Jacques Minkus

Jacques Minkus
Jacques Minkus
Born	December 15, 1901; Poland
Died	September 17, 1996 (aged 94)
Nationality	USA
Occupation	Engineer
	Engineering career
Projects	Originator of the Minkus stamp catalog and numerous albums for philatelists
Awards	Luff Award ; APS Hall of Fame

Last updated April 10, 2019

Jacques Minkus (December 15, 1901 – September 17, 1996), of New York City, emigrated to the United States in 1929 and established stamp counters for postage stamp collectors at numerous department stores in the United States.

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km²), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Philately is the study of stamps and postal history and other related items. It also refers to the collection, appreciation and research activities on stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting, which does not necessarily involve the study of stamps. It is possible to be a philatelist without owning any stamps. For instance, the stamps being studied may be very rare, or reside only in museums.

Philatelic activity

Minkus established his first stamp counter at Gimbels department store in Manhattan in 1931. He was successful in this method of selling stamps and continued to open stamp counters in department stores until the 1960s, when he had opened thirty eight counters.

Gimbel Brothers (Gimbels) was an American department store corporation that operated for a century, from 1887 until 1987. Adam Gimbel opened his first store in Vincennes, Indiana, in 1842. In 1887, the company moved its operations to the Gimbel Brothers Department Store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, then became a chain when it opened a second, larger store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1894, moving its headquarters there. At the urging of future company president Bernard Gimbel, grandson of the founder, the company expanded to New York City in 1910.

Manhattan, often referred to locally as the City, is the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City and its economic and administrative center, cultural identifier, and historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state of New York. The borough consists mostly of Manhattan Island, bounded by the Hudson, East, and Harlem rivers; several small adjacent islands; and Marble Hill, a small neighborhood now on the U.S. mainland, physically connected to the Bronx and separated from the rest of Manhattan by the Harlem River. Manhattan Island is divided into three informally bounded components, each aligned with the borough's long axis: Lower, Midtown, and Upper Manhattan.

Minkus also published a stamp catalog titled Minkus New World Wide Stamp Catalog starting in 1955. In addition to the catalog, he published over one hundred stamp albums for collectors.

The Minkus catalogue was a comprehensive catalogue of American and worldwide postage stamps, edited by George A Tlamsa and published by Krause Publications. In the United States Minkus competed with the Scott catalogue as a distant second. Generally sold through department store stamp collecting departments, it had its own system of numbering stamps which was used in its catalogues and stamp albums; Scott's numbering system is proprietary. The Minkus catalogue and numbering system was acquired by Amos Press in 2004 and no further editions were published. The last US catalog was the 2004 Krause-Minkus Standard Catalog of U.S. Stamps.

Honors and awards

The Service to Philately Award was presented to Minkus by the American Stamp Dealers Association in 1966. In 1993 he was awarded the Luff Award for Exceptional Contributions to Philately. In 1997 he was elected to the American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame.

The American Stamp Dealers Association (ASDA) is an international philatelic organization of stamp dealers.

The Luff Award is awarded by the American Philatelic Society for meritorious contributions to philately by living philatelists.

The American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame award honors deceased philatelists who have contributed significantly to the field of national and/or international philately.

Legacy

The Minkus catalog is still used by some collectors today, as it contains material not included in other stamp catalogs.

External links

Robert McG. Thomas Jr., "Jacques Minkus, 94, Dies; Brought Stamps to Masses", The New York Times , September 19, 1996
Is the Minkus Supreme the "Goldilocks" Album for WW Classical Collectors? Friday, April 10, 2015.

<i>The New York Times</i> Daily broadsheet newspaper based in New York City

The New York Times is an American newspaper based in New York City with worldwide influence and readership. Founded in 1851, the paper has won 125 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper. The Times is ranked 17th in the world by circulation and 2nd in the U.S.

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