Originally written by Harry Steinwinder, with edits and additions by others since. The Gulf Coast Stamp Club was started in the mid 1950’s. The club originally met at the USO building in Biloxi, MS. on Monday nights. The USO was located on the southeast corner of HWY-90 and Main street (now occupied by McDonalds) on Monday nights. Meetings were held in various locations across the coast on Saturday nights until around 1990, then settled in at the Biloxi Knights of Columbus Hall until Hurricane Katrina landfall in 2005. The hall was heavily damaged and the club was forced to use other facilities such as the Ocean Springs Library before settling in at the Jackson County/ St. Martin Library facilities on Lemoyne Blvd, meeting on Saturdays. Eventually, one meeting a quarter was scheduled at the Mercy House facility in Gulfport to promote club membership in the west side of the Mississippi Coast. That meeting schedule is in use today. A pre-meeting lunch was added a few years ago, and in 2024, a club swap meeting was inserted into the Saturday between the lunch and the meeting, allowing club members the opportunity to swap and trade stamps, etc.
The Gulf Coast Stamp Club’s first Stamp Show was held in 1974 at the Buena Vista Hotel. The club changed show locations through the years, including the Biloxi Community Center. The club stamp shows were then moved to the St Martin Library/ Community center for better public access. Here is a nearly complete list of all the club public stamp shows and the themes. The spring show (Gulfpex) is held with a “theme” in mind and promotes exhibits by club members and even exhibits from fellow club members in the region. 1974 No theme, no show covers Held at the Buena Vista hotel 1975 No theme, no show covers Held at the Buena Vista hotel 1976 “Rubber stamps” 1977 “Rubber stamps” Held Sept 18th 1978 “Gulfpex Station V” Held Sept 2st and 3rd 1979 “Beauvoir” Held Sept 1st and 2nd 1980 “Historical Biloxi Lighthouse” Held August 30th and 31st 1981 “Ship Island” Held Sept 5th and 6th 1982 “Gulf and Ship Island Railroad” Held Sept 4th and 5th 1983 “Landing of Pierre Lemoyne D’Iberville” Held Sept 2nd and 3rd 1984 “Honoring the American Indians “ Held Sept 1st and 2nd 1985 “Saluting the Biloxi Schooner” Held Aug 31st and Sept 1st 1986 “Saluting the Hurricane Hunters” Held Aug 30th and 31st 1987 “BB-64, The Battleship Wisconsin” Held Sept 5th and 6th 1988 “NASA and the Stennis Space Center” Held Sept 3rd and 4th 1989 “Steamboats and Steamboat history” Held Sept 2nd and 3rd 1990 “The US Coast Guard” Held Sept 1st and 2nd 1991 “Honoring Keesler Air Force Base” Held Aug 31st and Sept 1st 1992 “50 years of the Sea-Bee Base” Held Sept 5th and 6th 1993 “Honoring the L&N Sunset Limited” Held Sept 4th and 5th 1994 “Honoring the First Man on the Moon” Held Sept 3rd and 4th 1995 “50th Anniv. of the end of WW II” Held Sept 2nd and 3rd 1996 “25th Anniv. Gulf Islands Nat. Seashore” Held 1997 “50th Anniv. of the Air Force” Held Aug 30th 1998 “Fort Massachusetts” Held Sept 1st and 2nd 1999 “Biloxi Tri-Centennial” Held Aug 30th and 31st 2000 “Baseball Legends” Held Sept 1st and 2nd 2001 Held 2002 Held 2003 “Return of the Brown Pelican to Coast” Held Aug 30th and 31st 2004 Held 2005 Held 2006 “Motorcycles on the Coast” Held Sept 3rd and 4th 2007 “Gulf Coast Lighthouses” Held Sept 1st and 2nd 2008 “200th Anniversary of Jeff Davis B/D” Held Aug 30th and 31st 2009 “To Honor the Katrina volunteers” Held Sept 4th and 5th 2010 “Fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina” Held Sept 3rd and 4th 2011 “Submarine USS Mississippi SSN-782” Held Sept 2nd and 3rd 2012 Held 2013 “12th Anniversary of 9/11” Held Sept 13th and 14th
The Gulf Coast Stamp Club decides to start holding both a spring “themed” show and a fall non-themed show to promote stamp collecting. 2014 “Spring Bird Migration” Held April 26th and 27th 2014 Fall Stamp Bourse- no theme Held 2015 “Coast Baseball Team” (The Shuckers) Held April 24th and 25th 2015 Fall Stamp Bourse- no theme Held 2016 “Earth Day” Held April 23rd and 24th 2016 Fall Stamp Bourse- no theme Held 2017 “Mississippi Bicentennial” Held April 22nd and 23rd 2017 Fall Stamp Bourse- no theme Held 2018 “Treasures of the Gulf Coast” Held April 21st and 22nd 2018 Fall Stamp Bourse- no theme Held 2019 “Celebration of Women” Held March 15th and 16th 2019 Fall Stamp Bourse- no theme Held 2020 “50th Anniv. of Apollo 13 Safe Return” Held October 23rd 2020 Fall Stamp Bourse- no theme Held 2021 Held 2021 Fall Stamp Bourse- no theme Held 2022 Held Apr 8th and 9th 2022 Fall Stamp Bourse- no theme Held Sept 30th and Oct 1st 2023 “100 years of Disney Characters” Held Mar 31st and Apr 1st 2023 Fall Stamp Bourse- no theme Held 2024 “Solar Eclipse” Held Apr 5th and 6th 2024 Fall Stamp Bourse- no theme Held 2025 “Trains and the return of Amtrak” Held Apr 4th and 5th 2025 Fall Stamp Bourse- no theme Held Sept 26th and 27th
This was updated in January 2026 by Les Osborne. Thank Les. As you can see there are some gaps on the history including show themes and dates. If you can fill in any gaps, please reach out to Les.
