ESC SHOWS

The Edmonton Stamp Club hosted another successful Spring National Stamp Show. The show was opened with a brief ribbon cutting ceremony by Councilor Andrew Knack, standing in for Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, who wanted to attend but was called away a day before the show. Also, Doug Hunter represented the food Bank. The show collected at least 2 of their large boxes full of non-perishable food. Thanks to everyone who gave!

Our theme this year was the 150th Anniversary of the UPU (Universal Postal Union), very well related to our hobby. Well over 300 people attended, coming from Edmonton and area, Saskatchewan, B.C. and as far away as New York City! There were 13 Dealers all from Western Canada, and 144 Exhibit Frames from all over Canada including New York City, which won the Grand Award. A fabulous Exhibit on the early stamps of Mexico that bore overprints from all the postal districts of Mexico. The largest collection of these to exist! The owner can now place his exhibit in the annual American Philatelic Society’s Stamp Show in Connecticut this year. Our Show is in part of the WSP (World Series of Philately). We all hope his exhibit will do well with thanks for travelling so far to attend our stamp show.

The judges travelled far as well to judge at our show. We want to thank Tim Bartshe as Jury Chairman, Michael Bloom, Jan Hofmeyr & David McLaughlin as Jury Members.

There was a Junior Table that was well attended. This is the hope of our hobby’s future. Let’s hope these juniors continue into adulthood. The success of this, and any stamp show, is so dependent on the many volunteers needed to come and lend a hand or two; for set up and take down, and manning tables during the show for the Juniors, Circuit Books and the Club Front Tables. We are also blessed to have people on hand to give free evaluations of the many different stamp collections that people brought. The evaluators were quite busy throughout the show. Hopefully the owners were satisfied with the results.

We, The Edmonton Stamp Club want to thank all those who participated at any level to make our show a great experience for everybody. We hope to see you all again and hopefully more new people at our next show, next year March 29-30, 2025.

The ESC 2024 Show was opened by Edmonton City Councillor Andrew Knack, and Edmonton's Food Bank Rep Doug Hunter.

Click HERE to download the 2024 Show Program in PDF form.

CLICK TO VIEW PALMARES AND SPECIAL AWARDS

Grand Award winner Omar Rodriques.

Dealer's Bourse was well attended, along with Club Circuits.

City Councillor Andrew Knack takes in the Dealer's Bourse.

Awards Breakfast

Dealer's Bourse was well attended, along with Club Circuits.

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CLICK ARROWS TO VIEW ESC SHOW PHOTOS

MEET THE 2024 ESC SHOW JUDGES

Tim Bartshe

Tim Bartshe is a wide-based collector, specializing in the Southern Africa area, particularly the Orange Free State and Transvaal, all aspects including post cards, revenues, postal history, etc. He also collects Ecuadorian revenues, Guatemalan officials, and general worldwide up to 1940. Tim has been collecting for seventy years, exhibiting for over twenty-five years and a judge since 1999. Once very active in organized philately as president of the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors and member of the Committee on Accreditation of National Exhibitions and Judges for twelve years, he has settled back to a more leisurely pace of a few shows a year just enjoying life with his wife and his love of traveling. Jury Chairman.

Michael Bloom

Michael Bloom began collecting stamps at age ten and he has never stopped. He recently finished a six-year term as a Director of the American Philatelic Society (APS) and was a member of APS’s Campaign for Philately Committee. He has served on the APS Membership Committee and as chair of the APS Education Committee. His newly found freedom led him to become an Apprentice Judge with an expected certification date of March 2024. Michael’s current philatelic interests include collecting Latvia and Guatemala. He is co-author of the book The Municipal Revenue Stamps of Latvia: 1883 to 1945 (2019) and editor of the handbook The Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery of Guatemala (2023). Michael is president of the International Society of Guatemala Collectors and is on the board of the PIPEX show in Portland, Oregon. At World Stamp Show New York 2016 he was on the organizing committee and designed and implemented the Welcome to Stamp Collecting Pavilion. He will do the same at Boston World Stamp Show 2026. He is a prolific writer, with articles published in The American Philatelist, Philatelic Literature Review, and many others. Michael believes that we owe it to future generations to keep stamp collecting alive by making research and writing accessible, in other words, by bringing philatelic handbooks back from the dead. Jury member.

Jan Hofmeyr

Jan Hofmeyr was born in Beaufort West, South Africa in 1953. He has been married for forty-nine years and has eleven grandchildren. He lives in Victoria, BC. After a twenty-five-year break to run a business and help raise a family, he started collecting again in 2005. He built an award-winning collection based on the 1861 3c of the USA. He also collects essays and proofs to do with philatelic invention in the USA; and for a time he built a small collection of postal history relating to skirmishes in South Africa. He has exhibited at the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie (FIP) level on four continents, always getting gold or large gold. Jan belongs to too many philatelic societies. His philatelic home was the Royal of Cape Town. Now it is Victoria Stamp Club. He is also a member of the Royal Philatelic Society of London (RPSL) and the United States Philatelic Classics Society where he acts as their VP for international members. He publishes mainly in the Chronicle. He currently serves as their sub-editor for the Essay Proof section. He has won a number of awards for his philatelic research. Jury member.

David McLaughlin

David McLaughlin, Fellow of both the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada (RPSC) and the RPSL, has maintained an interest in philately for over fifty years. His traditional format exhibit, titled the Maple Leaf Issue of Canada 1897-1898, won two Reserve Grand and five Grand awards in Canada since first shown at the Edmonton Spring National in 2011. It has also competed in the World Series of Philately Champion of Champions three times. David began exhibiting internationally in 2015 at FIP, Federación Interamericana de Filatelia (FIF), and other international shows. To date he has competed in seventeen international exhibitions and won eight international Large Gold medals including FIP Large Gold medals at London 2022 (97 pts), Hunfilex 2022 (96 pts), and IBRA 2023 (96 pts). Since 2018 David has regularly served as the Canadian national commissioner for international exhibitions. David was the concept originator and Chairperson for CAPEX 22, the world’s first International One Frame Stamp Championship Exhibition held in Toronto in June 2022. David is President of the British North America Philatelic Society and the Vincent Graves Greene Philatelic Research Foundation. He is also the RPSC International Liaison Officer and a director of the FIF. David has been a national level judge since 2019 and served on the 2023 Great American Stamp Show jury. He is pleased to return to the Edmonton Spring National jury where he served his first national level jury apprenticeship. Jury member.