What Caused 1940 To Be The "Split Year" For US Stamps?

Hi!
I'm sitting here sorting out my duplicate US stamps, building up piles of "classics", modern, BOB, etc. In various places I've seen the year 1940 referred to as the "split year" or divider with older stamps deemed classis, newer ones deemed modern.

It seems that "things changed" then for US stamps, and its fairly apparent that 1940 is a defining year. Is this mainly because of the onset of WWII, or were there other reasons?

The split year has usually been 1900, with everything after that called "modern". Some people think only imperfs are "classic", but that seems extreme. It does seem that there will have to be a designation for the 1900-1940 era pretty soon though.

I always understood that all pre-1940 stamps were considered "classics" because of the arbitrary choice to use the 100th anniversary of the Penny Black as a cutoff. Not that I agree, that's just what I've understood.

Yes, that sure makes sense. Of course this forum even uses the 1940 date split for modern/classic US stamps.

I can't find the specific references, but I recall reading that several factors influenced the 1940 date for the separation of classic versus modern stamps.

1. This was just about the time that commemorative stamps were issued in major numbers.

2. The advent of World War II and the philatelic interests of the President of the US at the time (FDR), decided that stamp collecting would be a distraction from a lot of the negative war news. If you recall, I recently posted in another thread something about the availability of stamp hinges even during the paper conservation efforts of the war effort, because of this.

3. The soldiers who were stationed around the world in World War II sent many letters home, often using stamps of the countries they served in. The stamps/covers were often saved by the family and therefore a mini-collection was started around this time. When soldiers came home after the war effort, stamp collecting was at its heydey.

1940, the 100th anniversary of the supposed first stamp, the penny black. Don't like the historically correct answer, then 1940 because Scott chose that year for the ending date for listings in the Scott Classic Catalog. Any issues from the first 100 years can properly be considered vintage but only issues at least 100 years old can be properly labeled antique.

Adding my 2c worth... The reason (I think) is Scott in 1940 went and renumbered the catalog, before 1940, I swas 1,2,3,4,.... no matter if the stamp was an airmail, Revenue, Special Del., Comm., in 1940 they changed the numbering system to what we have to suffer with now.

I like the combination of wt1 & jobi01's responses. I will only add- because it is OUR hobby and we all just accept what we been led to believe and or taught, that it just is. Notice even the books, catalogs, and auction houses use it as the cut-off date. I have also heard it suggested that it be moved to include the 50's also.

Hi,
Lots of good info here. Whether it had anything to do with the "break" or not, WWII was a major turning point for most of the world. Nothing was the same after those 5 years.

Great question. Didn't the number of issues really start to balloon after 1940? I've always preferred 1950 as a cutoff just because I really like the war issues.

Note: I take the question from a WW classic perspective, not just U.S. Take it for what it is worth.

Classic is in the eyes of the beholder.

The classic "classic" is clearly the 19th century.

But there are several historical and practical reasons to draw the light "classic" line at 1940, at least for Scott catalogue centric folks.



1) Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps & Covers 1840-1940
(Actually the British Commonwealth coverage is to the end of the George VI era- 1952. Makes sense.)



2) "Big Blue"- The Scott International Album Part I covers 1840-1940
This is the first in a series of Scott International albums that cover the world. Part II covers 1940-1949+, Part III 1949+-1955, and so forth. Some choose to concentrate on just collecting the contents of "Big Blue".



3) The "Browns" The most comprehensive WW albums ever published by Scott for WW collectors. One can still obtain volumes that cover the world up to 1940.



4) The "Steiner" PDF albums can be downloaded as a classic subset that covers the years 1840-1940 (-1952 for British commonwealth).

So 1940, whether one agrees or not, tends to be the dividing year.

Personally, considering we are 60+ years past, I like 1950 as the "new" dividing line for "classics".

I personally think its a money issue. The people at Scott and others arbitrarily choose 1940 so they could deem those older than 1940 to be "classics" and as such raise their prices for these stamps and make some money out of it.

The standard answer would be that stamp prices are market driven, and Scott (and other catalogues) simply collect and report the transactions.

I do think, though, that any cutoff date for popular catalogues will tend to make collectors concentrate within those dates, and indeed cause some decrease in demand for the years after the cutoff. But I see no conspiracy.

Yes, combination of 100 year anniversay of 1st stamp, and start of WWII. But people who collect GB & Commonwealth coutries typically use 1952 (the start of QEII's reign) as the cutoff between classic and modern. A US collector could go even later, choosing a cut off of when they stopped making all or most all stamps engraved and started with the more of the gravure and offset printed stamps (say the end of 1969). Its all in the eyes of the beholder.