Inside Linn’s: An odd 1981 postage due cover from Toledo

By Charles Snee

The June 5 digital-only issue of Linn’s Stamp News will be available to subscribers Saturday, May 20. While you wait for your issue to arrive, enjoy these three quick glimpses of exclusive content available only to subscribers. 

An odd 1981 postage due cover from Toledo

While searching his files for a subject for this month’s Dollar-Sign Stamps column, Charles Snee found the cover pictured here. The cover was sent postage due from the post office in Toledo, Ohio, to the Perrysburg Messenger newspaper in Perrysburg, Ohio. A Linn’s reader who sent the cover to Snee asked some intriguing questions about the cover. The biggest mystery surrounds an apparent discrepancy between the handstamp at right showing postage due of 50¢ was paid and the U.S. $1 Americana stamp affixed to the cover at lower left. Can you provide an explanation? If so, Snee would welcome hearing from you.

Climate change themes on postage stamps

In Computers and Stamps, William F. Sharpe takes a closer look at stamps that address various aspects of climate change. The subject has been featured on numerous stamps over the years. Sharpe begins his review with Europa stamps, and he pictures a 2016 Europa stamp from Aland. The Europa theme in 2016 was “Think Green.” One of the more innovative issues Sharpe highlights is a Climate Change souvenir sheet issued by Finland in 2018. The sheet features a trio of stamps made with heat-sensitive ink. When the stamps in the souvenir sheet are touched, new designs illustrate the possible consequences of continued global warming on Finland’s weather, society and nature.

Word search puzzle: endangered species

Linn’s regularly publishes three games to entertain readers: Trickies, a word scramble puzzle by Joe Kennedy; a word search puzzle by D.E. Rubin; and Philatelic Lexicon, a crossword puzzle by David Saks. In this week’s word search, Rubin has hidden the names of 23 endangered species that appear on stamps from the United States and a number of other countries. So, sharpen your pencil and have fun locating the one word from the name of each endangered animal tucked inside the puzzle grid.

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