The Gaertner sale included tens of thousands of lots in a catalog that ran to 10 volumes, ranging from single stamps and covers to large lots and estate holdings, covering the world from old German States to faraway lands, including an extensive array of stamps by topic.

There was a record attendance of 210 at the meeting of The Royal Philatelic Society London on 10 December at which The Great Britain Philatelic Society celebrated its Diamond Jubilee.

The firm of Schuyler J. Rumsey held its Fall Sale from Oct. 20-23 in San Francisco, including many fascinating items with great stories to tell.

Two of the top three prizes in the 2015 CG award ceremony were claimed by American organizations. The American Philatelic Research Library was also recognized.

The 1¢ stamp from the Richmond, Va., firm was formerly known only as a single example on cover. This new discovery is uprated to 2¢ with a manuscript addition.

Japan’s Winter Greetings pane of 10 stamps features snowy scenes.

A pioneer of American country music, Alvin Pleasant ("A.P.") Carter began the Carter Family with his wife Sara and her sister-in-law Maybelle.

The stamps of the Sultanate of Nejd are one of the most difficult areas of philately, and to help collectors, I recently completed a book that focuses on these stamps, titled The Sultanate of Nejd, A Philatelic Manual. The era of the Sultanate of Nejd heralded the rise of the great desert warrior, Ibn Saud, and his consolidation of the various areas of the Arabian Peninsula into what we know today as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Last year marked the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Throndhjems By-Post (later Trondhjems By-Post) in the Norwegian city of Trondheim. Back in 1865, the Norwegian Post Office did not offer any local deliveries, and the local post was established to fill this void. Trondheim is one of Norway’s largest cities located on its West Coast. It is also one of the oldest cities in the country, having been founded in 997.

Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman elected to both houses of the United States Congress. In 1964, Smith's name was entered into nomination as a presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention.

Victoria Stamp Co., operated by longtime dealer Phoebe A. MacGillivary of Sharon Springs, N.Y., held an auction of British Commonwealth stamps and postal history at the Collectors Club in New York on Dec. 5. Items ranged from inexpensive single stamps to large lots and collections. A newly discovered lower-margin plate-number block of four Northern Rhodesia 6-penny stamps (Scott 68), showing Queen Elizabeth II and several African animals, boasted another kind of variety generally not listed in the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue: an inverted watermark. The error is listed in the Stanley Gibbons catalog as number 68w, and in Pierron’s online catalog of Great Britain and Commonwealth stamps during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, including errors and varieties, as ZMB136a.

The Indiana Daily Student recently profiled the Bloomington Stamp Club, a group of philatelic enthusiasts has roots that date back to World War II.

A baseball All-Star and a World Series hero, Larry Doby became the first black player in the American Leagues when he was signed to the Cleveland Indians in 1947.

H.R. Harmer celebrated its 75th anniversary with a large sale spanning Oct. 29-31 at the firm’s headquarters near Los Angeles. A broad array of U.S. and worldwide material included numerous exciting items. A May 1, 1901, first-day cover of the U.S. Pan-American Exposition issue (Scott 294-299) bore a fabulous gold embossed cachet for the fair, depicting two allegorical figures nestling into the outlines of North and South America.

Spink, in New York, offered the Charles Adams collection of United States and Canada on Nov. 18, and held its Fall Collector’s Series sale Nov. 18-19. A beautiful, unused example of Canada’s 12-penny black Queen Victoria of 1851 on laid paper (Scott 3) sold for $83,475, including Spink’s buyer’s premium of 15 percent plus $100 on items selling for more than $2,000. This stamp, never popular with the public at the time of issue and withdrawn after just 1,450 examples were sold, is far scarcer unused than used.

In Melbourne, Mossgreen auctioned the Arthur Gray collection of Australia on Oct. 30. Gray, an international exhibitor who died earlier this year, had built a collection that the auction firm called “the most extraordinary collection of Australian stamps of this generation, or any other.”

One of the world's best known entertainers, singer and actor Frank Sinatra, was born 100 years ago on Dec. 12, 1915.

The cost to collect one each of all of the mint United States postage stamps and postal stationery items issued in 2015 dropped to its lowest level in a dozen years, reaching a dollar value that is nearly half of the cost tabulated for collecting last year.

Bulgaria was a major empire from the ninth to the 14th centuries. Conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1396, Bulgarians spent the next 500 years trying to oust the Muslim conquerors and regain their independence. With Russian help, Bulgaria became an autonomous principality of the Ottoman Empire in 1878. Bulgaria issued its first postage stamps May 1, 1879.

It’s time to catch up on the week that was in stamp-collecting insights and news. Linn's Stamp News is looking back at its five most-read stories of the week. Click the links to read the stories. Here they are, in reverse order.