complete and expansive worldwide stamp collection ever assembled?
  14. Niuafo’ou sits between Samoa and Fiji in the South Pacific Ocean. Ships were encouraged to seal mail in 40-lb kerosene tins and drop them overboard, where they’d be retrieved by ———— “postmen.” [fill in the blank] These “postmen” used fau poles — buoyant poles cut from the fau tree — to swim out and retrieve the tins. This is how Tin Can Mail came about.
  15. The Lowriders stamp pane featured 15 stamps in 5 designs, celebrating a culture rooted in working-class Mexican and Chicano communities. In what era did Lowrider culture originate?
    [Select one: 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s]
August 2026 – Image for question 4

July 2026

This month, we have 10 challenging questions about philately from club member, Fran! Thank you and enjoy the challenge everyone!

  1. About how many stamps have been issued by the USPS since 1847?
  2. n 1982, there were approximately 53,000 stamp collectors in the American Philatelic Society. Do you know the approximate number today?
  3. What is the design called that is often found on the left-hand side of a first day cover?
  4. What were the first commemorative stamps printed in the US?
  5. What are the impressions taken from a stamp die called?
  6. What anniversary of Captain Cook’s voyage of discovery is marked by a 1978 set?
  7. On Memorial Day, 2026, the USPS will a stamp showing the American Bison. In what year, did the first stamp depicting a bison, not buffalo appear?
  8. What ship appears on the 2-cent stamp in the Norse-American set of 1925?
  9. The first Postage Due stamp was issued in what year?
  10. There are several types of US stamps that collectors call back-of-the-book or b-o-b. Can you name 3 of these specialized categories?
July Answers
  1. ~7,000
  2. About 20,000 to 21,000
  3. Cachet
  4. Columbians
  5. Proof
  6. 200th Anniversary
  7. 1981 (#1883)
  8. The sloop Restaurationen, which was designed by Clair Aubrey Huston and released on May 18, 1925
    https://www.mysticstamp.com/620-21-1925-norse-american-issues-complete-set-of-2-stamps/
  9. #J1 is a 1-cent brown US Postage Due stamp, first released on July 5, 1879, and used to indicate insufficient postage that the recipient had to pay upon delivery
  10. Semi-postal (B), Airmail (C), Airmail Special Delivery (CE), Special Delivery (E), Registration (F), Certified Mail (FA), Postage Due (J), Parcel Post Postage Due (JQ), Parcel Post (Q), Special Handling (QE), Officials (O), and others

June 2026

For our third month, we have 10 challenging questions about philately from club member, Fran! Thank you and enjoy the challenge everyone!

  1. What body of water is commemorated on the US 10 cent stamp in the Panama Pacific Exposition issue of 1913?
  2. What is the shape of the US stamp on the 8 cent airmail envelop of 1965?
  3. The German word, Flugpost, mean?
  4. In what year were the first United Nations stamps issued?
  5. What is the difference between a Miniature Sheet (MS) and Souvenir Sheet (SS)?
  6. There are two types of luminescent material used in tagging stamps. What is the technical difference between phosphorescent and fluorescent types of luminescent material?
  7. What does OHMS mean on the perforated official stamps of Canada?
  8. The overprinted O.H.M.S. on Canadian official stamps lasted for how many years?
  9. US coil stamps are collected in pairs or strips. Coil line pairs are usually collected in pairs. How many coil stamps are collected in the plate number strip?
  10. There are three categories of major stamp errors:
    • Stamps lacking perforations
    • Multicolor stamps lacking one or more colors that normally have been present
    • What is the third major type of error?
June Answers
  1. San Francisco Bay
  2. Triangle
  3. Airmail
  4. 1951
  5. SS is a MS which was released as a souvenir to be saved rather than used postally
  6. Phosphorescent tagged stamps emit light while exposed to shortwave UV light. It will continue to glow for a short time after the light source is shut off. Fluorescent stamps emit light while exposed to longwave UV light, but do not continue to glow after the light is shut off
  7. On-His-Majesty’s-Service
  8. 1
  9. 3 to 5
  10. Stamps of two or more colors in which one of the design elements has been inverted during printing

May 2026

For our second month, we have 10 challenging questions about philately from club member, Fran! Thank you and enjoy the challenge everyone!

  1. When were the 1st Canal Zone stamps issued without the overprint ‘Canal Zone’?
  2. The 1st US astronomy related stamp was issued in 1948. What was depicted on the stamp?
  3. The 1st US tagged stamp, an 8 cent airmail, was released to the public in August 1963. What two objects were depicted on the stamp?
  4. The Canadian stamp that was supposed to be issued on December 25, 1898, was printed with 10 million blue oceans and 10 million green oceans. What was the denomination of the stamp?
  5. In the US, the earliest use of the official ‘First Day of Issue’ wording was in a machine cancel used on July 13, 1937. What was the denomination of this ‘Ordinance of 1787’ stamp?
  6. What is tagging?
  7. The first US semipostal stamp was issued in what year?
  8. The face value of the stamp in (7) was 32 cents. What did you pay for it?
  9. What is deltiology?
  10. Would the stamp below fit the definition of “Fine” centering? Why or why not?
May 2026 – Image for question 10
May Answers
  1. 1928
  2. Observatory
  3. Jet & Capital
  4. 2 cents
  5. 3 cents
  6. Coating stamp or paper with luminescent material which now can be detected under ultraviolet light
  7. 1998
  8. 40 cents
  9. Postcard Collecting
  10. No, because the perfs cut into the design on at least one side of the stamp. This definition changes if stamps were issued from 1847-1898, 1901-1934, or 1935 to present.

April 2026 (US Stamps)

For our first month, we have 10 challenging questions about US philately from club member, Fran! Thank you and enjoy the challenge everyone!

  1. What is the denomination of the stamp with the famous inverted plane?
  2. What does the abbreviation “CTO” mean?
  3. Who appears on the five dollar stamp of the 1938 definitive series?
  4. What occupation is depicted on the one cent U.S. Parcel Post Stamp of 1912?
  5. What is the name of the Russian spacecraft shown on the 1975 U.S. ten cent stamp?
  6. In what year was the Alaska statehood airmail issued?
  7. What two people are shown on the four dollar Columbian series stamp?
  8. What country was honored on the first stamp in the Overrun Countries series?
  9. How many stamps appear on the 1956 FIPEX sheet?
  10. Three Thomas A. Edison stamps were issued in 1929. How can you tell them apart?
April Answers
  1. 24 cents
  2. Cancel to Order
  3. Calvin Coolidge
  4. Postal Clerk
  5. Soyuz
  6. 1959
  7. Queen Isabella & Columbus
  8. Poland
  9. 2
  10. Perf. 11; Perf. 11 x 10½; and Horizontal Coil