2026 Map Index Coda

[George Thomas Wilson]

2026 Map Index Coda

 

The Exclamation Point

 

Hoping for another Sunday drop of Map Indices by Rob Choquette on July 12^th, I was surprised to find, instead, another batch of map indices, this time five for $37.02.  The problem was they were advertised as being bound in a book.  The images showed they were:

• 1936 Canada
• 1940 USA and adjacent areas
• 1943 Europe and the Near East
• 1943 World
• 1944 Germany and its approaches

At about $7.40 per index, it was at a price I almost paid immediately but just put it in my watch list instead.  My hesitance was two-fold.  For one thing, I didn’t need any of them for my primary or my backup collections.  Worse yet, being bound they were probably damaged.  Being an avid collector, my mind kept coming up with reasons to buy this item.  For one, the 1936 Canada and the 1944 Germany indices would be good “trading fodder;” I had just paid $102 for the Canada index (timing is everything).  Another rational was the karmic sign that I had none of these indices in my extras batch (even though I am in denial that I am starting a third collection).  It might have stayed that way but for the fact that due to my placing the item on my watch list, it triggered an offer.  The asking price was now $35.17 ($7.03 per).  That, and a true desire to rescue/repair the indices, was enough to have me pull the trigger on my third shotgun blast of the year.  With shipping and tax, the item cost me $44.63 ($8.93 per).

The item arrived on Friday July 17^th.  The first happy surprise was that none of the indices were damaged.  The “book” they were bound in was like a money clip, just pinching them together snuggly.  They were further protected by a sleeve.  The indices were easily freed by pinching back the book covers.  The second, happier surprise was that there was a sixth index in the set, the 1942 South America map index, so instead of each costing $8.93, the unit price comes out to $7.44.  This means my two recent Canada indices cost around $110, or an average of $55.  Since Rob has not dropped any more indices, and the rarity of map indices for sale, this is probably it for a very productive year!

 

A Backup Variant

 

Upon Checking my new, unexpected South America index, I realized that it was a second banner variant.  Of the four indices in my possession, two have “25c THE COPY” in the bottom/right banner and the other two have “WASHINGTON, D. C.” in it.

I had toyed with the idea of starting to collect “backup” variants.  I even made a half-hearted bid for an unshaded globe variant which I did not win.  Now that I have one, it has “broken” my worksheet.  It was already strained by my variant collection; I was using the “Note” column to document my banner and back page variants and just write the total below.  This would make the tenth of those types of variants, but putting a “10” below would not show that nine were from my Primary collection while one was to my Backup collection.  I am designing a new worksheet, but I’m not happy with the results so far.

 

Three Shotgun Blasts, Three Hits

 

Besides several purchases from Rob and one purchase from Germany, my map index collecting this year involved three batches of indices, each have at least one index or variant I needed.  I playfully refer to them as shotgun blasts because of the scattered nature of the indexes.  Each shot, one of nine, one of seven, and the final of six, had a grouping from 1940 to 1946 with one outlier in the 1936 or 1937 range.  Of the twenty-two indices in these blasts, seven were ones I needed (greater than a 30% success rate): one index for my Backup collection, three banner variants for my Primary collection, two back page variants for my Primary collection, and lastly, one banner variant for my Backup collection.  Looking at this method as a whole, I paid, with tax and shipping, $127.89 for 22 indices, or $5.81 apiece.  A narrower view is that I paid that much for the seven indices I needed, or $18.27 each, still a reasonable outlay.  Of the fifteen Extra indices, there is only one duplicate, ironically, the 1937 Pacific Ocean index.

 

Banner Variant Advertisement

 

Upon inspecting my latest variant pair, the 1942 South America indices, I notice something strange about the two pages of advertisements at the end of the pamphlet.  THEY WERE DIFFERENT.  The older, “25c” variant has the first page with a large, nine-line intro paragraph and only has a list of books.  Its second page has a list of ten-color maps, a map file, and a list of large pictures.  The newer “Washington” variant has the first page with a smaller, five-line intro paragraph, the list of books, the map file, and a list of enlarged maps.  Its second page only has a list of ten-color maps with a small pricing box in the upper/left corner.  Each map with an index is denoted by an asterisk (*).

I checked my other banner variants and found the same dual advertisement anomaly.  While the lists may vary between different indices as new items became available, the two basic formats (old and new) apply to all four of them.  I decided to check further and see whether all of the indices whose banners were exclusively “25c” had the old advertisement format and whether those indices exclusively “Washington” had the new format.  They all did with two very different but opposite exceptions.  The first is the 1939 Central Europe index’s dual unshaded globe/banner variant which has the new “Washington” banner but the old advertising format.  I believe the reason is that, since the variant was printed much later than the original (possibly in the 1960s), they wanted the contents to be as original as possible.  The banner was changed from “25c” either as an oversight, or to avoid printing an invalid price on the cover.  The second exception was found as I checked the boundary between the exclusively old (25c) banner and the exclusively new (Washington) banner.  That occurred between the 1944 Germany and the 1944 Southeast Asia indices.  As expected, the Southeast Asia index has the new banner and the new advertising format, but the Germany index also had the new advertising format, but with the old banner.  Checking backward, the next index was of the 1944 Japan map.  It had the old banner and the old ad format, meaning that the 1944 Germany index is the only one with an old banner but a new ad format.  That is the exact opposite of the 1939 Central Europe variant with a new banner but an old ad format.

 

The “Plain Jane” Era

 

Of the three plain white indices I possess from the early 1960s, I just noticed an anomaly in the oak leaf borders between them.  I had recently updated the photo of my 1962 Bible Lands Today (revision) to a better copy, and noticed the border was different than the other two.  In May 1926, the National Geographic Magazine changed its border to make it thinner (more room for cover photos).  This change was documented nicely in Dale’s discussion on Covers here at the ‘Corner.  The 1961 USSR non-supplement index preceded that change but has the new thinner border (before the magazine used it).  All the shaded globe indices dating back to the first in 1929 have the wider borders.  The 1962 Bible Lands index (whose map is dated January 1963) came after the change but has the older, wider oak leak border.  The 1965 World index has the newer, narrower border again, which is confusing, but par for the course with these indices.  But even the World index border is different from the USSR index border in that the corners are squared while the USSR corners are rounded with foliage.

It might just be an oversight.  Maybe the designer of the Bible index cover felt there was too much white and wanted to add a little more to its spartan look.  Whatever the reason, or lack thereof, this is once instance where the cover devolved instead of progressing.

 

Epilogue

 

2026 has been a very productive year for my Map Index collecting.  Not only have I added three indices to my Primary collection (which now stands at 96) and four indices to my Backup collection (which now stands at 78), but also nine variants to my Primary collection (for a total of 19) and one variant to my Backup collection (the first).  The down side, if you can call it that, is I now have 16 Extras, up from one at the start of the year.

 

Yours in collecting,

Tom Wilson