59th annual postmark convention held at Capitol Plaza Hotel

<p>Julie Smith/News Tribune</p><p>Karen Liniman and Mark Gollnick sort through postmarked cards and envelopes as Gollnick looks for particular cities Thursday. Liniman and Gollnick are from Florida and made the trip to Missouri for this weekend’s Post Mark Collectors Convention at Capitol Plaza Hotel . Like collectors of anything, these individuals have very specific features or details they look for. As part of the convention Thursday, Jim Stuckey, lead clerk at the Jefferson City Post Office, was on hand to postmark envelopes for collectors which included the name, date and an image of the Capitol in the stamp.</p>

Julie Smith/News Tribune

Karen Liniman and Mark Gollnick sort through postmarked cards and envelopes as Gollnick looks for particular cities Thursday. Liniman and Gollnick are from Florida and made the trip to Missouri for this weekend’s Post Mark Collectors Convention at Capitol Plaza Hotel . Like collectors of anything, these individuals have very specific features or details they look for. As part of the convention Thursday, Jim Stuckey, lead clerk at the Jefferson City Post Office, was on hand to postmark envelopes for collectors which included the name, date and an image of the Capitol in the stamp.

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night may prevent the delivery of mail, but COVID-19 did disrupt the gathering of postmark collectors to the Capital City in 2020.

The 59th annual Post Mark Collectors Club (PMCC) Convention got off to its official start Thursday.

Postmarks are the postal markings put on stamps indicating when and where an item was processed by the post office. A postmark contains the location of the post office and the state inside a circle, with the date in the center, and adjacent lines to cancel or "kill" the stamp. A postmark may also be referred to as a cancel.

The PMCC convention began Thursday at the Capital Plaza Hotel and will continue through noon Saturday. Masks are optional and will be provided by the hotel.

The U.S. Post Office will be present at the convention from 3-4 p.m. today, open for sales as well as hand cancellations. This year's PMCC convention postmark was designed by Jefferson City artist Jim Dyke.

Every year, the event is organized by a different member or members of the PMCC and held in a different part of the country. This year's organizers are Mel and Rita Kallal, of Jefferson City. The Kallals estimate that nearly 40 out of 350 members of the national organization have attended the convention to buy, sell and trade postmarks, as well as sort through the free cancel tables.

"Usually, we have about 50 to 100 members come to the convention, but some of them are still scared of COVID," PMCC member Kent Bickell said.

Many PMCC members began their collections at a young age.

Mike Del Grosso, of Reno, Nevada, said he began his collection as a child and has been collecting for 50 years.

Rita Kallal began collecting stamps when she was 11 years old and became interested in postmarks when the post office decided they were going to discontinue city postmarks.

"They were just going to have these regional (postmarks), so I decided there weren't going to be any more postmarks, and I got interested in them," Kallal said.

The methods of collecting postmarks are endless.

General collectors may aim to collect a postmark from every post office, while others may only collect from certain time periods, states, counties or regions. Some may only collect pictorial cancels, which are limited edition and usually commemorate events or anniversaries.

"I collect from the states of Missouri and North Dakota, and I collect all postmarks that are on Statue of Liberty stamps," Kallal said.

Her favorite part of the convention is the freebie swap tables.

"Postmark collecting is a relatively inexpensive hobby, unless you're looking for extremely rare and old postmarks, it's not that expensive to do," she said.