Beyond The Scott Catalogue
By James Lee

United States Post Offices – Volume 5 • The Ohio Valley. By Richard Helbock, 2002, 204p, SB. $27.50

United States Post Offices is the first attempt to publish a complete listing of all United States post offices which have ever operated. The current volume—The Ohio Valley—includes the densely populated states of Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. The listing which is contained herein is ultimately based upon the United State’s Post Office Department’s "Records of Appointments of Postmasters" and subsequent official announcements of post office openings and closings. This data has been refined by numerous postal historians over the years, and their work has been published as listings of post offices for individual states and territories. United States Post Offices is intended to meet the needs of those in the postal history community who have been in search of a single set of volumes which contain the name, county and state location, dates of operation and Scarcity Index (S/I) value applicable to postmarks from each and every independent post office ever to have operated in the nation.

United States Doanes, 2nd Edition. By Richard Helbock and Gary Anderson, 2002, 336p, SB. $27.50

Collecting Doane cancels—those easily identified pioneer rubber handstamps issued by the Post Office Department to thousands of small post offices between 1903 and 1906—has become an increasingly popular specialty in U.S. postal history since the 1993 publication of the first edition of this work. As a result, thousands of new reports by collectors have permitted the various state coordinators to vastly improve the coverage of many states. The current volume lists nearly 23,000 verified Doane cancels, an overall increase of over 50% from the 1993 edition. In addition, the current volume breaks new ground by including a measure of relative scarcity for each and every Doane cancel listing. The Scarcity Number varies from 1 to 5 with "1" being the most common and "5" representing the rarities. The listings are arranged alphabetically by state and territory.

The new edition includes numerous illustrations of Doanes from some of the leading collections in the nation.

The Cachets of C. S. Anderson. By Andrew Boyajian, 2002, 131p, card cover. $25.00.

A wonderful catalog illustrating all of Anderson’s U.S. and U.N. cachets. Anderson was one of the few cachet makers that produced cachets for every stamp and stationery item issued. In addition he also produced patriotic and souvenir cachets. An interesting biography of Anderson is also included. This is a limited edition work. This is the first single cachet monograph to be published in the last 20 plus years.

Nevada Express, Wells, Fargo & Co, and Other Letter Expresses, 1857-1895. By James M. Gamett, 2002, 192p, HB. $45.00

Includes Pony Express and Wells, Fargo plus 22 other express companies. There is a census of known covers with many illustrated. Contemporary town views are also included among the 110 photos. This is a wonderful new book and very enjoyable reading even if you don’t collect western express covers. The text will provide insight into the workings of both the pony express and Wells, Fargo and Co.

A new philatelic tool has hit the market and it is the brainchild of Sonic Imagery Labs of Castro Valley, CA. It is ten measuring devices in one all laid out on a single sheet of laminated plastic. One of the great features is the section for measuring U.S. grilled stamps. It has been over 25 years since Voncorp produced it’s Grill-a-vue product. So once again we have a product for measuring grills. The other nine measuring devices include:

Standard millimeter scale; Go-NoGo Shermack Type III gauge; Go-NoGo Design size millimeter gauge; Parallel line millimeter gauge; Large hole, small hole gauge for the 1954 Liberty Series; Cancellation diameter gauge; Grill pattern gauge; Standard analog perforation gauge; Specialty perforation gauge for Bureau Issues ( a knock off of the Kiusalas gauge)

This is a wonderful new tool and very reasonably priced for what you get. My only criticism of it is the grill patterns could be lighter.

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