APS BLACK LIST

 Did you know the American Philatelic Society (APS) used to have a “black blot” list of stamps?  It included all the stamps deemed to have “no postal necessity, excessive numbers of individual stamps, high values relative to the postal needs of the issuing country, or issues that included intentional errors or imperfs.”  Basically, it was a list of stamps the APS thought exploited the hobby by trying to intentionally appeal to stamp collectors.

The list originated in the 1960s and was updated with new issues through the early 1990s.  But the practice was discontinued when it became apparent that most new US stamps should be black blotted.