Jacques Minkus

Jacques Minkus (1901–1996), 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.

Philatelic activity

Minkus established his first stamp counter at the Gimbel’s 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.

Minkus will most likely be remembered for his stamp catalog entitled “Minkus New World Wide Stamp Catalog” published in 1955. In addition to producing the catalog of stamps, he published over one hundred stamp albums for stamp collectors.

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 in 1993 for Exceptional Contributions to Philately and, in 1997 he was elected to the American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame.

Legacy

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

See also

• Philately
• Philatelic literature

References

• Robert McG. Thomas Jr., "Jacques Minkus, 94, Dies; Brought Stamps to Masses", The New York Times, September 19, 1996