Former U.S. Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin Bailar’s collection of Benjamin Franklin-related autographs, letters, covers and postal history was sold by Siegel on June 25. Bailar, who was appointed by President Gerald R. Ford in 1975 — exactly 200 years after his namesake was commissioned by the Second Continental Congress — is believed to be the only postmaster general in our history who is also a serious collector of stamps and postal history.

June 24 at Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries saw the sale of Larry Lyons’ “All Roads Lead to San Francisco” collection, which documented private and local couriers operating west of the Rockies. Lyons, like Gordon Stimmell an editor of The Penny Post and also an executive director of the Philatelic Foundation, has published dozens of articles and won numerous high awards in this and other collecting areas.

The National Topical Stamp Show is taking place this year in Clackamas, Ore., a suburb of Portland. The show will host the first-day ceremony for the Fanciful Flower postal card.

On June 23, Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries offered the Wilson Born collection of United States telegraph stamps, which were issued by private firms from the 1850s until the 1940s for the purpose of sending, receiving or storing telegraphic messages during the technology’s pioneering days.

As in previous years, Rarities Week, the series of sales conducted June 22-26 by Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries in New York, included several name sales. The name sales at began June 23 with Gordon Stimmell’s collection of U.S. carrier and local stamps, built over many years with items whose provenances include famous names such as Ferrary, Caspary and others.

As in previous years, Rarities Week, the series of sales conducted June 22-26 by Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries in New York, included several name sales as well as an assortment of notable items from around the world. The week kicked off with something of a do-over: a sizable assortment of better United States stamps and covers that had appeared in four previous sales, but whose winning bidder then failed to pay for them.

The cash-hungry United States Postal Service has won what is described as an eight-month extension on its current stamp prices. That is the effect of a July 29 ruling by the Postal Regulatory Commission, which held that the USPS is entitled to an additional $1.191 billion under the emergency price hike it was granted on Dec. 24, 2013.

A 12¢ stamp issued in 1968 pays tribute to American industrialist Henry Ford, who was born in Dearborn, Mich., in 1863, and built the Ford Motor Co.

After much publicity, and many Kickstarter donations, the plug has been pulled on the effort to put in place a stamp mosaic on the facade of the Tietion, WA, post office.

Dag Hammarskjold, born 110 years ago today, was a Swedish diplomat elected as secretary-general of the United Nations. A memorial stamp honoring him was issued in 1962.

Minnesota-based Killebrew Root Beer is sweetening the pot for supporters of the movement to put the company's namesake, Minnesota Twins legendary slugger Harmon Killebrew, on a U.S. Postal Service stamp.

Canada Post issued a new stamp Aug. 21 to replace the withdrawn $1.20 Dinosaur Provincial Park stamp that had an incorrectly identified image. The original stamp was issued July 3 in Canada Post’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites series and withdrawn shortly thereafter, along with other products with the design mistake.

In this column I will discuss unclaimed, undeliverable mail (i.e., not delivered because it was not claimed at the office of delivery) that was subsequently remailed.

With no fewer than four different varieties issued Aug. 8, John Franklin’s HMS Erebus, the flagship of his 1845 voyage in search of the Northwest Passage, becomes the most commemorated ship of any Canadian explorer, although the expedition he commanded was anything but a success.

One of Marcel Duchamp's most famous paintings has been shown twice on United States stamps. It was featured in a scene on one Celebrate the Century stamp in 1998, and it was commemorated on its own in 2013.

Royal Mail will issue 10 stamps Aug. 18 featuring seven species of bees from different parts of the United Kingdom. Four of the stamps are se-tenant (side-by-side) in a souvenir sheet, and the other six were printed separately in sheets of 50 (sold as panes of 25 in most postal outlets).

At the biggest stamp show in the country this year, the United States Postal Service will issue new stamps celebrating what promises to be the biggest stamp show in the country next year. The two World Stamp Show-NY 2016 stamps will go on sale Aug. 20, the opening day of the American Philatelic Society’s annual Stampshow.

When his friend began talking about a job running the country’s biggest stamp organization, Scott English thought his friend wanted to know if he had any stamp collecting friends who might want the job. No, the friend said, he wanted English, a well-known South Carolina political operative who doesn’t collect stamps, to apply for the executive director’s job at the American Philatelic Society.

Modern postal stationery is a collecting area often overlooked by many collectors, and U.S. postal stationery is underrated and occasionally undervalued. Print quantities are usually fairly low, and dealers are not stocking new postal stationery items in depth as they are issued.