Society Of Philatelic Americans

If you get in touch with APRL, or do an online search of their library listings, you can probably find the title there.

The SPA's predecessor organization, the Southern Philatelic Association, had as its "official organ" (as advertised in the American Philatelist in 1918) a publication called The Stamp Herald (AP, Vol XXXII, No 1, Oct 1918, p. 2).

i was trying to get info on this as well. I have an old spa certificate and wondered about the difference etween the spa and the aps.

Elmer - I see the application. Is there a certificate?

yes, this was rated a forgery, didn't get it all in due to size and under 200kb

I thought I would bump this ancient topic with a new cover I acquired.

Dan

That's such an incredible memento in so many ways. Awesome !

Like anything which died pre-internet, it is tough to find information until enough time passes so that documents can be digitized without a copyright issue. Perhaps the journals will eventually get scanned and posted.

In my 20's when first joining anything philatelic for information, I joined the SPA and sadly it quietly passe when I was still in my 20's. The death was very quite with folks tight lipped.

My SPA journals and documents were sent to the Western Philatelic Library 15-20 years ago.

Timely resurgence of this thread. At a small 1-day show today, a dealer had a large flat-rate priority mail box packed full of SPA ephemera: brochures, decals, show ribbons, correspondence, etc., going back to the turn of the century, along with about 40 SPA cacheted covers. It was just interesting enough to pique my curiosity, and it didn't break the bank. I don't know what I'll do with it other than image most of it.

Sounds like a possible exhibit.

This is really an interesting topic to me! I was a member of the SPA and was very familiar with many of its members. Most all of the members were in fact members of the APS as well. I actually wrote the club column for for the SPA Journal a few years when Bob Brandebury and Joe Sousa were key figures in the society (1970's). I may be able to help anyone that would like additional knowledge about the society.

I have always had a suspicion that the old SPA Board of Directors received unfortunate (read that "Bad" if you must) but technically correct legal advise. Yes, there was a possibility that as Directors they could be held personally liable for the debts of the society incurred through the "financial illregularities" in the sales department. A very slim possibility, but a possibility nonetheless.

Fearing that they might loose their precious personal stamp collections in order to satisfy a legal judgement, they "ran for the hills" and quickly closed down the Society. As far as is publicly known, the perpetrators(s) were never identified, caught or prosecuted.

The full story needs to be investigated while those with first-hand knowledge of the facts are still alive

The stamp collecting hobby is quite small and connected. Many were hesitant to turn in their friends and may impact themselves. Of course, this is behavior is not unique to stamp collecting. Many events are covered up for the good of the [insert an institution].

For example, when Regency Superior folded, it was not just a one man operation. Do the other employees include their employment on their resume? The owner was ASDA dealer of the year. That recognition disappeared rather than noted as removed as if never happened.

For example, one outcome of the Regency mess could have been a better hobby escrow policy for stamps submitted for operations.