Stamp Collection
Bill "Lars" Colp

"Airmail" began with early domestic U.S. Airmail stamps - issued specifically for the premium airmail service (versus standard surface mail). Eventually, International Airmail became available, so stamps were also issued at International Airmail rates. In 1979, domestic Airmail as a separate service ended. All domestic mail was being sent via the fastest route anyway, so a separate designation for domestic Airmail was no longer needed. Airmail stamps were issued from 1980 through 1991 (plus a redesign issued in 1993) for International Airmail. Although International Airmail officially ended in 1995, the United States began issuing stamps specifically for the International LC (letters and cards) rates. Beginning in 1999, most of these stamps were marked with the silhouette of a jet airplane, and those stamps with a jet silhouette were designated with an "Airmail" prefix in the Scott Catalog. However, there were several stamps issued between 1991 and 1999 that were clearly intended for International letters and cards use. Even thought they were not designated with "Airmail" or a jet silhouette (and therefore given an "Airmail" prefix for their catalog number), they clearly belong in a comprehensive "Airmail" collection.

There have also been at least two issues since 1999 that were clearly intended for International use: #3771 Special Olympics and #4123 International Polar Year. If we are to adopt the logical progression for "Airmail" stamps as beginning with domestic airmail, progressing to domestic and international airmail, then just international airmail and finally - simply - International LC (letters and cards) mail, then there are several stamps without a "C" prefix in the catalog that should be included.

One notable exception is the 46c Ruth Benedict stamp (#2938) issued October 20, 1995. Even though there is no logical reason for the issue of that stamp other than fulfillment of the then current letter rate to Canada, definitives that are part of a long-running series are not included here.

See page 25 for a chart of domestic and international rates that was useful in determing if a stamp that doesn't have a "C" prefix belongs in the Airmail album.

Highlights

• Used White Ace pages through page 23. Made my own pages from page 24 forward.
• All major catalog numbers included, including the re-designed William Piper stamp (C132).
• Booklet singles included: C10a, C25a, C39a, C51a, C60a, C64a, C72a, C78a, and C79a.
• Coils are in pairs since that's how they are depicted on pages. All coil pairs are joint line pairs
• Se-tenant blocks AND singles provided since that's how they are depicted on pages.
• White Ace included #1341 on page 13, which is where I think it belongs, so I removed the duplicate copy from the Regular Issue album.

Weeds

• C132 (a minor variation on C129) is included just to have every MAJOR Scott number.

Click on any thumbnail image below to view the page full screen.

page 1	page 2	page 3	page 4	page 5	page 6
page 7	page 8	page 9	page 10	page 11	page 12
page 13	page 14	page 15	page 16	page 17	page 18
page 19	page 20	page 21	page 22	page 23	page 24
page 25	page 26	page 27	page 28	page 29	page 30
			C146 and C147 stored on a stock page
page 31	page 32	page 33