Hobbyists meet at Holiday Inn for Vermont State Stamp Show
By Gordon Dritschilo Herald Staff

Rutland Herald, VT
June 13 2005

Eighty-five percent of the stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service
never go out in the mail.

Instead, they end up in the hands of stamp collectors around the world.

“It’s a world history and a geography lesson and I’ve been doing it
since I was eight,” said collector Jerry Weitzenkorn of the Rutland
County Stamp Club.

Weitzenkorn, who lives in New York City but has a summer home in
Mendon, was one of dozens of hobbyists who gathered at the Holiday
Inn in Rutland Sunday for the Vermont State Stamp Show. He was sorting
through a massive box of loose U.S. stamps.

“I don’t collect U.S. stamps, believe it or not,” he said. “I just
use them to trade in Europe.”

The show, which is held every five years, is put on by stamp clubs from
Rutland, Bennington, Brattleboro, Quechee, Burlington and Montpelier.

“In the stamp world, they’re constantly having national and
international stamp shows,” said William Alsop, a member of the Rutland
club. “It’s a big thing. In Washington, D.C., or New York, or Chicago,
you can find stamps worth hundreds of thousands of dollars on display.”

While the collections on display in Rutland were more modest, they
offered a beautiful array of stamps and post cards, from modern stamps
commemorating people like Ronald Reagan and Robert Penn Warren to
older stamps from all around the world.

An exhibit titled “Shah of Iran Mohammed Reza Pahlavi – A Philatelic
Biography” used stamps and text to trace the history of the deposed
monarch, starting when the first stamps bearing his image were issued
in his childhood.

Other stamps commemorated the Shah’s marriage, visits from foreign
rulers including Queen Elizabeth II, and his efforts at social
reform. Other stamps were held up as examples of the Shah’s vanity and
egomania. The record went right up to the last stamp issues bearing
the Shah’s image in 1978.

Other displays showed stamps from Australia and Brazil. Another
showed Vermont cigarette tax stamps, and another showed Polish stamps
commemorating the rebuilding of Warsaw after World War II.

One of the larger displays was a collection of antique postcards
bearing photos of Vermont. Owner Michael McMorrow of North Clarendon
said he had been collecting post cards since 1966.

“I bought a box of postcards at a house auction in Bristol,” he said.
“I thought they were interesting so I started collecting them.”

The pictures on the cards were from all over Vermont during the
first half of the 20th century. They included a water wagon on
Lake Bomoseen in 1910, a World War II airplane observation post in
Poultney, Rutland firefighters testing a steamer in 1909, Center
Street in Rutland decorated for a parade in 1915 and workers in a
Proctor Marble quarry in 1910.

Others included the Ko-Z-Diner in North Clarendon in 1935, the Trapp
family in Stowe in 1955, Christmas dinner at the Women’s’ Correctional
Center in Rutland in 1920, the first graduating class from Pawlet
High School in 1914 and workers at a Fair Haven saw mill in 1908.

Gathering a historical record of the state is what McMorrow said
appeals to him about collecting.

“It’s a look at the way Vermont was 50 to 100 years ago,” he said.
“It’s uncut history.”

Many collectors have specific areas they focus on, and Alsop said
there were plenty to choose from. Many people, he said, are interested
in revenue stamps. Alsop said the U.S. government held on to surplus
revenue stamps for many years before deciding to sell them off.

“These included marijuana stamps,” he said. “These were from many
years ago – to deal in that, you had to have a stamp. Every keg of
beer had to have one of these. If you went to the druggist to have
a prescription filled with codeine in it, that had to have a stamp.”

In addition to their historical interest, Alsop said many of the
revenue stamps are quite beautiful.

“Some are really fine 19th century engravings,” he said. “They’re
like little bank notes.”

Alsop said stamps also get put out by places that do not officially
exist. He pointed to an example that arose from the war between
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“A big chunk of what Azerbaijan claimed as its territory is now claimed
by Armenia – Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said. “They put out stamps for
it. There’s been a big to-do about it, with Azerbaijan complaining
to the United Postal Union that Armenia can’t put out these stamps.”

While some collect stamps or post cards, still others collect
postmarks.

“Back in the period from the 1860s to World War II it was not at
all uncommon to travel all over the place,” he said. “Mail would be
forwarded to your hotel. If you had just left, they would forward it
again. Some of those envelopes were fantastic. They would religiously
forward mail. A three cent stamp would sometimes go all over the
world.”