The Spring Mega Show was once again held in Madison Square Garden in the heart of Manhattan. The show floor was occupied by 72 dealers, four postal administrations and eleven societies, including the United States Stamp Society. Our booth was staffed throughout the four days of the show and served as both a meeting place for current members as well as a means of attracting show attendees, resulting in four new members. Our Society banner along with a display of our current books, reprints and past copies of The Specialist made an attractive showing, resulting in good publication sales figures.

A special thanks goes out to Roger Brody, Tim O’Shea, Jerry Davis, Jacques Schiff, Jr., Steve Belasco and Jim Kloetzel for helping man the booth at different times. As always, we are deeply grateful to Tom Jacks of Mountainside Stamps for hauling all of our booth supplies to and from the show.

The Spring Mega is a World Series of Philately show and the exhibits on the floor covered a wide spectrum of United States philately. The topics included New York City carriers and locals, the 1930 postage due series, the use of airmail stamps from 1918 through 1993, the 1903 Hartford postal stationery, a multi-frame showing of the two cent 1893 Columbian stamp and a single frame study of the 1902 Series 13¢ Harrison stamp. The Grand Award and the United States Stamp Society Statue of Freedom Medal were won by Harvey Mirsky’s exhibit, “The U.S. 1847 Issue: Stamps That Changed the System.”

Two new U.S. stamps were issued during the show. On Thursday, the first day of the show, the four American Scientists stamps made their debut in grand style with a full blown first day ceremony. The following day, the reissued 1¢ Tiffany Lamp definitive of the American Design Series was issued with only one muffled announcement over the public address system. True to the weather during the month of March in New York, the Scientists roared in like a lion while the Tiffany Lamp arrived like a lamb.

As mentioned above, our booth was a popular place for members to get together and exchange information. Although most of those who stopped by were from the immediate area, we were pleased to meet members from as far away as Florida, Ohio, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland and Connecticut. Those visiting the booth included:

Sal Spagnola	Steven Rod	Michael Laurence
Tom Mazza	Benjamin Lee	Charles Groneman
Alan Bush	Jerry Davis	Rick Schwartz
Alan Warren	Dick Celler	Steve Breitkopf
Mike Frank	William T. Crowe	Jim Kloetzel
Henry B. Scheuer	John Stopka	Mike Borut
Roger Brody	Greg Sutherland	Tom Jacks
Fred Skvara	Francis Fergerson	Steve Belasco
Andy Kupersmit	Tim O’Shea	Robert Rufe
Labron Harris	Phil Sager	Steve Suffet
Harvey Mirsky	George Masseo	Rob Loeffler
Ken Martin	Benjamin Y. Lee	Charles McCarthy
Michael Epstein	Jacques Schiff, Jr.	Wade E. Saadi
Frank Braithwaite	Irv Miller	Allan Scheter
Gene Pica	Richard T. Garner	Brian Bleckwenn
Joseph M. Napp	Bob Rabinowitz	Edward Schmid