Project Overview

In October 2006 James L. D. Monroe, President of the Confederate Stamp Alliance, announced acquisition of the rights to the New Dietz Confederate States Catalog and Handbook, last published in 1986. The rights were secured from New Dietz Editorial Committee Chairman and owner Hubert C. Skinner. The new volume is titled the Confederate States of America Catalog and Handbook of Stamps and Postal History (more commonly referred to as the CSA Catalog).

This 21st century catalog takes advantage of all of the advances in technology that have occurred in the past quarter century, including publication in color. It is by no means a simple revision of prior catalogs. Much of the material in this catalog can be found in no other catalog or publication. It is a result of a major effort to build a new catalog from the ground up. A guiding principal of the editors was that items in the new catalog had to be confirmed by an image of the item. Information was derived from original period documents where possible, rather than repeated from the often conflicting statements of prior publications.

Each revised edition of the Dietz Catalog since its first publication over eighty years ago has seen many new listings. With the 1931 edition, the basic format was set and remained the same through the final 1986 edition. This new catalog takes a different approach, incorporating many of the features of the old Dietz Catalog and adding more. In the process some of the format was retained, but much was changed to increase the coverage contained in individual sections. Finally, an abbreviated subject index was added after the Table of Contents to aid the user.

To accomplish this task, the editors began with the listings contained in the 1986 Dietz Catalog and searched for any
new listings. They also mandated that every listing in the new catalog be verified by an image of the item. In cases
where no image could be found, the listing was retained as a legacy listing and indicated by an asterisk.

In comparing prior published works and catalogs, one invariably finds conflicting information. One of the most noticeable examples of this is in the section of Independent State and Confederate Use of US Postage. In order to ascertain the actual dates of secession and admission for each state, the editors re-examined the secession and admission processes of each state from original period documents. Where the results are subject to more than one interpretation or vary from previously accepted dates, the editors have set forth their explanation for the change in notes.

Sections that aren't completely new (Confederate Mail Carrier Services, Way Mail, Indian Nations, Covert Mail, an Advertising Cover guide and more) are greatly expanded and clarified including the General Issues section. The CSA 10c blue lithograph, for example, has one Scott number but is in reality three different designs and produced by two different printers. Some catalog sections are four times the size of the 1986 catalog, as well as being presented in color, making full use of today's technology.

Members of the Confederate Stamp Alliance are excited about this new catalog and delighted to have finally come to the end of the road with this six year project. Editor-in-Chief Trish Kaufmann emphasizes that this is the labor of dozens of learned contributors and not just the editorial board who organized and choreographed the contents, as well as adding a great amount of substantive content. The editorial trio all individually made major contributions to the 1986 edition and stress that this type of project cannot be done without the assistance of many others.

For an illustrated and far more in depth look at both the history of prior catalogs and the marvelous changes in this 2012 edition, see A 21st Century Confederate Catalog.

Confederate States of America Catalog and Handbook of Stamps and Postal History