Did We have Fun?

The 2023 Rocky Mountain Stamp Show concluded last weekend. With more than 25 dealers, four visiting societies, over 240 exhibit frames, the prestigious George Brett Cup competition, the perennial favorite "What's In Your Attic?," RMPL Silent Auction, Depot Printing Display, Youth Booth and more than 700 visitors, it was a very successful show.

The CYPHER Stamp Club greeted young visitors with a wide variety of activities and introduced three new ones this year. Children were given a blue ribbon and name tag, as they completed an activity a special sticker provided to place on the ribbon. In addition to receiving a sticker the children could draw a number for a prize on the CYPHER Stamp Club Mystery Board. The prizes consisted of small selections of various topical stamps; however, there were some special stamps hidden in the mix. One young boy, Sebastian, won three stamps from the 1892 US Columbian set (Scott #233, #234 and #235). Olivia, another lucky winner, received a nice example of the first US Airmail Stamp (Scott #C1).

The young stamp enthusiasts could select which activities to do and what order to do them in. In additional to the activities we had our special treasure tubs of miscellaneous United States or worldwide stamps. Children were able to browse through the tubs and select as many stamps as they desired.. We had a number of topical stamp binders available for the children to look through. They could take a limited number of stamps from the binders, we have to make sure there are enough available throughout the show.

Children could select from the following activities: Scavenger Hunt, Wildlife Safari, Exhibit Trivia, Greetings From America, Wide World of Sport, Enchanted Stories, Guess the Number of Stamps, Design a Stamp, Stamp Detective, Show and Tell, Everything About Birds and Everything About Dogs.

We hosted a Scout Stamp Collecting Merit Badge Workshop during the show. Fourteen scouts attended the workshop and the majority completed all the requirements to receive the badge. The scouts were also escorted around the exhibit hall, the dealer area, and visited The Depot printing display where they printed their own personalized souvenir of the show.

From the look on their faces, you tell me, "Did We Have Fun?"

An Enchanting Story

About a month ago we were sitting around the conference table and discussing what we should do for our next club meeting. We have many activities for the children and we were looking for something that we could take to the 2023 Rocky Mountain Stamp Show and use at our club meetings.

Regina commented, "We have many activities for the boys, what about something for the girls?" We put our heads together and we were not coming up with anything earth shattering or exciting for the children. We closed the meeting and agreed we would think about ideas.

Well wouldn't you know, a few hours after leaving the RMPL it dawned on me. We have a couple albums of Disney material, stamps, souvenir sheets and covers. Why not create an activity board using scenes from favorite movies and select a number of the princess, princes, and character stamps related to the movies. A few quick e-mails back and forth and it was a sealed deal.

In a matter of a few weeks, we had a large board made, took the individual stamps and mounted them on mat board, added some Velcro dots, and we had created a beautiful "Enchanting Stories" activity for our young princesses and princes.

This past weekend we had an opportunity to test the board on a couple members of the Cypher Stamp Club. When we mentioned we had a new activity and it was Disney related, their eyes lit up, big grins and smiles spread across their faces and they started bouncing up and down.

We brought out the board and the package of stamps, explained how to complete the activity and let the girls go. It took about 15-20 minutes to complete placing all of the stamps on the correct movie scenes but it was a joy to watch them look at a stamp, study the board, and place each stamp. Did they enjoy the activity. Take a look at their faces and tell me they did not enjoy the activity.

The Investment Opportunity of a Lifetime

Now and then every stamp collector comes across an item that he, or she, thinks is a treasure or perfect opportunity for investment. This is a story about just such an item.

On July 25, 1976, NASA's Viking I orbiter took a photograph of a remnant massif located in the Cydonia region of Mars. The image was released a week later, it became an overnight sensation. The peculiar geological features in the photograph resembled a large human head. Over the years varying theories as to the origin of the "Face on Mars" came about. Some people believed the feature was actually the ruins of an ancient alien civilization. Despite NASA declaring the images were simply the result of lighting and peculiar geological formations people continued to believe aliens built a base on Mars.

In 1990, an enterprising mail-order mogul, Alan Shawn Feinstein, saw an opportunity and ran with it. Working with the government of Sierra Leone he had a set of souvenir sheets printed featuring images of mars, the orbiter, astronomers and of course the now famous "Face on Mars" image. The price for the set of five souvenir sheets, a whopping $135.00. With the set of stamps a letter was included explaining the future investment potential, only 3,000 sets of the sheets were printed.

Advertisements for the souvenir sheets began showing up in philatelic publications around the world. Driven by demand from collectors and speculators It did not take long before the price of the souvenir sheets began to rise. Soon the sheets were selling for thousands of dollars. In time, cooler heads prevailed and the true value of the souvenir sheets was realized. They basically were not worth the paper they were printed on. Prices plummeted, individuals, businesses and auction houses lost thousands of dollars, some went out of business.

Working with young stamp collectors is a joy. Occasionally we receive a donation containing a set of these "rare, valuable" items. We happily hand them over to children interested in space topics, tell this story and advise the young collector to beware of spurious items. All that glitters is not gold, more is not always better, buyer beware and there is a sucker born every minute.