January 2019

Canadian Fancy Cancellations of the
Nineteenth Century by Day & Smythies;
Littlefield Bogus Cancels; Unconfirmed
Cancels; and Fantasy or Joke Cancels.
The book is a labor of love, a meticulously
detailed and thoughtful guide
to a fascinating postmark specialty and
a powerful testament to the role a single
stamp can sometimes play.
Published August 2018 by the British
North America Philatelic Society, Ottawa,
Canada. Spiral bound with laminated
covers, 8½ inches by 11 inches, 244
pages. $56.00 CDN plus postage from
www.sparks-auctions.com/bnapsbooks
First Day Covers of 1918 Air Post
Stamps — or Are They? by Ken Lawrence.
This slender but essential compendium
brings together an interdependent
series of important articles by Ken
Lawrence originally published in the
February, March, April and May 2015
issues of The United States Specialist,
journal of the United States Stamp
Society. In these, Lawrence lays out in
considerable detail all that is known
of the relative handful of first-day-ofsale
covers of the 24-cent, 16-cent and
6-cent Jenny airmail stamps issued in
1918.
The 66 pages of text painstakingly
lays out the history of these covers,
what is known of their origin, their
progress through the marketplace, the
regard and the suspicion they have received
in the century since they were
created and how and by whom opinions
regarding their authenticity came to be.
Lawrence examines them in order of
issue and by denomination, comparing
and contrasting them with one another
as the clearest way of examining the
ways in which they confirm or challenge
credibility. Element by element,
the covers are reviewed, and many are
found wanting.
As Lawrence notes at the outset,
“For this review I have conducted
fresh investigations, greatly facilitated
by Internet resources that did not exist
when I compiled my original census
[in 2003], the most valuable being
the Philatelic Foundation’s certificate
search and Robert A. Siegel Auction
Galleries’ power search. Despite significant
differences in approach and
some lapses or leaps of faith by Kirker,
I found his booklet to be a useful reference.”
His modus operandi was to regard
all covers as genuine until proven
otherwise. Most ultimately failed that
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JANUARY 2019 / AMERICAN PHILATELIST 63