| Founder(s) | August Dietz et al |
|---|---|
| Location | USA |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Focus | postage stamps, postal history |
| Mission | appreciation for the postal history of the Confederate States of America |
| Method | conventions, exhibits, authentication services |
| Revenue | membership |
| Endowment | the Freeland-Hill-Gallagher Reference Collection |
| Website | Confederate Stamp Alliance |
The Confederate Stamp Alliance is a philatelic organization dedicated to the collection and study of postage stamps and postal history of the Confederate States of America (CSA). It is an affiliate (No. 73) of the American Philatelic Society.
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The Alliance was considered as a suggestion of Dr. Marye Y. Dabney to August Dietz in 1934 and established in 1935 under the cognizance of the famous CSA philatelist August Dietz, and by 1937 had already 85 active members.
Membership is available to all collectors and students of postage stamps and postal history of the Confederate States of America. Application for membership may be accomplished on the Alliance’s website.
The Alliance conducts an annual CSA Philatelic Convention and Exhibition held at various national stamp shows across the country, allowing CSA stamp collectors to meet and discuss their hobby, and to view exhibits of CSA postal history. Recent conventions were held in Charlotte, North Carolina (in 2008); Williamsburg, Virginia (2007); New York City (2006 at the American Stamp Dealers Association (ASDA) mega-event); McLean, Virginia (2005 at NAPEX ’05); Sarasota, Florida (2004 at the National Stamp Show); and, at St. Louis, Missouri,(2003 at the St. Louis Stamp Expo).
The Alliance also provides authentication services for postal material of the CSA and issues Certificates of Authentication for stamps and covers found to be authentic. The service was founded and organized October 1, 1945 as the CSA Authentication Committee and has six voting members, including the Recording Secretary, and twelve consultants with expertise in specialty areas.
A basis of the authentication service is the Freeland-Hill-Gallagher Reference Collection—a collection of Confederate fakes, forgeries, and fantasies formed by the late Rev. Paul B. Freeland—which was donated to the Alliance in 1977 by Colonel John R. Hill Jr. and Colonel Scott Gallagher.
The official publication of the organization is its awards winning journal the Confederate Philatelist which is published quarterly. Previous publications of the organization were the Confederate Bulletin, from 1940 to 1952, and the Confederate Stamp Album, from 1956 to 1959, with The Confederate Philatelist starting publication in 1960.
In 1929 August Dietz published his famous The Postal Service of the Confederate States of America. It has been subsequently revised and updated, the last time in 1986 under the new title New Dietz Confederate States Catalog and Handbook. Rights to the book have been obtained by the Confederate Stamp Alliance, which plans to issue the latest version of the book in 2010 as the Confederate States Catalog and Handbook. Editor-in-chief of the project is Patricia A. (Trish) Kaufmann of Lincoln, Delaware who is responsible for collecting philatelic inputs for the catalog update from members as well as non-members.[1]