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N.Y. World's Fair Souvenir Sheets

Marvin Lanahan




I recently purchased one of the La Rue souvenir sheets from the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair (shown above). It is simply several printed images of Vatican stamps printed on heavy card stock. Curious if the Microsoft Co-Pilot would produce any information about this card I typed in my question and got the result shown below (directly quoted):

"Question:. Did Thos. De La Rue, Inc, publish Souvenir Sheet for Vatican Pavilion at New York World's Fair?

Copy
Searching for: Thos. De La Rue, Inc, publish Souvenir Sheet for Vatican Pavilion at New York World's Fair

Generating answers for you…
Yes, according to a 1 source, Thos. De La Rue, Inc. published an official souvenir sheet for the Vatican Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. The souvenir sheet was sold at the Vatican Pavilion and contained three cards (5 1/2 x 7 inches) that depicted various subjects. Card A showed Popes who have reigned over Vatican City State. Card B showed Vatican stamps with churches. Card C had varied subjects.

The souvenir sheet is so interesting that the editor took it upon himself to make the information about their purchase available to all V.P.S. members (an unsolicited and unpaid ad). The cards can be obtained as shown or with the special “cancel” shown at left for $1.00 for each card from:

Fair Philatelic Agency Box 64, World’s Fair Station, Flushing, N.Y., 11380.

I hope this helps!

1 vaticanstamps.org
2 nycago.org
3 digital.hagley.org "

Uhm, I saw that Co-Pilot cited the VPS website as a source of information. That's interesting! So, I went to the VPS website and did a quick search and found Jim Hamiliton's Q4 2014 article on the 1964 World's Fair (see link below). Flipped through the article and found the image that matched my souvenir sheet. Found that I now have two more to collect. Jim's article mentions that the back side (shown below) has a printed red serial number. He doesn't describe the stamp descriptions printed on the back side or some of the other information that Co-Pilot gave me.

Going back to the article search list from the VPS website, I found the 1965 Vatican Notes article describing these souvenir sheets and offering them for sale to VPS members. (see link below)

Between AI tools and the VPS website, it seems that VPS members have a lot of informational resources available for researching the contents of their collections. I wouldn't say it is always this easy. I have found mistakes in some of the information that the AI tools generate. Just be careful and double-check everything! Good hunting!!



Reference
• James C. Hamilton, The Vatican and the 1964 New York World's Fair, Vatican Notes, Fourth Quarter 2014, Whole Number 362, pages 10-15
• Thos. De La Rue, Official 'Souvenir Sheets' - Vatican Pavilion - New York World Fair, Vatican Notes Vol. XIV, Number 1, July-August, pages 1-3