SEQUIM — At 10, Dawson Marunde pushes the envelope when it comes to stamp collectors — most are several decades his senior.
He loves the first stamps printed, the Queen Victorias, stamps with a NASA space program theme, and has found himself immersed in what he sees as the fascinating postal history of horseback delivery, better known as the Pony Express.
Dawson, whose grandfather, Larry Priddy, inspired his grandson’s interest in stamp collecting, will feature his Pony Express exhibit as part of the annual Sequim Stamp Show on Saturday.
The show — scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m at the Sequim Masonic Lodge, 700 S. Fifth St. — draws collectors from Forks, Port Townsend, Quilcene and elsewhere on the North Olympic Peninsula and Canada.
Dawson is the son of the late Sequim strongman, Jesse Marunde.
“I am really interested in Queen Victoria and space,” said Dawson, who will be a Sequim Community School sixth-grader this fall. “It just fascinates me.”
First stamp album
His grandfather, a stamp collector since was 9 — for 54 years — said Dawson was just 9 when he got him interested in stamp collecting, buying him his first stamp album for Christmas.
“We’ve gotten pretty close over the years,” Priddy said, adding that is particularly true since Dawson’s father died in 2007 of heart failure after a workout.
That bond is strengthened by the mutual interest in stamp collecting.
Dawson mailed a letter asking the National Pony Express Association for information, and the group that maintains the memory of the Pony Express mailed him back a packet with a CD, informational brochures and copies of a letter with a Pony Express stamp on it, circa 1860-1861 — worth up to $20,000.
Dawson’s Pony Express exhibit will include a “mochila,” or knapsack, the Pony Express riders used to carry the mail on horseback from Missouri to California in the early 1860s.
Cathie Osborne, who co-founded the Strait Stamp Society in 1973, still leads the oldest stamp club on the North Olympic Peninsula.
16 years old
The stamp show started 16 years ago, she said, when a group of stamp collectors from Victoria encouraged her and other area stamp collectors on this side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca put on a show.
Many Victorians still take the Coho ferry to Port Angeles, and Osborne picks them up for the Sequim show.
“We’ve got members and exhibits and dealers who come and sell their wares,” she said, adding the Sequim club has up to 30 who participate in the show.
She collects stamps with a “bell” them, from Liberty bells to cities with bell in their names.
Phil Castell, a Sequim club participant and a native of England who has lived in Sequim 25 years, said the show will exhibit 30 frames of different exhibits and different stamp subjects.
Seven dealers will show their collections and offer free appraisals of any stamps people bring to them.
There will be a table offering 1-cent stamps, and Sequim Postmaster Steven Allen will sell stamps and provide a free special show catchet.
Free stamp magazines and periodicals also will be available.
The Strait Stamp Society meets the first Thursday of every month at 6 p.m. in the Sequim Library and is open to all.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
