The next Postiljonen international auction will take place Oct. 1-2 at the firm’s offices in Malmo, Sweden, offering top Scandinavian classics, along with a selection of worldwide stamps and postal history, larger lots and collections.

Great Britain’s Royal Mail will issue 18 stamps Oct. 20 to commemorate Star Wars and the upcoming release of the new film. Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Jesse Owens became an Olympic hero by winning four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Games. He was born Sept. 12, 1913.

The following Scott numbers have been assigned to recently issued United States and United Nations stamps. All of the numbers appear in the New Listings Update section of the Sept. 21, 2015, Linn’s Stamp News.

One way that stamp collecting used to be front and center with the public was via matchbook cover advertising. However, when the health risks of cigarette smoking were publicized and when flick cigarette lighters became ubiquitous, the manufacturing of matchbook covers declined, and they are rarely seen today.

There were almost no early efforts to create postal forgeries, just attempts to clean and reuse stamps that were lightly canceled. The few attempts to fake U.S. stamps from scratch were either crudely made and easy to detect, or were made well and in such limited quantities that they are often worth close to what the genuine stamp is worth.

The Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C., threw quite a stamp party Sept. 9 for Sweden's most glamorous export — actress Ingrid Bergman. “Who would turn down having their mother on a stamp?” asked Bergman’s daughter, Pia Lindstrom.

To encourage the writing of letters, the Netherlands issued a pane of 10 stamps Aug. 17 featuring famous people known for their personal letters. The Royal Library helped the Netherlands’ postal administration, PostNL, in the selection of these letter writers: artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh; poet Leo Vroman; mathematician and scientist Christiaan Huygens; and priest, philosopher and humanist Desiderius Erasmus.

After weeks of acrimonious debate, Richard F. Murphy, president of the Confederate Stamp Alliance, has called a halt to plans for debating the alliance’s future at its mid-year meeting Oct. 9-10. Saying the CSA had become racked by dissension and rumors, Murphy canceled a planned discussion of the 78-year-old group’s future at the Asheville, N.C., meeting.

A new stamp from the Czech Republic celebrates an innovative method for international communication. Issued Sept. 2, this nondenominated, self-adhesive definitive stamp honors Postcrossing, an international project in which people from around the world send each other postcards.

Public mailboxes of the United States and 11 other countries are pictured on new stamps from the Marshall Islands. In addition to mailboxes, the stamps depict letter carriers of different eras, various means of transporting mail, postal service emblems, and stamp-on-stamp designs.

Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom on Sept. 9, exceeding her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria’s reign of 63 years and 216 days. Canada, Australia and Jersey marked the historic milestone with new stamps.

A postmark from Shanksville, Pa., dated Sept. 11, shows a representation of the memorial there for Flight 93, the United Airlines jet that crashed nearby during the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Also this week, Paul Newman's soon-to-be-released stamp pays tribute to his philanthropy, and a withdrawn Guatamala airmail stamp is in demand.

American author O. Henry was featured on a commemorative stamp in the Literary Arts series in 2012. O. Henry was born Sept. 11, 1862.

Sam Houston Philatelics will offer stamps with scarce varieties from Germany and German colonies in its next public auction on Sept. 19. The sale is being held in conjunction with the Greater Houston Stamp Show, which takes place Sept. 18-20 at the Humble Civic Center in Humble, Texas. The sale also features United States material and the firm’s signature specialty, U.S. duck stamps.

The more than 9,900 value changes in Vol. 6 of the 2016 edition of the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue reflect the current market for countries of the world SAN (San Marino) through Z. Countries that received considerable attention from the Scott catalog editors this year include Singapore, Togo, Tristan da Cunha and Tunisia.

The upcoming public auction by Holabird’s Western Americana Collections is filled with historical objects, including Montana postal history, Hawaii flight covers, express covers, postcards and much more. The first part of the auction is taking place in three sessions from Sept. 25-27. The auction will continue with three additional sessions Oct. 2-4.

American League home run king Roger Maris, who hit 61 round-trippers in 1961, was honored in 1999 on a stamp in the Celebrate the Century series.

Thousands of free stamps along with “basic training” for stamp collectors will be offered at the 25th annual Youth Stamp Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 10, at the Dudley House Museum, 197 N. Ashwood St., Ventura.