As many collectors and experienced philatelists are well aware some of the more specialized stamp catalogues provide a greater level of detail when it comes to the stamps and other philatelic items for a specific country. Two of the most common and oft used here in the library are the Michel specialized catalogues of Germany and the Yvert-Tellier and Maury catalogues for France and French Colonies.
One of the lesser known specialized catalogues, but certainly not to the collectors of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland are the Facit specialized catalogues. Recently in answering a question regarding the specific engravers of a variety of Scandinavian issues, the Facit Frimararkskatalog Special 2015 catalog [G6910 .A1 F142s 2015] came in very handy in identifying the engravers for the requested issues.
Continue reading “Resource of the Month – Facit Specialized Scandinavian Catalog”
One of the recurring questions that we receive at the American Philatelic Research Library (APRL) on a regular basis are inquiries about historical postal rates. Often specialized country-specific catalogues can provide information regarding rates for a particular country (the Michel Specialized German Catalogue for historical German postal rates for example) but one the best resources for both domestic and international postal for the United States are a set of two books compiled by Henry Beecher and Anthony “Tony” Warukiewicz titled “U.S. Postal Domestic Postal Rates, 1872-2011” [G3701 .P8575 B414ud 2001] and “U.S. Postal International Postal Rates, 1872-1996” [G3701 .P8575 B414ui 1996].
Collectors’ Club of Akron, Ohio. Collectors’ Club of Akron, Ohio CCoA, 1935-2018, meeting 1,000: September 18, 2018, Papa Joe’s Restaurant (Akron, Ohio: Collectors’ Club of Akron, Ohio, 2018). [G4084 .A3 C69c 2018]
Banana, Anna; Gómez, Edward M.; Jacques, Michelle; Marzolf, Helen; Saper, Craig; Thurmann-Jajes, Anne. Anna Banana: 45 years of fooling around with A. Banana (Vancouver ; Berkeley: Figure 1 ; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, [2018]). [IP69933]
During the course of our event here at the American Philatelic Research Library (APRL) celebrating the 50th anniversary of the library’s incorporation in 1968, I was reintroduced to a historic yet no less significant resource which I first came across in my earliest days here at the APRL as a Reference Assistant. In learning all about the APRL and philatelic libraries and their collections in those first moments in my new position back then, I decided to perform a simple search of the online Philatelic Union Catalog using such general terms as “library”, “resources” and “research” supplemented by the terms “philately” and “philatelic.” One of the resources that my search retrieved struck me immediately as one that I should pursue further, particularly given its author.
While celebrating 50 years of research and resources of the American Philatelic Research Library another highlight of the 
One of the special events that will take place as part of the upcoming Golden Anniversary Celebration is a series of authors’ talks scheduled throughout the day on Saturday November 3. The idea beyond the talks is to highlight the American Philatelic Research Library (APRL) as the home of philatelic research and knowledge sharing. Topics for the talks were chosen by each of the invited speakers under the general theme of “the role libraries, like the APRL, play in philatelic research.”
One of the best ways to keep in touch with the latest philatelic publications of note are philatelic literature competitions at World Series of Philately shows. Coming up the weekend of November 16-18 is 