Club Members Gather to Share Love of Stamps

For 90 years and counting, philatelists living in the southeastern corner of Vermont and beyond have shared their common love of collecting stamps through the Brattleboro Stamp Club. Club members meet on the third Monday of the month, from 7 to 9 p.m., at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro, except in the cold months of January and February when they gather virtually via Zoom. During the other 10 months, members can also attend on Zoom, said Marshall Brooks, the club's media and community liaison and a member for 12 years. The club is the only of its kind in the tri-state area and currently includes about two dozen members, some of which have participated from as far away as Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia. In October, the group celebrated its 90th anniversary with a special celebration and produced a collectible cachet cover (a stamp on an envelope) to commemorate the occasion with the assistance of the post office. "The meetings are very informal," Brooks said, adding that there are often presentations by members on certain types of stamps. "People are so willing to help and share knowledge. There's a rush to enlighten and to shed light." Although the first U.S.P.S. stamps weren't issued until 1847, Brattleboro's postmaster Frederick N. Palmer is believed to have issued one of the country's first "postmaster provisional stamps" in 1846. About 500 copies are believed to have been printed, and only 52 or so remain in existence today. The club also shared information for many years through its newsletter, which was edited by beloved member and club secretary Joe Antosiewicz, who passed away in June. A huge void has been left by his passing, Brooks stressed, as he was an amazing and generous ambassador for the club (also a longtime Keene Sentinel employee). They have not quite decided yet how to proceed with the newsletter, he added. Sadly, they more recently lost another 50-year member in Bill Fleming, a Brattleboro fixture who had been with the club since he was a child. With these significant losses, said Brooks, comes the inevitable loss of club history as well. Brooks calls himself typical of about three-quarters of members, in that he began collecting stamps as a kid but then went on to other pursuits and returned to stamps as a post-retirement hobby. "Our club president (Paul Cook) is an exception," he explained. "He started early and kept up with it all his life," adding that Cook is also a stamp dealer. Brooks called his own collection eccentric in that he'll collect whatever catches his eye and said he's always been interested in pieces of mail. "A good one is like a story," he said. "It can bounce all over the world." One of his favorite types to collect are zeppelins, or pieces of mail that were carried by the giant airships that are like blimps, primarily in the 1930s. These "covers" as they're called, meaning stamps that are on envelopes, can be very exotic and valuable, he said. Railroad mail is another popular collector's item, he said, dating back to the time when some railcars had post offices right onboard. "Specialization is endless in the collecting world," he said. "Your imagination is the only limit. Nine times out of 10 the club presentations will be stuff you've never heard of. It's amazing where people go with this stuff." Not all stamps have to be the postal kind, and the non-postal varieties are referred to as "Cinderella stamps." Club Vice-President Bob Mellish is another 50-plus-year collector and he has a collection of potato stamps, Brooks said as an example. Many products, such as liquor, cigarettes and potatoes were sold at one time with these revenue stamps on the packaging, Brooks explained. Christmas seals are another popular collectible, he added. While the pandemic was a difficult adjustment initially, Brooks feels that the online aspect of the meetings and the technology inevitably improved the club in that it allows everyone to see large digital images of the stamps on a screen, rather than the tiny real-life version. "It's fantastic," he said. "You can see the smallest details, even down to counting the perforations. Especially for the monetary aspect, that can be the difference between rare versus run-of-the-mill." For youngsters who may take an interest in collecting, many teachers have emphasized that stamps are a great way to learn geography, Brooks said. Stamps often depict territories, countries or bodies of water. "In some instances, all that's left of disappeared countries are the stamps," he added. It's the lack of rules and rigidity that many collectors of stamps find appealing. "You can get really esoteric with this stuff," Brooks said. "It's unpredictable. Everyone's got different taste." For more information about the Brattleboro Stamp Club meetings or to receive the Zoom link for virtual attendance, email Marshall Brooks at marshallbrooks53@gmail.com.