This week will see another increase in U.S. postal rates, with the cost of a first class stamp going up to .44¢ and other prices rising as well. Even though this rate hike was planned for some months, it happens to coincide with a recent announcement that the U.S. Postal Service suffered a $1.9 billion loss for their second quarter. It is no secret that the U.S.P.S. has been struggling over the past few years. While issues of poor management and inefficiency need to be considered, it seems to be clear that new methods of communication such as email are competing with traditional postal mail.

This all sounds pretty gloomy, and it is no secret that postal services and thereby stamp collectors, will be needing to adjust to a rapidly changing landscape. But there was more hopeful news recently as well. The Simpsons issue has already sold over a billion stamps. This is an impressive feat and shows that stamps can still capture the imagination. Now the task is to translate that interest into an interest in philately. We can use issues like Star Wars and the Simpsons to get younger folks involved and make new collectors.

Some look at the price increases, financial losses and shrinking of the hobby and see only gloom and doom. I prefer to look at the situation as one of opportunity, a chance to contribute and reenergize the hobby. Obviously philately won’t be what it was in the past, but it never is, and we are the ones who can define what it will become.

The Czech Republic has just released stamp issue celebrating 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy. This issue honors noted astronomer Johannes Kepler, whose work Astronomia Nova was printed 400 years ago. A German, Kepler spend several years in the Czech city of Prague as an assistant to the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Kepler’s achievements include a comprehensive star catalog and planetary guide, The Rudolphine Tables, a telescope design, and served as an astrologer and adviser to the Holy Roman Emperor. He is best known for his laws of planetary motion which were one of the first attempts to combine physics and astronomy. These laws are of critical importance in studying the motion of planets and were an important foundation for later discoveries, including the theory of gravity discovered by Newton.

The stamp is a well-designed one, with a likeness of Kepler merged with a representation of the elliptical planetary orbit he discovered. The International Year of Astronomy is leading to some really nice looking stamps. Collecting these issues would be a great way to introduce yourself to a wide variety of international stamps. Further information on this issue is available from the Czech Post.

The United States Postal Service is holding its 17th Annual Stamp Out Hunger Day on Saturday, May 9th. Working with the National Association of Letter Carriers, Campbell's Soup, Feeding America, the United Way and the AFL-CIO, the USPS will gather food donations from postal carriers while delivering the mail on Saturday. In 2008 the drive collected 73,113,915 pounds of food, and over one billion pounds of food during the history of the program. If you would like to help out with this great program simply leave some non-perishable or canned food (nothing in glass please) outside your door or by your mailbox. I encourage you all to participate and help out a good cause.

Ah, the stamp catalog. Not counting tongs and the stamps themselves, perhaps one of the most vital tools for the philatelist. It helps us identify and value our stamps, while educating us to the innumerable varieties, errors and other phenomena that await us out in the soaking trays. As I studied the Harris 2009 US/BNA Catalog to review it, I realized that many of the general catalogs present much of the same information. What separates them is the level of detail, the amount of supplemental information, and a lot of smaller things. Paper quality, color vs. black & white images, whether the book can lay flat, and electronic options are all things to look for in the modern catalog. I have relied on the Scott family for years, but as I expand my collecting interests I find I am always on the look out for new resources. For example the catalogs issued by the USSR contain a great deal of information that I had not seen before, the only drawback being that I am forced to use my very rusty Russian.

Given that there are so many options and things to look for in a catalog, I thought it would be interesting to see what you prefer to use.