Philatelic Societies

American Philatelic Society - The APS was founded in 1887 and is the world's largest collector organization with members in 110 countries.

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.

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 two decades, including the strong likelihood of a full color catalog. The publication goal is 2010, in attempt to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Confederate Stamp Alliance. The Alliance 75th anniversary celebration will be held in Richmond, Virginia, in conjunction with the APS StampShow in August 2010.

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. The site is still under construction so many pages are blank, but will be filled as time goes on. 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.

General Helpful Philatelic Sources

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.

Wm J. Bongers' PhilaGuide - "The Golden Guide for Philatelists" with a selection of worldwide philatelic web sites by categories - collectors, dealers, expertizing, specialties, magazines, auctions, resources, etc

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.

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.

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.

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

Matthew Bennett International - Baltimore, New York, Switzerland
H. R. Harmer - New Jersey
Schuyler J. Rumsey - San Francisco
Robert A. Siegel - New York