History of the Stamp Effort

The committee is a group of individuals who live in various parts of the United States, have never met in person, but know each other via email. They share an intense interest in coal mining because they have ancestors who were miners and/or a deep respect for the people who worked in this industry that was such a major player in the Industrial Revolution, and those who still mine coal to generate 57% of our nation's electricity.

It is important to understand that there have been previous attempts in the last 20 years to get a stamp issued. These attempts were localized, and the response was “no historical significance” or “no general public interest”.

There is correspondence dating from 1986 to May of 2000 sent by, on the behalf of, or to Mr. John Vengien, of Plymouth, Pennsylvania as he has headed this effort for so many years. A few federal elected officials have supported his efforts, to no avail. He worked in the mines, is now 82 years old, but is not ready to give up on the commemorative stamp for coal miners. It is time for others to add their voice to his and convince the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee that it is the long overdue "right thing" to do.

August 2000:

• Within the first week, three people were members of the committee. Additionally, Mr. Eric McKeever, of McKeever Publications agreed to sponsor the Committee on his web site at www.minecountry.com and to also be the Chairman of the committee. Within a week, two more committee members were on board.
• A Plan of Action was established. It was determined that 26 states still mined coal and the committee decided they would contact all federal and state elected officials in those states. The compilation of lists began.
• The committee also contacted the teacher of the school children who have been working on getting a stamp passed for over a year. The decision was made to include and support the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania fourth graders in the committee's letter.

September 2000:

• The lists of elected officials, totaling over 4,000 names and email addresses, were completed by the end of the month. This was a very time intensive task.

October 2000:

• Emails to the elected officials were sent until the point was reached where emails started bouncing because the officials were out of their office for election campaigning.
• This time was not wasted. Emails went to state historical societies, tourism bureaus, mining organizations and coal companies, and letters to the editors of newspapers. Additionally, an on line petition was established for people to sign. The signatories number in the thousands and represent all but a couple of the states in the United States.
• Added two more committee members.

November 2000:

• Not all people have their own computers. As a result, the committee decided to contact the public libraries in the 26 coal mining states and ask them to make the petition URL available to their patrons to use on library computers.
• Added one more committee member.
• Emails to elected officials will restart this month.