100 Greatest American Stamps

by Janet Klug, Donald Sundman

Book by Janet Klug, Donald Sundman

144 pages, Hardcover

First published October 30, 2007

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty book despite the fact that so many old US stamps are small pale ones with Washington or Franklin in profile. Philately terms are used, but also explained.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pictures were pretty and all, but I feel the book's limitations merely drove home how much a more comprehensive history of stamp issues is needed. Many of these stamps are, despite the authors' assertions otherwise, impossible for amateur collectors to procure and many much more interesting (and controversial) stamps were eschewed for the usual dead-white-guy mumbo-jumbo. To what end? There is patriotism in controversy, if that is the worry, especially when the controversy illustrates a commitment to truth and courage in the face of gravest adversity. That, and there are some hilarious stories and hallmark moments in postal history that would have been worthy of being called "the greatest" and more generally interest the larger public than, for example, an error on a stamp that looks like all the other stamps up to that point and was printed for a stamp exposition and zzzzzzzzzzzz. Perhaps my interpretation of what "the greatest" means veers far from the conventional (read: BORING) choices these authors compiled--but I would have hoped for a more thorough awareness of what [both monetarily and w/r/t content] is accessible to both collectors and just your average citizen instead of the usual run-of-the-mill 100 stamps that either show the United States of America in great splendor and/or interest a small percentage of the small percentage of people who still consider themselves philatelists. Boring boring and infuriating.