December 15:  New plate number P9999 has been reported on one of the Sea Coast coil varieties.  Details on the New Plates page.

November 23:  Member Earle Hicks reported a new plate number on the 1994 World War II souvenir sheet.  It will appear in the next edition of the Hebert's Catalog.  Details on the New Plates page.

November 18:  Member Doug D'Avino has provided images of the plate numbers for the Holiday Knits varieties.  Details on the 2007 page.

November 7:  Plate numbers and Scott Catalog numbers reported for 2007 issues.  Details on the 2007 page.

October 16:  APNSS member Wallace Cleland has received the Walter W. Hopkinson Memorial Award for the best article or series of articles published in 2006.  His series on AMG plate numbers (the Allied Military Government in post-WW II Germany, France, Italy and Austria) appeared in the US Specialist from April to October 2006.  Additional details on the USSS web site.

October 16:  APNSS member Carl Shaff II's exhibit "Used Plate Numbers of the U.S. Nineteenth Century" was featured at the 2007 Mega-Event in New York City.  Additional details on the USSS web site.

October 7:  Plate numbers and Scott Catalog numbers reported for 2007 issues.  Additional PNS images have been provided for recent issues.  Details on the 2007 page.

October 5:  The September-October issue of Plate Numbers is in the mail.

September 17:  A new link has been provided to the web site of the American Society for Philatelic Pages and Panels, www.asppp.org.  Some use plate numbers singles when creating their philatelic pages and panels.

September 3:  Plate numbers and Scott Catalog numbers reported for 2007 issues.  Additional PNS images have been provided for recent issues.  Details on the 2007 page.

August 29:  APNSS is mentioned in Robert Rabinowitz's opinion piece "Postal Service destroying plate-number collecting" that appears in the September 3, 2007 issue of Linn's Stamp News, page 46.  He also mentions the Hebert's Catalog of Plate Number Singles.  See related news item dated August 28.

August 28:  Wade Saadi of the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, Janet Klug, former president of the APS and Roger Brody, president of USSS are encouraging a letter-writing campaign to the USPS to try to convince them to restore the former policy of assigning multiple plate numbers if multiple plates have been used to print a stamp.  Ron Maifeld is the PNC3 webmaster and has asked for our help in writing to David Failor at USPS about correcting the current policy.  A sample letter, address information, and additional details can be found at the PNC3 web site: http://www.pnc3.org/Reference/Failor/Failor.htm

If you agree that the current policy is ill-advised and different printings should receive different plate numbers, please visit the web site and write a letter.
 

August 26:  Plate numbers and Scott Catalog numbers reported for 2007 issues.  Details on the 2007 page.

July 26:  Plate numbers reported for upcoming new issues.  Details on the 2007 page.

July 24:  In consideration of the continuing increases in the cost of printing and mailing our newsletter, the APNSS Executive Committee has voted to increase annual dues to $10, or $19 for two years.  Additional details appear on the Membership page.

July 23:  New Scott catalog numbers assigned for recent 2007 issues.  Details on the 2007 page.

July 15:  Our attempt to avoid dozens of daily spam messages by assigning a new automatic email address for forwarding purposes was not successful.  Don't use the apnss-sec at apnss dot org email address as messages sent that way are not being forwarded.  Instead, we have reverted to the secretary at apnss dot org email address; while it buried the occasional APNSS email among dozens or even hundreds of spam messages, at least it worked.  After your communicating has been answered you can continue the conversation using the APNSS contact's real email address.

July 8:  New plate numbers reported for 69¢ and 90¢ airmails.  Details on the 2007 page.

July 6:  New Scott catalog numbers reported for new 2007 issues.  Details on the 2007 page.

July 4:  Scott has renumbered many of the stamps in the American Design series, both the pane and coil issues.  Details on the American Design page.

June 25:  The June-July issue of Plate Numbers is in the mail.

June 17:  The 58¢ Margaret Chase Smith 2-ounce Distinguished Americans definitive appears to be the first new stamp to require multiple plate numbers.  Collectors are reporting seeing both P111 and P222 on this stamp printed by Ashton-Potter.  Not clear yet why a second plate number was used.  Details on the 2007 page.

May 26:  Plate numbers reported for the 17¢ Big Horn Sheep coil and other new issues.  Details on the 2007 page.

May 25:  Those who have seen the reprinted 2¢ Navajo Necklace report that it is definitely brighter than the original printing.  Different shades as well -- more blue, less turquoise.  The 2004 date remains.

May 13:  Due to the first class rate increase from 39¢ to 41¢, the 2¢ Navajo Necklace is being reprinted by a new printer.  It remains to be seen whether the printing differences will be sufficient to warrant a major or minor Scott Catalog listing.

May 13:  One of the new international airmail rates is 75¢, but for a different rate than the 75¢ rate that was in effect during the 2006-2007 39¢ rate period.  No new 75¢ international airmail stamp is planned.  This is likely to lead to reprinting of the current stamp, which may result in a new variety.  It remains to be seen whether the printing differences will be sufficient to warrant a major or minor Scott Catalog listing.

May 9:  Scott catalog numbers reported for recent Forever and Flag/tan issues.  Details on the 2007 page.

April 28:  Coil dealer Stephen Esrati has provided a way of telling the three self-adhesive (41¢) Flag coil printings apart.  Of course, it's very easy if you have the plate number!  Details on the 2007 page.

April 14:  Additional new topics, formats, plate numbers reported for upcoming issues.  Details on the 2007 page.

April 12:  Scott catalog numbers reported for Tiffany Lamp, Silver Coffeepot and Longfellow issues.  Details on the 2007 page.

March 29:  The March-April issue of Plate Numbers is in the mail.  The closing date for the auction is May 15.

March 29:  USPS has announced the themes, designs and denominations for a number of rate-change stamps.  They are to be issued starting around mid-May.  Details on the 2007 page.

March 27:  Still no separate Scott catalog number for the third printing of the Common Buckeye coil, but you can see PNS examples of each on the 2006 page.

March 20:  Plate numbers reported for the 1¢ Tiffany Lamp and 3¢ Silver Coffeepot panes of 20.  Details on the 2007 page.

March 19:  The 41¢ rate is official and will take effect in late May.  The Forever Stamp is also official.  Additional details on the 2007 page.

March 7:  Scott number reported for International Polar Year souvenir sheet.  Details on the 2007 page.  I have examined a press sheet and there were no plate numbers on it, either.

March 1:  We reached a milestone today:  the APNSS web site hosted its 6,000th visitor.

February 26:  Today the Postal Rate Commission made their recommendations on the USPS's request for a rate hike.  Here's what they approved.  Under this schedule, the cost of some mailings would actually go down:

Early indications are that the USPS will go along with the Postal Rate Commission's recommendations.

This means there will not be an immediate use for the 3¢ Silver Coffeepot pane of 20 scheduled for mid-March.  But there should still be plenty of 2¢ Navajo Necklace panes from the rate change from 37¢ to 39¢, as well as 1¢ Tiffany Lamp coils and the new Tiffany Lamp panes of 20.

This also implies that stamps in the additional ounce denominations of 17¢, 58¢ and 75¢, probably in the Distinguished Americans series, a 26¢ postal card stamp in sheet, booklet and coil formats, a Priority Mail stamp for $4.60 and an Express Mail stamp for $16.25 will be added to the 2007 stamp program.

Additional details will appear on the 2007 page as they become known.

February 15:  I have now seen an example of the newest printing of the 24¢ Common Buckeye coil.  The 2006 year date and 24¢ denomination do appear to be slightly larger and darker.  However, the difference in "Common Buckeye" text is much clearer:  it appears gray on the earlier printings, but definitely black on the latest printing.  The same plate number V1111 appears, with the colors in the same sequence, so that is no help in distinguishing the printings.  To my eye, the distinction is sufficient to justify a minor catalog listing, but we'll have to wait and see what the Scott editors determine.  Additional details on the 2006 page.

February 8:  New plate number S22222 reported for the 63¢ Bryce Canyon stamp, Scott C139.  Details on the 2006 page.

February 6:  Scott catalog numbers assigned to early 2007 issues for Oklahoma, Ella Fitzgerald, Hershey's Kiss.  Details on the 2007 page.

February 5:  A new page shows plate number single examples of all 18 Postal Note stamps.

February 2:  Scott has recognized a few new varieties and assigned minor catalog numbers to them. Examples are the Flag Over City coils.  Examples can be seen on the 33¢ Commemoratives page.

January 31:  APNSS will have a booth at the APS Ameristamp Expo show to be held Feb. 7-9 in Riverside, CA.  Additional show details are on the APS web site.  Stop by and visit APNSS president Eric Chaulsett, treasurer Jim Ragsdale and other volunteers at our booth.

January 30:  Another faked overprint of a Kansas-Nebraska plate number single has been found and has been added to our web site.  While the first two were more obvious because the overprint was done on plate numbers that were not used for official overprints, this one is more difficult.  View it yourself on the Kansas-Nebraska page and give us your opinion.

January 24:  Scott catalog numbers changed on two of the ATM Snowflake stamps.  Details on the 2006 page.

January 22:  The latest issue of Plate Numbers is in the mail.

January 18:  APNSS Circuit Director Myron Schmidt reports that the plate number on the Hershey's Kiss booklet pane the booklet cover, not on the pane.  Details on the 2007 page.

January 11:  Plate number reported for new Hershey's Kiss stamp.  Details on the 2007 page.

January 9:  Plate numbers reported for Oklahoma Statehood, Ella Fitzgerald issues.  Details on the 2007 page.

January 8:  The "plate number crisis" continues.  Members of PNC3 and various dealers are calling on collectors to write to USPS to protest the new policy.  Details are on the PNC3 web site, in Linn's (page 8 of the Jan. 20, 2007 issue, among others), and on the Virtual Stamp Club web site.

APNSS has not taken an official position on the change.  Most members concentrate on older stamp issues and will not be affected by the new policy.  This writer's personal opinion, if I may be indulged for a moment, is that the change is a "done deal" and we should consider ourselves lucky they retained plate numbers at all and didn't decide to do away with them altogether.

If you feel strongly on this issue, by all means send a letter to the USPS.  Address details and suggestions appear on the PNC3 and VSC web sites.