THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702070278
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY JACK DEMPSEY, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 135 lines
OVER THE YEARS, the Postal Service has put its stamp of approval on the Outer Banks.
The history, the beauty and the people of the wind-swept coastal islands have been commemorated 12 times with special stamps.
That's more than the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, Yosemite, Yellowstone or Niagara Falls, and seven more than issued for all of the rest of North Carolina.
The only attraction honored with more commemorative stamps than the Outer Banks is New York City's special lady, the Statue of Liberty, which has been featured 25 times.
Those figures were disclosed by the Outer Banks Stamp Club, whose members have come up with all kinds of information on commemorative stamps.
The Postal Service issued the first modern era stamps on July 1, 1847, which featured Ben Franklin and George Washington.
The first stamp honoring Outer Bankers singled out the first English child born in the New World. Virginia Dare, for whom the county was named, and her parents, Ananias and Eleanor White Dare, were commemorated on Aug. 18, 1937, 350 years after her birth.
The square shape and pale blue coloring make the stamp unique. And George Taylor, the stamp club's treasurer, said it has an interesting history.
``President (Franklin Delano) Roosevelt was an avid stamp collector,'' Taylorsaid. ``He contributed to the stamp's design and, to give it international exposure, gave it a five-cent face value, which made it useful for air mail overseas.
``He came down to the Outer Banks for the first day of issue through the Manteo Post Office, and stayed to see the sights.''
From the same historical period, the 1984 Roanoke Voyages issue is an unusual 20-cent stamp, which features a multicolored, masted ship.
It commemorates the 400th anniversary of the voyages that began in 1584 with a grant from Queen Elizabeth to Sir Walter Raleigh. The objective was an English colony in the New World.
Outer Bankers have become accustomed to describing that era of history as the Lost Colony period. The term, Roanoke Voyages, seems somehow strange, and perhaps a little impersonal compared to the Virginia Dare stamp.
Still, it is the Outer Banks' most distinctly colorful stamp.
Cape Hatteras has been commemorated twice. First came the 1972 Cape Hatteras National Seashore issue as part of the National Parks Centennial. This was a unique issue in that four different two-cent stamps combined for a single seascape.
The four stamps feature the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, a ship at sea, sea gulls and the beach.
The next postal salute to Cape Hatteras was a 25-cent, 1990 issue featuring the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Four lighthouses in other states were also featured as part of the U.S. Lighthouse Services' Bicentennial.
Clearly Cape Hatteras and its lighthouse are among the best-known beacons in the country.
Probably equally well-known are the Wright brothers and their world-famous first flight on Dec. 17, 1903.
Twenty-five years later, in 1928, the feat was first commemorated with a two-cent stamp in conjunction with the International Civil Aeronautics Conference in Washington, D.C. In 1949, a six-cent stamp commemorated the return of the plane from a tour of England. And in 1953, a six-cent stamp commemorated the first 50 years of powered flight with small images of the Wright plane and a then-modern, prop-driven aircraft.
Finally, in 1978, a pair of stamps commemorated both the Wright brothers and their plane on the 75th anniversary of the world's first powered flight.
In contrast to the Outer Banks, the rest of North Carolina has received only five commemoratives. These are the Great Smoky Mountains (1934, shared with Tennessee), the Carolina Charter (1963, shared with South Carolina), the bicentennial state flag series (1976), the state bird and flower (1982) and the bicentennial of the state's ratification of the constitution (1989).
The disclosure about the multitude of Outer Banks' stamps came just a few months after the Outer Banks Stamp Club was incorporated, with membership now approaching 50.
Roland Roehner of Nags Head headed the campaign to establish the club and is its president.
``I enjoy organizing things, and this seemed like an interesting thing to do,'' he said. A retired Maryland and Pennsylvania Church of Christ minister, he unsurprisingly specializes in stamps with religious themes from around the world.
Many collectors specialize to keep from being inundated with stamps from around the world. The Postal Service alone issues nearly 100 new stamps each year.
Gene Garrison of the Kitty Hawk Post Office collects Christmas stamps. Whit Summers from Avon favors first day covers. Others specialize in themes such as aviation, the Olympics, birds or flowers. Some collect stamps from specific countries.
Ron Morgenroth of Powell's Point, the owner of a huge collection, started his hobby as a child. He first completed a collection of U.S. commemoratives, then assembled stamps with fish from around the world and is currently working on an international collection of train stamps.
At the club's Feb. 9 meeting, vice president Morgenroth will offer a demonstration of stamp mounting techniques. He's retired from the Navy and has been collecting for years.
But some members are just getting started. Two youngsters have become regulars at the club's meetings. Alex Blivens, 7, of Nags Head, and Hilary Harmon-Scott, 10, of Nags Head find it fun.
``I think stamps are pretty,'' Hilary said.
There's no generation gap between the adult collectors and the youngsters, sometimes separated in age by over six decades. The adults share surplus stamps and expertise with the youngsters.
Why join a club?
``Mostly it's to be with people like me,'' Morgenroth said. ILLUSTRATION: Photos, including the cover illustration, by JACK
DEMPSEY
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was one of five beacons saluted in
1990.
Four hundred years after English ships brought settlers to America,
the ill-fated voyage was honored.
In 1949, a six-cent stamp commemorated the return of Wilbur and
Orville Wright's airplane from a tour of England.
Roland Roehner, president of the Outer Banks Stamp Club, looks over
the collection of Alex Blivens, 7.
George Taylor, treasurer of the Outer Banks Stamp Club, advises
Hilary Harmon-Scott, 10, about her stamp collection.
Ron Morgenroth of Powell's Point, vice president of the stamp club
and the owner of a huge collection, started his hobby as a child.
Graphic
AT A GLANCE
The Outer Banks Stamp Club meets the second Sunday of every month
at 3 p.m. at the Outer Banks Presbyterian Church in Kill Devil
Hills. The Feb. 9 meeting will feature a presentation on stamp
mounting techniques. For more information, call 441-7510.
To order copies of any Outer Banks stamp, call Mystic Stamp Co.
at 1-800-433-7811.