- John N. Luff
John Nicholas Luff (
November 16 ,1860 -August 23 ,1938 ) was one of the importantphilatelist s of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, notable as an early user of scientific methods in the study ofpostage stamp s. TheLuff Award of theAmerican Philatelic Society is named after him.He developed a serious interest in philately in 1890, and joined the
Pacific Philatelic Society inSan Francisco, California . He moved toNew York City in 1893 with the intention of becoming a full-time stamp dealer, and the following year joined theScott Stamp & Coin Company , at the time one of the largest dealers in the world. At Scott he headed the approval department, edited the "American Journal of Philately ", and co-edited theScott catalog .In 1896, he helped establish the
Collectors Club of New York , and was later its president for a number of years.He became president of Scott in 1903, but moved to
Stanley Gibbons in 1905, shortly after returning to Scott, where he remained for the rest of his life.Luff had become perhaps the most prolific philatelic writer of the age, with works ranging from the tutorial "What Philately Teaches Us" (1899) to the classic reference work "The Postage Stamps of the United States" (1902), and numerous articles in the "AJP" and "
Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News ".In addition to building a US collection that won the gold medal at the Paris exhibition of 1900, Luff also collected
Great Britain ,Shanghai ,Hawaii ,Japan , andChina . But his most important collection was areference collection that he used as a basis for comparison whenexpertizing stamps at Scott. He sold the collection to Scott when he left in 1905; the collection was later donated to thePhilatelic Foundation , where it mostly still resides and is in useas of 2003 .Luff was president of the
American Philatelic Society from 1907 to 1909.Books
* "What Philately Teaches Us" (1899)
* "The Postage Stamps of the United States" (1902)
* "A Reference List of the Stamps of Panama" (1905)External links
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* [http://www.stamps.org/Almanac/alm_HallofFame_1941.htm APS bio of Luff]
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