In last April’s issue of the SOS Signal, I showed some examples of various unofficial souvenir sheets from the 1940 Centennial of the Penny Black. I also wrote that somebody should compile a checklist of these cinderella sheets. Several days after the article was published I received a thick envelope from veteran SOSCC member, Boris Politziner. (Boris was VP of this club when I joined as a beginner over 25 years ago!) In the envelope was an old four-page thermofax checklist of over 80 different souvenir sheets issued in the U.S. for the Penny Black centenary. The list, according to Boris, was prepared many years ago by a collector named S. A. Garnett.¹ Since we now know that such a list already exists, I would like to use this article to show some interesting examples of the U.S. cinderellas from Garnett’s inventory. [Ed: Link here to view the list.] In a future issue of the SOS Signal I will conclude this series by showing some examples of foreign souvenirs honoring the centenary of the Penny Black.

Figure 1.

My first example is a 1940 souvenir label distributed by Harrisburg, PA stamp dealer Elmer Long with four cartoon drawings by John Coulthard (Figure 1). Certainly the artist’s caricature of Queen Victoria here was considerably less flattering than the lovely Wyon Medallion portrait after which the Penny Black stamp was modeled.

Figure 2.	Figure 3.

Most of the American cinderella issues were mementos from various U.S. stamp exhibitions held in 1940 and each took a different approach to the centennial theme. The earliest of these was a small souvenir sheet issued for the Bison Philatelic Society’s show in Buffalo, NY in early January 1940. The sheet pictures the Penny Black stamp, a bright red bison club symbol, and the wording "The ‘Penny Black’s’ 100^th Anniversary"(Figure 2). The Midwest Philatelic Society of Kansas City, Missouri, published a similar motif, combining the society’s triangular emblem with the Penny Black in a small souvenir sheet on yellow paper (Figure 3).

Figure 4.	Figure 5.

The Deseret Stamp Club of Salt Lake City, Utah issued souvenir sheets in two colors, black and blue (Figure 4). The design shows the Penny Black and two-penny blue stamps on a background of the Mulready envelope, the world’s first postal stationery. This is a nice example, I think, of a design that incorporates all three of the philatelic "firsts" appropriate to the 100^th anniversary of the postage stamp.

The Madison, Wisconsin stamp club took a very different approach to the design of the cinderella sheets issued for their exhibition. They employed an Art Deco motif with one-penny stamps from 1840 and 1940 shown next to a Figure reminiscent of the two-faced Janus head from Roman mythology (Figure 5). These sheets exist in three different colors, magenta, brown, and purple.

Figure 6.	Figure 7.

Someone employed creativity in a hybrid "stamp" put out by the Michigan Stamp Club. The stamp uses the frame of the Penny Black but incorporates a vignette of Queen Victoria reminiscent of the famous full-face Chalon portrait found on the early stamps of New Zealand and several other British Colonies (Figure 6).

The next example of a U.S. cinderella sheet was issued for the Passaic, NJ stamp club that held its exhibition the first week in May, coinciding with the actual May 6 centennial date. The sheet (Figure 7) shows a bumper crop of sixteen Penny Blacks forming a border around another large red and blue "stamp" with a vignette of Uncle Sam. Altogether this sheet strikes me as a colorful but incongruous combination of national symbols.

Figure 8.

The Crescent City Stamp Club in New Orleans put out a souvenir sheet with a large perforated "stamp" picturing the bust of Queen Victoria (Figure 8). My copy is in three colors, red, black and beige on white paper. According to Garnett’s list, this cinderella also exists on four other colors of paper, both perforated and imperforate, making a total of ten different types of this sheet for the specialist to collect.

Figure 9.	Figure 10.

My final example came from the Washington D.C. Philatelic Society. I have saved it for last because I think it is the most important. This odd little design on yellow paper (Figure 9) illustrates an enlarged version of the commemorative meter slogan used in Washington D.C. on the 100^th Anniversary of the Penny Black (Figure 10). This meter slogan was the closest thing to official postal recognition of the world’s first postage stamp that happened in the United States in 1940. All of the other American philatelic reminders of the centennial were cinderellas.