What's New At the PF>
Fall 2009: New Activities and Projects
Projects
Welcome to the thirteenth edition of "What's New at the PF". As Chairman of The Philatelic Foundation, I would like to update you about our new projects and activities. This fall we are continuing our exciting Stamp Image Library project which will be of great value to the philatelic community and help fulfill our mission to encourage and advance philately.
 Upcoming Stamp Image Library
The Philatelic Foundation's plans are moving ahead to place images of virtually all 475,000 stamps and covers expertized over the past 64 years on our web site. The first phase of this project, to be completed by June 2010, will put online 100,000 images of the most recent stamps and covers examined by The Philatelic Foundation. We will show both the images of the stamps and covers along with The Foundation's final opinion. The Stamp Image Library will be searchable, allowing interested stamp collectors, researchers and professionals to easily access this information. All this information will be available for free as part of The Foundation's historic educational mission and to further our goal of promoting philately. Our certificates are the gold-standard that give confidence to both collectors and dealers when buying and selling. The greatest collections of United States and Foreign stamps and postal history have been assembled based on the opinions of PF certificates.
David T. Beals, III
The David T. Beals III Charitable Trust, Bank of America Trustee, has provided a very generous grant which will fund most of the cost of the first year of the Stamp Image Library project. The philatelic community owes him a debt of gratitude for continuing to help our hobby. Actually, The Philatelic Foundation feels that the philatelic community owes a debt of gratitude to all of our contributors!
CNBC Report About Stamps As An Alternative Investment
 Last month a CNBC.com camera crew and producer spent an afternoon at The Philatelic Foundation filming information for a report on stamps as an alternative investment. This report features the collection of Bill Gross and also had clips of Philatelic Foundation Trustees Charles Shreve of Spink Shreve Galleries and Don Sundman of Mystic Stamp Company. Included in the report is a segment showing Lewis Kaufman, our Curator, examining and watermarking stamps. The video can be found online by clicking on this link.
Fast Service
The Experts at The Philatelic Foundation continue to do an amazing job returning stamps and covers much faster than the average turnaround times listed on our applications. For example, the turnaround time on stamps and covers submitted for Priority Service has been averaging less than three weeks (15 business days) rather than the four weeks (20 business days) indicated on our applications. Even more important for most of our clients, the average turnaround time for our Standard Service has been only four weeks (20 business days) rather than the six to seven weeks (30-35 business days) shown on our applications. Now is a great time to submit your stamps and covers and enjoy this fast service.
The PF's Grading Manual
As you may recall, the Philatelic Foundation published an easy-to-use grading manual in April 2009. This publication has been well received for its clarity and utility. This manual evidences The Philatelic Foundation's belief that grading, when used properly, can help new and non-specialist collectors understand how stamps can be evaluated and compared using a numerical system. If you would like a free copy of our Grading Manual, please call us at 212-221-6555 or e-mail sbelasco@philatelicfoundation.org and we will send you one. You can also view and use the online version on this web site. (Please be aware that this is a large file that may take several minutes to download).
Contributions
The PF is nonprofit educational organization chartered by the State of New York. Donations to the PF are tax deductible to the full extent of the tax law. In order to help us fulfill our mission to educate stamp collectors and promote our hobby, we need assistance from the philatelic community we serve. Contributors receive a number of benefits outlined on our web site at including the right to submit items for expertization without making advance payment. Click here to find out more. Please make a contribution today.
I hope that you will contact me at gjkk@optonline.net with comments and suggestions about how we are doing at the PF and how we can continue to serve philately.
Thank you for tuning in,
George J. Kramer
Chairman
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