Great Britain’s Royal Mail is celebrating 500 years of regular, organized mail service in 2016, and is issuing 10 stamps Feb. 17 to commemorate developments in its postal service. A booklet and other items are being released the next day, Feb. 18. The stamp set is called Royal Mail 500.

The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, a name expressing more truth than poetry, arose out of the ashes of World War I as a marriage of convenience. It issued stamps from 1918 until the name of the country was officially changed to Yugoslavia (land of the Southern Slavs) on Oct. 3, 1929.

Also this week, the USPS made public how it would cut stamp prices if its plea to retain emergency rate increases continues to be rejected, and a spectacular and seldom-seen error went for a six-figure price.

Thanks to the many Linn’s readers who wrote in with answers to the meaning of “OWL Mail” on the 1934 cover shown in the U.S. Stamp Notes column in the Sept. 14, 2015, issue of Linn’s. I had requested help from readers in decoding the meaning of the term.

A March 1 postmark from Yorba Linda, Calif., commemorates Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States. The Richard Nixon postmark is being offered almost one month after the release of the Richard Nixon $1 coin, which was issued by the U.S. Mint on Feb. 3.

Stephen Reinhard, the president of the American Philatelic Society, has been nominated by the APS board of directors to fill an upcoming vacancy on the board of directors of the International Federation of Philately (FIP).

On a snowy morning in early February, I attended the United States Postal Service’s first-day-of-issue ceremony for the Year of the Monkey stamp in Queens, N.Y. This stamp is the ninth Lunar New Year issue in the second series (2008-2019) beautifully designed by Ethel Kessler featuring original art by Kam Mak.

The American Stamp Dealers Association is giving away a two-night stay in New York City during World Stamp Show-NY 2016 at its show this weekend in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. The ASDA Winter Postage Stamp Show runs Feb. 12-14 at the War Memorial Auditorium at 800 NE 8th St. in Ft. Lauderdale. Admission is free.

The popular television game show Jeopardy! is featuring a stamp on two consecutive Monday episodes: Feb. 1 and Feb. 8.

On Feb. 2, Linn’s introduced its new, much improved digital edition. We already are receiving favorable comments from our subscribers. The digital version of Linn’s is powered by Olive Software Inc.

American scientist Josiah Willard Gibbs was called "the greatest mind in American history" by Albert Einstein. Gibbs held the position of professor of mathematical physics at Yale.

Six new stamps from the United Nations Postal Administration promote a public education campaign to raise awareness for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender equality. The name of the campaign “Free & Equal” is inscribed on each of the six UNPA stamps issued Feb. 5.

On Feb. 3, an all-women post office was dedicated and opened as a in the Indian town of Singjamei in the Manipur province, according to KanglaOnline.com. In addition to having a female postmaster and staff, KanglaOnline.com reports, “This Sub Post Office serves postal and financial requirements of [a] large number of people, among them [a] majority are women.”

On May 14, 1948, following the proclamation of the state of Israel, the armed forces (the Arab Legion) of Jordan entered Palestine and occupied an area of the Palestinian territories. Jordan was able to seize the old city of Jerusalem, Jericho, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jenin, and Tulkarm among others.

A popular writer and Pulitzer Prize winner, William Allen White often promoted small town values in commentaries published in his Kansas newspaper, the Emporia Gazette.

Helped by a surge of Christmas parcels, the United States Postal Service reported an operating profit of $1.3 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2016, which ended Dec. 31, 2015. That compares to a $1.1 billion operating profit during the same period of fiscal 2015 (Oct. 1, 2014, to Dec. 31, 2014).

Cherrystone Philatelic Auctioneers will present a two-day sale at its 57th Street gallery in New York City. The public auction sessions will take place Feb. 23-24, with online bidding available.

William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, was the first to die in office. His term was the shortest of any president in history.

France’s La Poste issued a booklet of 12 stamps Jan. 7 called Mineral World. The stamps picture minerals from the collection of the Mineralogy Museum at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris. This engineering school is often referred to as MINES ParisTech.

Before his death in a car crash at age 24 in 1955, James Dean found fame starring in the films East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant.