Difficult Run MB Day

Inst: Mr. Reed

Oct 2026

Stamp Collecting Merit Badge Prework

• Read the Scouting America merit badge pamphlet and download it at: Stamp Collecting MB Pamphlet
• Requirements 7 and 8 must be completed before Merit Badge Day. For requirement 7, select two from 7a. thru 7f. and bring your design, review, report, or display work to Merit Badge Day. For requirement 8, bring your collection to Merit Badge Day.

7. Do TWO of the following:

(a) Design a stamp, cancellation, or cachet.
Resources: Creativity in Cachets (video)
Pictorial Postmarks (video)
What Makes a Good Stamp Design (video)
Designing Your Own Stamp, Cancellation or Cachet (PDF)

(b) Visit a post office, stamp club, or stamp show with an experienced collector. Explain what you saw and learned.
Resources: Visiting a Stamp Show (video)
The Great American Stamp Show 2024 Wrap Up! (video)
The Great American Stamp Show 2025 (video)

(c) Write a review of an interesting article from a stamp newspaper, magazine, book, or website (with your parent or guardian's permission).
Resource: Linn's Stamp News (website)

(d) Research and report on a famous stamp-related personality or the history behind a particular stamp.
Resource: History through Cachets (video)

(e) Describe the steps taken to produce a stamp. Include the methods of printing, types of paper, perforation styles, and how they are gummed.
Resource: Stamp Production (video)

(f) Prepare a two- to three-page display involving stamps. Using ingenuity, as well as clippings, drawings, etc., tell a story about the stamps and how they relate to history, geography, or a favorite topic of yours.
Resource: Have Lasting Fun: How to Create an Exhibit and Enter It Into a Show (website)

8. Mount and show, in a purchased or homemade album, ONE of the following:
Resource: How to Make Your Own Stamp Album Pages! (video)

(a) A collection of 250 or more different stamps from at least 15 countries

(b) A collection of a stamp from each of 50 different countries, mounted on maps to show the location of each

(c) A collection of 100 or more different stamps from either one country or a group of closely related countries

(d) A collection of 75 or more different stamps on a single topic. (Some interesting topics include Scouting, birds, insects, the Olympics, sports, flowers, animals, ships, holidays, trains, famous people, space, and medicine.) Stamps may be from different countries.

(e) A collection of postal items discovered in your mail by monitoring it over a period of 30 days. Include at least five different types listed in requirement 3.

We will do requirements 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 in the session but you should review these requirements prior to Merit Badge Day.  

The session is intended to be a morning or afternoon only session.

Warning: The usscouts.org worksheets are no longer maintained and do not reflect the current merit badge requirements.