Today’s #stampoftheday, which I’ll describe at some point in this post, has me thinking about the rules we establish when we set a challenge for ourselves. I’m thinking about it because I’ve had to decide which rules apply – and in what way – for today’s offering.

Some background: When I started this #stampoftheday “misadventure” in mid-April, the challenge I set for myself was to find, scan, and write about a stamp in my late father’s stamp collection that was somehow connected to that day. Sometimes, this is easy because the stamp shows the date of the event it honors or I have a first-day cover (showing the day something was issued).

But often this requires a bit of online research. Fortunately, Mystic Stamp, one of the larger dealers, has a “this day in history” feature, which often provides guidance. (However, it often references stamps issued after the 1970s that aren’t in my father’s collection). Mystic’s website also includes information about every US stamp, including the day it was issued and a summary of what it honors, which are both very helpful.

When I can’t turn up anything from stamps, first-day covers and Mystic’s website, I look at the variety of websites devoted to “what happened on this day in history,” including who was born and who died on any given day. And since I’ve now pored over the seven notebooks full of stamps and the piles of loose stamps that make up the collection, I have a pretty good idea whether I have a stamp that relates to the event or person in question.

Sometimes there are multiple options. Yesterday, for example, when I wrote about Johannes Gutenberg, I could have written about the brothers Mayo, founders of the Mayo Clinic, or Frederick Remington, the artist famous for his western scenes. (I chose Gutenberg.) And sometimes, the pickings are slim. Today is one of those days. The only plausible stamp I can find is one picturing Yosemite National Park, which was officially established on October 1, 1890. But this poses a problem under my “rules,” because I used this image when I wrote about Yosemite on July 16, the day, in 1934, that the Post Office issued this stamp, which was the first of ten stamps portraying national parks.

While my “rules” don’t allow me to reuse a previously featured stamp, today, I’m saved by a technicality. Although I’ve used this image before, the actual stamp is different than the one I used in July. The one pictured here was issued in October 1934 as part of an effort to make up for what stamp collectors call “Farley’s Follies.”

These take their name from James A. Farley, a New York political leader who served as Postmaster General under President Franklin Roosevelt. (I wrote about him as part of posting in May). In 1934, Farley gave friends special full-sheet issues of 22 stamps, including the 10 stamps of the National Parks issue and a popular Mother’s Day issue.

Among the recipients were two keen stamp collectors: President Roosevelt and Harold L. Ickes, the Secretary of the Interior. The sheets were not perforated and did not have gum on their backs, which made them especially valuable. As The New York Times explained in a 1991 article about these stamps, “Mr. Farley had taken a few dollars’ worth of common stamps and inflated their value enormously. Representative Charles L. Millard of New York, who set off a Congressional investigation into the gifts, estimated that the stamps given to Mr. Ickes alone could have been worth $60,000 to $100,000.”

Moreover, the Times noted, “ordinary collectors called a philatelic foul.” Finally, “Mr. Farley managed to defuse the investigation by promising to print enough unperforated and uncut sheets to satisfy collectors’ demand.” These included the stamps pictured here, which were issued in October 1934 in conjunction with the Trans-Mississippi Philatelic Exposition and Convention (a maskless gathering where I hear they partied well into the night).

This satisfied collectors who rushed to buy the stamps. In fact, some dealers bought huge numbers of the stamps in the hope that they would rise in value. That didn’t happen so in 1940, the Post Office offered to help the dealers at least use the stamps as postage by coating the backs with gum.

So, even though this is the second time I’ve used this image, it’s technically a different stamp which means, for now, my streak is intact and I haven’t had to break the rules.

I don’t know why that matters to me but it does.

Stay safe, be well, don’t break important rules (like wearing a mask), fight for justice and work for peace.