Slogan Cancellations -- From Out of the Past:
Slogan cancels are not much collected these days. Once a vital collecting area, now they are relegated to dusty boxes in the far corners of stamp shops or the darker corners of dealers' spaces at stamp shows. Today the circular date cancel with slogan has made way for spray-ons, whatever words they are trying to communicate either smudged, or so light that it's like trying to read a newspaper headline through a piece of American cheese.
The Cancellation Cataloger:
Collecting styles come and go -- there was once excitement surrounding slogan cancels, even controversy: was it right to have the slogan Pray For Peace on U.S. mail? Didn't that violate the rule about the separation of church and state?
The late Moe Luff was a cover dealer who realized he could better sell his stock of slogan cancels if there were a guide for them. So he went ahead and took it upon himself to publish that book, The United States Postal Slogan Cancel Catalog.
An Important Reference Work:
A Philatelic Soldier Fighting the Good Fight:
Luff was interesting in that he was just above the rank of kitchen table dealer, toting his wares to stamp shows in cardboard display boxes with sharpie written signs, the only employee in his company "self." Yet he was no less important to the hobby, as a sort of soldier in the trenches, though also able to hang out with the generals in the officer's lounge, thanks to his catalog.
Philatelic soldier Luff and his colleagues are the ones that the collector comes in contact with everyday at the stamp shows and in the shops or online. It is important to have a dealer or two who is aware of your interests and will be on the lookout for items you can add to your collection.
There are trends in collecting covers and they are tied into concerns such as politics, technology, wars and simply the thing that is "hot" at any particular time. Although a dealer like Luff is ready to sell you a Give, The United Way or Report Obscene Mail To Your Postmaster -- sentiments that no one could argue with -- there are also covers and cancels of controversy.
Among covers that can stir some collectors are some from Israel and Palestine, with religious or political themes. And in the 70s and 80's Luff sold Argentina covers related to ownership of the Falkland Islands that were closely related to a brief war between Britain and Argentina.
Still, it is this type of thing that connects stamp collecting to the world. While it seems that stamp collectors are hiding, they are actually studying the world in miniature -- after all, just about everything has appeared on stamps.
Luff took some criticism from some quarters about selling Shuttle Columbia disaster material. "Cashing in on tragedy," was a charge thrown at Luff and other dealers. But Luff believed that if an individual wants to sell such material he has every right to, without giving in to the wrath of those who don't agree. Moe Luff knew he was selling little pieces of history and he'd be damned if he let anyone censor him.
One of the most important aspects of collecting covers knowledgeably is adding to one's appreciation of history, as well as the march of progress humanity has made and will continue to make. Those who appreciate history might understand the desire to try to touch or at least get closer to it somehow. Collecting covers is a great way to do this. And once there was a dealer named Moe Luff, who helped collectors touch that history, a salesman of stamps and covers -- pieces of history you can touch.
