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News about APNSS and plate number singles
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Always: Orders taken for the 2026 edition of Hebert's Catalog of Plate Number Singles.
Now: Renew your APNSS dues if your mailing label expiration date says May 2026 or earlier.
At shows: APNSS membership application forms will be available at the Midwest Stamp Dealers Association (MSDA) shows in suburban Chicago, at other shows in northwest/west suburbs of Chicago, and in Countryside, a southwest suburb, as well as at Milwaukee and Kenosha, Wisconsin area shows. These shows are frequently attended by several dealers with good stock of classic and modern plate number material.
April 2026: Plate Numbers (APNSS newsletter) issue #2 for 2026
May 23-30, 2026: Visit the APNSS booth at the Boston 2026 Philatelic Exhibition at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
Saturday, May 29, 2026, 11:30 a.m.: APNSS membership meeting and presentation at Boston 2026. Members, guests and new members are invited to attend.
May 2026: Plate Numbers (APNSS newsletter) issue #3 for 2026
July 2026: Plate Numbers (APNSS newsletter) issue #4 for 2026
APRIL 2026
** NEW ** April 1: The "Plate Number Single of the Month" for March is Scott R733, the 10¢ Documentary commemorative issued in 1962 in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Internal Revenue Service. It was reissued the following year without the "Established 1962" as the final Documentary revenue stamp, Scott R734.
MARCH 2026
** NEW ** March 26: Plate numbers reported for recent 2026 issues. Details on the New Issues - 2026 page.
** NEW ** March 20: Some of the images of special tax plate number singles had become "detached" from the Revenues - Snuff page. The missing images have been reloaded.
March 1: The "Plate Number Single of the Month" for March is Scott 1202, the 4¢ Sam Rayburn stamp issued in 1962. Until the passage of the 20th Amendment in 1933, newly elected members of Congress were sworn in by the Speakef of the House on March 4th. While three other Speakers of the House (Henry Clay, James K. Polk, Howell Cobb) have appeared on U.S. stamps they were honored for other achievements. Sam Rayburn is the only one specifically honored for his long tenure as Speaker of the House.
FEBRUARY 2026
February 15: Plate numbers reported for some early 2026 issues. Details on the New Issues - 2026 page.
February 1: The "Plate Number Single of the Month" for February is Scott 1475, the 8¢ LOVE stamp issued in 1973. This was the start of a regular USPS tradition of issuing a love-themed stamp in February. More recent issues are often paired with a 2-ounce rate stamp, as they are very popular for mailing wedding invitations and RSVP responses.
JANUARY 2026
** NEW ** January 21: Listings for Snuff Special Tax stamps have been renumbered according to the latest Springer Catalog of U.S. revenue stamps. As described in a 2025 article in Plate Numbers, there are two types of snuff: finely ground powder that can be inhaled, and finely ground tobacco that can be chewed, more commonly known as chewing tobacco. The snuff special tax stamps were used for both types, with stamps in ounces or even fractions of an ounce typically applying to snuff and stamps in pounds typically applying to pounds. In addition, a few images that did not load properly have been fixed. Check out the finished product at Revenues - Snuff Stamps under "View Examples."
January 16-18: APNSS president Juan Riera hosts the APNSS booth at the Sarasota National Stamp Exhibition, January 16-18. Check https://sarasotanationalstampexhibition.com for details. On the first day of the show, Jan. 16, Juan presented two talks: "Goodyear Blimps in South Florida" and "U.S. Navy Airships in Souther Florida and Western Cuba."
January 15: Plate numbers reported for some early 2026 issues. Details on the New Issues - 2026 page.
January 5: APNSS newsletter Plate Numbers is in the mail (or email inbox) for all members.
January 1: The "Plate Number Single of the Month" for January is Scott 3369, the 33¢ New Year stamp issued in 2000. Other than Christmas stamps portraying Madonna and Child, you have to go all the way back to the 1937 5¢ Virginia Dare issue to find another stamp depicting a baby. In addition, USPS also issued a 2000 stamp featuring a dragon, in the ongoing series honoring the traditional Lunar New Year.
DECEMBER 2025
December 15: New plate number P2222 reported as a "reprint" of the Holiday Cheer booklet. Later information indicates it's not a reprint, but rather that two plate numbers were used to print the initial USPS order of 500 million stamps. Additional details on the New Issues - 2025 page.
December 7: Canal Zone listings have been redone to fix a few images that did not load properly. Check out the finished product at Canal Zone for overprinted U.S. issues and Canal Zone 2 for printings for use in Canal Zone, or click on U.S. Possessions under "View Examples."
December 1: The "Plate Number Single of the Month" for December is Scott 1205, the 4¢ 1962 Christmas stamp. Other countries had issued holiday stamps for many years, but at the time many considered it controversial for the U.S. government to issue a religious-themed stamp. It proved to be immensely popular, and there have been new Christmas stamps every year since. Varieties pictured on our website include a PNS of the proof from the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum (entirely in green!), a locally precanceled PNS, and examples of misperfs.
NOVEMBER 2025
November 23: Oleomargarine revenue taxpaid PNS have been renumbered according to the Springer Catalog 10th edition, and additional images have been added. Details on the Oleomargarine page.
November 22: New Scott numbers announced for recent 2025 issues. Additional details on the New Issues - 2025 page.
November 10: USPS has announced the preliminary stamp program for 2026. Details on the New Issues - 2026 page.
November 1: The "Plate Number Single of the Month" for November is Scott 3546, the 34¢ Thanksgiving stamp from 2001. It was popular enough to require two printings, with plate numbers P1111 and P2222, but not popular enough that USPS has issued another Thanksgiving stamp since..
In this spot, we used to have a link where you could sign up with a free service to have an email sent to you automatically whenever the APNSS website was updated. The company that provided that service, ChangeDetection, has been absorbed by VisualPing. Now, rather than signing up on the site you want to monitor, you sign up directly with them and specify the url of the site you want to monitor. It's still free [as of March 2026], at least for a reasonable number of messages each month, so go to VisualPing.io and sign up for www.APNSS.org. Or choose another web monitoring service -- there are lots of them out there. But don't miss out when there's news about plate numbers!
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This page last updated April 2, 2026.
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