Links of Interest

Philatelic Societies

American Philatelic Society - The APS was founded in 1887 and is the world's largest collector organization with members in 110 countries. It is supported entirely by membership dues, gifts and the sale of publications and services. Founded in 1886, the APS is now in its second century of service to stamp collectors and postal historians.

Confederate Stamp Alliance - The CSA was founded in 1935 and is a non-political organization dedicated to fraternity, research, and cooperation among collectors of Confederate stamps and postal history. Advantages include the CSA Authentication Service and an award winning quarterly journal, The Confederate Philatelist. Click here to download a CSA membership application in PDF format. Can't open PDF files? The PDF format is viewable with free software - Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don't have this, you can download it for free here.

The Alliance Newsletter - The official CSA Newsletter which is published between quarterly issues of The Confederate Philatelist. It helps keep Alliance members up to date on the latest happenings.

August 2010
May 2010
February 2010

U.S. Philatelic Classics Society - The USPCS is the successor of "The Three Cent 1851-57 Unit" (Unit Number 11) of the American Philatelic Society. It was originally founded by a group of '51 to '57 specialists that included Dr. Carroll Chase, Stanley B. Ashbrook, and Leo J. Shaughnessy. Since its founding, the Classics Society has broadened its scope to include postal issues and postal history from the stampless era up to the Bureau Issues, as well as the occasional Confederate. Membership advantages include the award winning quarterly magazine, The Chronicle.

Confederate Postal History Projects

Confederate States Catalog and Handbook - In October 2006 the Confederate Stamp Alliance announced acquisition of the rights to the New Dietz Confederate States Catalog and Handbook, last published in 1986. The 21st century edition of the Confederate States Catalog and Handbook is long overdue and will no doubt be in much demand by collectors, serious students and dealers. The new catalog will take advantage of all of the marvelous changes in technology that have occurred in the past three decades, including a full color catalog. The publication goal is 2011-12.

Click on "interview" below to hear APS Stamp Talk host Nancy Clark discussing the CSA Catalog project with Editor-in-Chief Trish Kaufmann.

Civil War and Confederate Postal History Articles Online

Arkansas Postal History - Dr. Bruce Roberts' 35 years of accumulated knowledge on the subject. This non-commercial site is dedicated to the accumulation and dissemination of information about the postal system in Arkansas and in Indian Territory. Bruce is the section editor for Arkansas in the 2010 CSA Catalog.

Civil War Postal History of Vicksburg, Mississippi - A William S. Parks in-depth study of one town. A well researched subject which will be the place for researchers to turn now and far into the future.

Confederate Exhibits Online

The Buck Boshwit Collection - The scanned collection of Confederate Tennessee Postal History (as well as Arkansas and magnificent adversity covers) formed by the late Buck Boshwit of Memphis. Buck won virtually every one of the Confederate Stamp Alliance exhbit awards including the coveted CSA Trophy, as well as many national philatelic exhbit awards. Prior to the auction of most of his collection, the Boshwit family allowed Buck's wonderful collection to be scanned by the Shelby County Archives Department of the County Register so that it would remain available to future students and researchers. Take the time to enjoy this magnificent collection so lovingly put together over many years.

General Helpful Sources - Philatelic and non-philatelic

AskPhil (short for "Philately") is provided as a service to offer general answers to questions about stamp collecting. It is a the non-commercial, all-reference site sponsored by the Collectors Club of Chicago and covers a broad range of subjects. Highly recommended.

Joe Luft's Philatelic Research Page - An extensive selection of worldwide philatelic links.

Virtual Stamp Club - An on-line philatelic newspaper or magazine, with a very active "Letters to the Editor" section. In the forum, you'll find news, information, opinions and advice.

Stamp Link - "Your on-ramp to the hottest sites in stamp collecting"

Collector Cafe This online community guide sponsored by Stanley Gibbons, provides articles and news on more than 90 collecting interests. Visitors can contact other collectors and post free advertisements in the classified section. Collector Cafe contains links to hundreds of specialist dealer sites and is a valuable source of information for every collector.

Stamp Forgery Guide - Worldwide sources of information on forged stamps and stamp expertising searchable by country or expert, past and present, with over 1700 listings.

Library of Congress - This link is directly to the Civil War section, an essential resource for the researcher with a very deep range of every kind of information - from books and photographs to video, movie and audio history.

Arago - People, Postage and the Post - the Confederate section of the National Postal Museum. A resource for the study of philately and postal operations. One of the many research projects with which I have been involved. This is an outstanding and continually evolving resource. Lucky for Confederate specialists that this was one of the first sections to be included. It was unveiled at the Washington 2006 international exhibition.

U.S. National Archives - On-line access to art works, census data, US legal manuscripts, the Federal Register and so much more. An invaluable source.

General Civil War sites of special interest

American Civil War - "Your history site on the Web". While not philatelic, this is a comprehensive Civil War site with forums that may be of interest and is a good source for research projects.

Brian and Maria Green - Dealing in paper memorabilia of the Civil War - autographs, letters, documents, diaries, currency and stamps. Brian has been in the business for forty years and visits major Civil War shows around the country. Brian's wife, Maria, shares his enthusiasm for things Confederate.

Jim Stanley & Associates - Jim is a collector and purveyor of museum quality investment grade Civil War artifacts, images and documents. If your interests go beyond "paper", you may want to visit Jim's site.

Museum Quality Americana - This is a division of Cal Packard, LLC. Cal and his daughter Sarah sell quality historical artifacts and documents. A nicely done and most interesting site that specializes in Civil War materials with emphasis on "paper".

Philatelic Retail Dealers - respected competitors

John L. Kimbrough - My esteemed online competitor, John and I both have a passion for Confederates. His site also has articles and an in depth section on Confederate fakes. John is a respected author as well as a fellow member of the CSA Authentication Service.

Richard Frajola - One of the most knowledgeable U.S. students/dealers in the country, also a former postal history auctioneer. While his specialty is mostly quality U.S., he also knows and handles Confederates. He maintains a popular Message Board for collectors/dealers on his site as well.

Auction Houses that offer Confederates

Schuyler J. Rumsey - San Francisco
Robert A. Siegel - New York

Philatelic Exhibition Websites

New York 2016 - the next big international show
APS Show Calendar - lists all the major national shows
NAPEX - Washington, DC area - one of the premier U.S. shows