Inside Linn’s: How will artificial intelligence affect cachetmaking contests?

By Charles Snee

The July 22 issue of Linn’s Stamp News just landed on the presses and goes in the mail to subscribers Monday, July 8. And if you subscribe to Linn’s digital edition, you’re at the head of the line with early access Saturday, July 6. While you wait for your issue to arrive in your mailbox, enjoy these three quick glimpses of exclusive content available only to subscribers. 

How will artificial intelligence affect cachetmaking contests?

The question posed in the headline of Lloyd de Vries’ First-Day Covers column has a sense of urgency about it, given the current explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) platforms and their ever-improving capabilities. For de Vries, there are important questions surrounding the potential impact of AI on the American First Day Cover Society’s annual cachetmakers contest. Overall, de Vries strikes a positive tone regarding AI in the FDC domain. “I think a case could be made that designs requested and specified from an AI image generator are original artwork,” de Vries asserts. But a bigger question looms for deVries: Who owns the rights to the images?

2024 total solar eclipse: a philatelic adventure

In Exploring Astrophilately this month, Charles J. Vukotich Jr. reviews his project to obtain covers for the four major research activities associated with the April 8 total solar eclipse. “This project involved hours of research regarding what happened and where, creating and printing cachets, preparing and mailing covers, documenting and organizing returned covers, and following up on problems,” Vukotich explains. According to Vukotich, one of the more pleasant aspects of the project was working with various U.S. Postal Service personnel to address delivery problems that occurred with some of the covers. “The USPS people I contacted were all nice and eager to help,” Vukotich writes.

Tip of the Week: U.S. 1934 National Parks Year set of 10

In this week’s issue, Stamp Market Tips columnists Henry Gitner and Rick Miller fondly recall the set of 10 United States commemorative stamps issued in 1934 to celebrate National Parks Year. “This attractive and colorful set has long been a favorite of U.S. stamp collectors,” Gitner and Miller write. And for many collectors, according to Gitner and Miller, the set “was often the first complete mint set of early 20th-century stamps that most U.S. collectors acquired.”

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