A team of five local collectors took home top honors during the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors team competition at Chicagopex 2024.
Calling itself Déjà vu, the team hoisted the trophy during the awards ceremony at the show, held Nov. 22-24. The show is sponsored by the Chicago Philatelic Society.
Team members included Rocco Caponi, Jere Dutt, Bob Farley, Scott Pendleton and Greg Shoults. All are members of the Akron Collectors Club. Caponi, Dutt and Shoults belong to Garfield-Perry.
The entries and their results were:
- Wayne Farley, Soldier Due Uses from West Virginia during the Civil War: Large Gold
- Greg Shoults, The Production of Rotary Press Coil Waste Issues 1918-1922: Large Gold
- Jere Dutt, Birth of a Colony: Dahomey 1850-1903: Large Vermeil
- Scott Pendleton, Uses of the 1902 Second Bureau 15 Cents Henry Clay: Large Vermeil
- Rocco Caponi, Centenary of the U.S. Postal Card: Vermeil
Shoults’ single-frame exhibit received the Reserve Grand Award at the show, helping carry the team to the title.
A second team from the Akron Collectors Club — calling themselves the Akron Phils — also entered the competition. Participants included Ed Andros, Michael Bass, Ken Nilsestuen, R. Steven Saks and Bill Ullom. All are GP members.
The Akron Phils finished sixth out of the seven teams that entered.
In addition, Andros won the Rossica Society’s President’s Award, an unexpected honor that surprised him.
Meanwhile Farley won the Auxiliary Markings Club Award as well as the Military Postal History Society Award. Ullom received an AAPE Award of Honor.
Nilsestuen, who serves as AAPE president, announce that the team competition award has been named in honor of Tony Dewey, an experienced and talented exhibitor who came up with the team competition idea to make exhibiting more enjoyable.
AAPE has sponsored a team competition at a World Series of Philately show since 2006. Early on, the rules favored experienced exhibitors with classic material.
To encourage other entrants, AAPE has revised team competition rules several times. The rules now encourage novice exhibitors and new exhibits and include the Grand Award winner of the annual Single Frame Competition hosted by Chicagopex.
