“Detective” Deery among stamp collecting’s elite

If a big part of stamp collecting is detective work, Mike Deery is beginning to rank alongside Sherlock Holmes.

Deery, a retired Wallaceburg secondary school teacher won not one but two major awards at the prestigious New York World Stamp Show in June against some of the top stamp collectors in the world.

“It was extraordinary to be even selected to exhibit,” he said. “It sounds like a cliché but I was just happy to be there. I would have been tickled pink to have gotten a bronze.”

Instead, he took home a “large vermeil” (two points below gold) and a special award presented by the Collectors’ Club of Chicago.

Deery’s exhibit focused on World War Two and censorship and demonstrated the many different slips and categories used by censors to filter communication they deemed detrimental to the war effort.

In order to qualify for the show, Deery had to submit an application through the Canadian commissioner of the event detailing his presentation, provide a synopsis of what he would display and had to pre-qualify by being a winner of a gold medal at an event in Canada.

There were 22 Canadians among the more than 800 exhibitors and Deery was the only one to have won an award.

“This show is like the Olympics of stamp collecting,” he said. “It only takes place in North America once every ten years. The next one is in Boston in 2026.”

The award from the Collectors’ Club was a sterling silver platter made even more impressive because it is given at the discretion of the club.

“This award is presented only when the club believes an exhibit meets its standards,” he said.

Deery has been collecting stamps for more than sixty years and got into the habit the way most children did when he was young.

“I started when I was eight years old,” he said. “I’d soak them off the paper and paste them in a stamp album. I’ve taken it much more seriously in the past 20 years.”

He said he once had tens of thousands of stamps but his collection is now around the 500 mark.

“When you start off you want a worldwide collection but at some point you realize it’s just not possible so most philatelists (one term used for collectors) begin to narrow their focus.”

Deery’s interest in censorship, suspended mail letters returned to sender, turned him into an expert in the field and the author of the most comprehensive book on the subject.

Written in 2011, it sold out and a second version updated in 2015 has virtually done the same.

“I only have three left. I have agents in the UK and the US.”

He said one of the most enjoyable aspects of the hobby is tracking down stamps and paraphernalia associated with his genre.

“The fascinating thing for me is the research. The search is more exciting than finding the item – it’s like a being a detective and every once in a while I get a eureka moment when I find something I didn’t even know existed.”

His exhibit included one censorship slip that may be the only one of its kind in existence.

“It’s not in any list of the standard slips but I have it.”

In addition to mail censored for “communicating with the enemy”, he’s seen mail returned to its sender over issues such as the writing being too small to be microfilmed by censors, and mail which went halfway around the world only to be returned.

One such letter was posted in San Francisco addressed to someone in Denmark but was censored in Hawaii and returned to the writer.
The slips are rare because most of the time they were simply thrown out, often with the letter when it was returned.

Another has the offending portion of the letter underlined.

“It takes you back to exactly what was going on at the time,” he said.

Although the use of postage has declined, interest in stamp collecting has increased.

“With more people retiring and going back to hobbies they may have had as a child, the interest is picking up,” he said. “I used to be able to pick up items particular to my area of interest two or three times a month, now I’m lucky to get a new piece once or twice a year.”

A member of the Wallaceburg and Kent County stamp clubs, Deery said collecting is a great hobby that can be enjoyed in isolation or in a group setting.

“It’s a great rainy day hobby or a winter past time,” he said.

He said more than a quarter of a million visitors attended the eight-day show that attracted media attention from newspapers, major American television networks and MacLean’s magazine.

It included a display of the 1856 British Guiana 1-cent magenta stamp, and music legend John Lennon’s stamp collection, which he started when he was a child.

Deery saw some of the show but with more than 70,000 pages of exhibits, he didn’t get to everything.

“It gives me something to look forward to in Boston in 2026,” he laughed.