The AEF Booklet Panes of 1917
This web page contains links to the content of the pages for the exhibit 'The AEF Booklet Panes of 1917', by the late Al Kugel.
The United States entered the war on April 6, 1917 and prepared to send large numbers of men to fight in Europe. At first, soldiers could send first class mail from the Army Post Offices in France to the U.S, at domestic rates (Postal Bulletin of June 18, 1917) so it was expected that large quantities of 1 and 2 cent stamps would be required for mailing postcards and letters to folks at home.
For convenience, it was decided to print special booklets containing 10 panes of 30 stamps each. The first batch of 500 booklets of each denomination was shipped from the Bureau of Engraving & Printing in July and arrived in France in early August. A much larger second shipment of 2,500 of each of the booklets followed a month later.
Because of the way in which they were printed, the stamps from the AEF panes were different from other varieties with Washington images. In order to get panes of 30 stamps each, the paper was rotated 90° on the press from the orientation used to produce sheet stamps. As a result, the output was of 360 stamps per print as compared to 400 when four panes of 100 normal stamps were printed. During this process, the paper was moistened and when the stamps dried, they shrank slightly relative to the grain so that the stamps from the AEF panes were a little wider and shorter than those from sheets.
The expected major use of these stamps never came about because the troops were granted free franking for first class mail sent from the APOs as of October 4, 1917 by act of Congress. Thus, most use of stamps from the AEF panes tends to be multiple franking to pay the 10¢ fee for registered mail and to pay postage on mail of non-military personnel (i.e. war correspondents, staff members of the American Red Cross, YMCA and similar organizations, and certain others permitted to use the APOs but not exempt from postage).
This exhibit was created by, and is the property of the late Al Kugel, and is being supplied by his heirs as a courtesy to the Military Postal History Society. (See the MPHS webpage) The Military Postal History Society (MPHS) is a non-profit organization for philatelists and stamp collectors interested in the collecting and studying of the postal aspects of all wars and military actions of all countries, including soldiers' campaign covers, naval mail, occupation and internment covers, patriotics, propaganda, V-mail, censorship and similar related material.
This exhibit, created by the late Al Kugel, is made up of 1 frame, which by definition contains 16 pages. There are additional pages present of certificates for the rarities shown.
Single searchable PDF file with all pages Exhibit of the AEF booklets (including certificate images)
(See the PDF information page for additional help with this file format.)
This exhibit, created by the late Al Kugel, is made up of 16 pages, but the full exhibit display contains additional certificates for this rare material. The page images are all available as Web Pages of the Exhibit of the AEF booklets
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Updated 21 September 2025