Since 1968, the Collectors Club of Chicago (CCC) has published more than 30 specialized philatelic handbooks, compendia and anthologies.
Printed in limited quantities, the published handbooks are only available at select libraries; however, because the CCC maintains the copyright, club officials have completed a digitization program, offering 28 of the publications for download at a nominal cost (starting as low as $9.95 US).
“Those handbooks being digitized were published pre-2005, and no longer are available from existing CCC stocks, or from the philatelic literature dealers,” reads the club’s website. “Several members donated copies of the earlier handbooks, as the club’s library did not have multiple copies.”
Several of the handbooks, including The Waterbury Cancellations, 1850-1890 published in 1975, command at least $200 on the collector’s market, according to the CCC.
Overall, the titles are diverse, ranging from specialized U.S. collecting areas to esoteric foreign subjects. To view them, click here.