The Rotary Balita no. 790 (February 9, 1956)

(Reprinted from "The Rotarian")

Well over 150 million postage stamps honoring Rotary International have been issued by 23 countries, and the end is still not in sight! The stamps are still on sale at many post-office windows, and it is reported that five countries-Costa Rica, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala and Paraguay-will shortly issue Rotary stamps.

What has been the impact of these millions of Rotary stamps?

As a stamp-collecting Rotarian, I feel that the impact has really been threefold: first, on the stamp-collecting fraternity; second, on Rotarians all over the world; and, third, on the general public, those millions of men and women who have licked these stamps and put them on their daily mail.

As for the impact of the Rotary stamps on the stamp collector, I have been in an unusually fortunate position to observe what has been happening. I have just completed my term as president of the American Philatelic Society, my country's oldest and largest organization of stamp collectors, and have travelled the U. S. and Europe in the past few months seeing and speaking to both Rotarians and stamp collectors.

There is already a considerable group of stamp collectors specializing in Rotary issues. That is, they are attempting to complete their collections of all regularly issued Rotary commemoratives. Some of them also are endeavoring to get all the errors and minor varieties which have occurred in the printing of these stamps. These specialists in the Rotary issues are often, though not always, Rotarians themselves who were stamp collectors before the 1955 Rotary stamps began to appear. Many other Rotarians have become intrigued with the hobby of philately because of these new issues, and of course there are many collectors who have no Rotary affiliation, collectors who have become interested in the stamps and have decided to collect these issues.

Very often these collectors do not just assemble a collection of the stamps, but delve into the background of the stamps, and this usually includes research into the history, the aims, and the success of the Rotary movement. To serve the needs of these collectors, at least two commercial stamp-album publishing houses have published special albums for the Rotary stamps, which provide spaces for the stamps already issued or promised, and also have made available blank pages with borders to match for the mounting of newly issued stamps and covers with Rotary first-day cancellations, or other special items. Other collectors have made up their own special albums from blank pages, and lettered on them the information which they wished to present about the stamps. Rotary issues will be included in the printed stamp albums of the future under their proper countries as a matter of course. And the authoritative stamp catalogue publishers in various countries are already carrying listings of the Rotary stamps with illustrations and pertinent data.

The collecting of commemorative stamps honoring Rotary International did not begin with the 1955 issues. Three countries have previously issued stamps to honor Rotary International Conventions. Austria was the first nation to honor Rotary philatelically with an overprinted issue of six values in 1931. These stamps, which originally cost 57 cents, are now selling at about $15 a set. In 1940 Cuba released a 2-centavo value, worth today 10 to 15 cents. Brazil in 1948 issued two stamps-1.20 and 3.80 cruzeiro airmails-which are selling at about twice their face value.

Since the value of stamps is an important part of collecting, there is considerable conjecture today as to what the value of the 1955 Rotary issues will be several years hence. As in any form of investment or speculation, one would need a crystal ball to answer this question. However, as a general rule, stamps increase in value with the years, since they are governed by the law of supply and demand.

The demand for Rotary stamps will be determined by the stamp collectors of the future. There is no reason why this demand should not continue relatively great, as there will be the interest of future Rotarians in these issues added to the normal philatelic demands.

The supply is governed largely by the issuing Government's stamp policy. Many countries follow the practice of the United States, and issue stamps in a large enough number to meet immediate demands. There were 80 million of the 8-cent Rotary United States commemorative originally authorized, and any immediate demand for larger quantities would have probably been met with an increased print order. However, this practice is not universal, and some countries limit the number of issued stamps of a given series. This, of course, is the right of a sovereign Government. However, collectors tend to avoid collecting stamps of countries which have a long record of issues which are limited in number to less than the probable postal and collector demand.

There were several Rotary issues, especially from the Central American countries, which were issued in such small quantities that their prices rose immediately to far above their original value. In some cases, notably Panama, reissues were made to add to the supply. However, in this case the re-issued stamp was slightly different in color from the original, which created yet another variety. In others, the Governments have so far allowed the original number to stand.

Where extremely small numbers of stamps have been issued, there have been outeries from the philatelie world, which watches very carefully the methods in which stamps are issued and whether favoritism is shown in the disposal of limited issues. In one country these cries seem to have been responsible for a change in personnel in the country's philatelic agency. In still another case the releasing of a souvenir sheet through nonpostal outlets will undoubtedly mean that the sheet will not get catalogue listing in the world's major stamp catalogs.

There are also errors of printing which occur. Pierre Yvert mentioned a Brazilian one in his article, 200 Million Honors, in THE ROTARIAN for June, 1955, where the stamp was normally issued perforated and copies were found imperforate. An interesting error has been discovered in the Panama issue where the entire top row of one sheet of the 1-Balboa stamp was discovered unprinted. It is being offered with the top selvage and two of the lower stamps at about $100. One of the latest errors made known appears in four of the Honduran stamps: two in the 1-centavo denomination, one each in the 2- and 3-centavos. A photo of the 3-centavo irregularity shows the over-print is upward on the stamp instead of in the usual across-the-stamp manner. The other values have the overprint upward and downward. No doubt more printing errors will turn up as the full series of stamps are finally completed and all sold to the public.
Great has been the impact of the Rotary Golden Anniversary stamps on stamp collectors, but even as great, I believe, has been the impact of these stamps on Rotarians themselves. For many thousands of Rotarians who have never collected a stamp before in their lives, it has been the opening of a door to a new and enjoyable hobby.

You who read this will know better than I how many of you have collected these Rotary commemorative stamps. I think each Rotary Club would find that a goodly number of the members have put away at least a few of them. Members of the stamp trade with whom I have talked have told me of many orders for Rotary stamps from people not previously known to them as collectors, and I do not doubt that most of them were from Rotarians.

Here in my own Milwaukee Rotary Club, better than one-tenth of the membership-35 Rotarians- are obtaining complete series of the Rotary stamps. Many members are waiting until all the stamps have been released before mounting them, but Joseph M. Carpenter has been making his own album pages as the issues come out, lettering them with both philatelic and Rotary information concerning the stamps. It might make a fascinating program to have each Rotarian bring to a meeting all the stamps and philatelic souvenirs of the Golden Anniversary Year he has saved.

Rotarian Robert B. Gile, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has assembled first-day-of-issue covers of all Rotary issues and has exhibited the collection locally and in Philadelphia. Rotarian Karl Sternberg, of Belen, New Mexico, exhibited his Rotary stamp collection at the Belen Club, and Ralph L Mutz, of Oakland, California, put together an attractive display of stamps for a Rotary-information Club program. Many others have done so, to judge by the numerous requests for details which the Rotary International Secretariat has received.

There has been the use of these Rotary stamp issues to bring Rotarians of many countries even closer together. The message of greetings which the then President of Rotary International, Herbert J. Taylor, airmailed to every Rotary Club President in the world on February 23, 1955, was enclosed in a first-day cover bearing the United States Rotary stamp with a cacheted envelope with the likeness of Founder Paul P. Harris. These aready have become collectors' items.

Thousands of Clubs and individual Rotarians have made similar mailings on their own. In Milwaukee we mailed 375 first-day covers, one to each active member of the Milwaukee Club and the rest to Rotarians abroad. Several large Milwaukee corporations sent mailings to customers abroad using Rotary stamps. While the mail has always been available to us as a means of communication between Rotarians of many lands, the Rotary stamps, have dramatized it and started thousands of exchanges.

Because the hobby of stamp collecting has meant so much to me, providing me with so many relaxing hours, widening my horizons of interest and information, and developing so many pleasant contacts, I hope you will not mind my wishing for you some of the benefits I have gained from the hobby. I realize that many of you will carry your stamp collecting no further than the Rotary issues, but for those who continue there is much that is pleasant ahead.

More than the impact on stamp collectors or on Rotarians has been the impact of these Rotary stamps on the world at large. The designs and beauty of many of the issues have caused the average stamp user to think about Rotary: what it is and what it means.

It was way back in November, 1954, that a U.S. postal official told me that the U.S.A. had decided to issue the 8-cent commemorative stamp which did appear in February, 1955. Probably many Rotarians in the United States do not know why this design and this denomination were chosen. The new surface rate for international mail is 8 cents for the minimum-weight letter. It was decided to issue the new stamp in the denomination universally used for international mail.

The design-a-lighted torch of knowledge held up to a world globe-suggests the bringing of peace and understanding to all peoples. The dissemination of Rotary ideals in all lands, it seems to me, is one of the best ways to bring this about.

When the earliest postal announcement of these Rotary stamps came out, I felt certain that Rotarians had no idea how many Governments would eventually honor our Golden Anniversary. No doubt some of us felt sure the United States of America, where Rotary was born, would issue a stamp, but who imagined that 80 million of these U.S. stamps would be issued? Or that the Australian issue would number more than 36 million? Or the Nicaraguan 10 million? Or that a country as small as the Saar would authorize one million?

Aside from these vast figures are other stamp developments I often turn over in my mind. When the first issues appeared and Rotarians began collecting them, how many of us realized the stamps would also go into the albums of non-Rotarian collectors in lands around the world? That men from Ketchikan to Krugersdorp, from Wollongong to Vordingborg, would not only be putting these issues in albums, but studying them, too, and catching some of Rotary's spirit of service?

Yes, these are some of the things none of us imagined, and even now it is impossible to tell the full story of the wide impact of these stamps. The thousands of friendly ties formed between men of different nations through letters carried by the stamps, the widened interest in Rotary's service ideal they have created, the attention they have focused on international understanding and goodwill, the increased support they have won for the projects of Rotary Clubs-all these things are a part of the story that can't be told with names, dates, and pin-pointed facts. It can only be surmised the way one surmises goodness in the world, or honesty, or courage. Though unseen, they are nonetheless felt.

And that's how I feel about these Rotary commemorative stamps. They are giving pleasure to thousands of collectors, but they are also silently at work for good ends. As a Rotarian and a stamp collector, I'm happy about that.