Career
Starnes created significant collections of postal history, with emphasis on covers as opposed to postage stamps. He was particularly interested in foreign mail usage. His impressive and important collection of postal history of United States Department stamps was stolen and never recovered.
In 1982, Starnes published United States Letter Rates to Foreign Destinations, 1847 to GPU-Universal Postal Union, which he later revised and updated in 1989.
He was one of the editors of the Chronicle of the United States. Classic Postal Issues, and was responsible for the Foreign Mails Section.
