AFDCS Zoom Program: U.S. Churchill Stamp FDCs
Free Online Presentation April 3

Todd Ronnei, whose exhibit on the 1965 Churchill stamp has won top honors on many occasions, will guide a tour of his exhibit live on Zoom on Sunday, April 3, at 8:00 pm EDT. It will be offered afterward on the American First Day Cover Society’s YouTube Channel. During the seminar, he will explain what is included and why and provide tips about exhibiting in general.

“The U.S. Winston Churchill Memorial Stamp and Its First Day Covers” has won 13 Gold and Large Gold awards, three of them Reserve Grands. The most recent of those was at the Americover 2021 exhibition at Great American Stamp Show.

Ronnei’s exhibit began in 2007 with five frames, and has since grown to ten. It is a traditional FDC exhibit. Reflecting Churchill’s stature on the world stage, Scott 1264 was a five-cent stamp issued less than four months after the British statesman died. A memorial issue for a non-American issued so quickly after death was, and remains today, nearly unprecedented.

Ronnei is a paralegal in Minneapolis. He is also Exhibits Chair of Minnesota Stamp Expo and Exhibiting Chair and webmaster of the AFDCS. Other recent exhibits include first day covers for 1967’s Urban Planning (Sc. 1333) and the Fort Snelling stamp of 1970 (Sc. 1409), and stamps and FDCs for Churchill’s centenary in 1974. He has also written articles for First Days, Scott Stamp Monthly and others.

The Zoom address for the tour of “The U.S. Winston Churchill Memorial Stamp and Its First Day Covers” is here, or the meeting ID 879 5273 7174 with a passcode of 974882.

Membership in the AFDCS is not required to attend the seminar, but with memberships starting at $24 for Internet-only access or $35 with the printed magazine, it is very affordable and a good asset for any first day cover collector, anywhere in the world.

The AFDCS publishes handbooks, catalogues, directories and a bimonthly award-winning journal, First Days. The society also advocates for first day cover collecting and exhibiting, and is a co-host of Great American Stamp Show, which next will be held August 25-28, 2022, in Sacramento, Calif.

For more information on the AFDCS, visit its website www.afdcs.org, email afdcs@afdcs.org or write to the society at Post Office Box 246, Colonial Beach, VA 22443-0246.

[press release]
AFDCS Zoom Program: Computer Cachetmaking Made Easy
Free Online Presentation January 16

Peter McClure, the designer behind most of the first day covers produced the AFDCS Cachetmakers Series, will tell how he does it, and how you can do it, too, in a free American First Day Cover Society online video presentation, “Computer Cachetmaking 101:  The CEC Method.” It will be offered live on Zoom on Sunday, January 16, at 8:00 pm EST, and available afterward on an upcoming AFDCS YouTube Channel.

McClure has been making cachets as “CEC” — short for “Cuv Evanson” — since 2011. Although he no longer produces CEC FDCs for commercial sale, he is the “CEC” found on recent AFDCS covers. (The “FM” is AFDCS Sales Chair Foster Miller, who handles the business aspects.) “Cuv Evanson” was a joke used for family business telephone calls.

For his cachets, Peter uses a desktop computer running Windows, a Canon inkjet printer and an obsolete graphics program, “Microsoft Home Publisher 99.” All the artwork is found on the internet, books and magazines. In his presentation, he will explain how he finds the material, processes it and, eventually, prints it onto first day covers.

A former high-end retail store manager, McClure has no formal art training, yet his cachets are among the best sellers for many issues. Many of the designs have a touch of whimsy in them. You can see the currently available FDCs he has designed at www.afdcs.org/afdcstore01.html [examples are shown here; click for larger versions]

The Zoom address for “Computer Cachetmaking 101:  The CEC Method” is https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85814568456?pwd=VUtCbktNM3J2WjVpYm9nMzVDb3pPQT09 or the meeting ID 858 1456 8456 with a passcode of 858603.

Membership in the AFDCS is not required to attend the seminar, but, with memberships starting at $24 for Internet-only access or $35 with the printed magazine, it is very affordable and a good asset for any first day cover collector.

The AFDCS publishes handbooks, catalogues, directories and a bimonthly award-winning journal, First Days. The society also advocates for first day cover collecting and exhibiting, and is a co-host of Great American Stamp Show, which next will be held August 25-28, 2022, in Sacramento, Calif.

For more information on the AFDCS, visit its website www.afdcs.org, email afdcs@afdcs.org or write to the society at Post Office Box 246, Colonial Beach, VA 22443-0246.

Emrick Cachets’ hand-painted/hand-drawn first day cover for the Arnold Palmer stamp took top honors as the best cachet of the year, in the American First Day Cover Society‘s annual cachetmakers contest. Bob Emrick‘s design was also the winner of the HP/HD category.

For the first time, a junior member of the AFDCS, 17-year-old Arianna Calle, won an adult category. In fact, Arianna won both first and second place in Category 3 Hand-Painted/Non-Original Art.

The results, announced at the President’s Banquet during Great American Stamp Show/Americover 2021, covered issues released during 2020. You can see all the winners here on The Virtual Stamp Club.

Emrick, who lives in a suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth, also creates hand-drawn pencil-sketch and printed cachets, all from original art. He also uses “the knowledge gained from a great career in commercial printing.” His printed covers make at least three passes through the printer which “creates a much fuller color gamut with deeper shadows and richer color,” he says. “I think the extra time and effort this requires is well worth the results.”

Bob was previously honored in the AFDCS Court of Honor in 2016, which each year features an outstanding cachetmaker’s work on a first day cover for the holiday issues. His first cachet was in 2005 for 50s Sporty Cars.

Arianna Calle is the daughter and granddaughter of professional artists Chris and Paul Calle, both of whom have designed U.S. stamps. Her covers have won first or second in the junior categories more than a dozen times previously, dating back to 2009. Her father Chris is also a past Top Cachet winner. [Arianna is shown below receiving her award from Contest Chair Rick Gibson, while AFDCS President Lloyd de Vries looks on.]

You can see the first- and second-place winners in each category here.

The AFDCS Cachetmakers Contest is held annually for the previous year’s issues, with more than fifteen categories. Besides media and production methods, they include Foreign, Events, Esoteric and Rookie of the Year. Three anonymous judges, representing collectors, dealers, and artists judge each category, then choose the best of the best for the Top Cachet honor. The cachetmaker, by the way, is not eligible for Top Cachet the following year.

The Society publishes its award-winning journal First Days six times a year, as well as handbooks and directories, sponsors philatelic exhibit awards, advocates for FDC collecting and co-hosts the big national stamp collecting show each summer. The 2022 Great American Stamp Show will be held in Sacramento, Calif.

For more information on the AFDCS, visit its website www.afdcs.org, email afdcs@afdcs.org or write to the society at Post Office Box 246, Colonial Beach, VA 22443-0246.

by Lloyd A. de Vries

Don’t see a major event that should be commemorated in the current U.S. stamp program? Have an upcoming anniversary that you know will never get a postal memorial? There is a solution for it, although it won’t be a “first day cover:” You can request a special cancellation from the Postal Service.

Shown on the right is a Dragon Card I produced for the centennial of the birth of John Glenn. Rumor is rights issues prevented a stamp for this American hero. Another collector and I collaborated on ordering a postmark for the 100th anniversary of Glenn’s birth and his birthplace, Cambridge, Ohio.

The cost is $25, and the city and state in the postmark must actually have a post office. (No Dogpatch USA for my Jubilation T. Cornpone covers!) Requests must be submitted within 30 days after the date requested, and deadline extensions will not be granted. The postmark is round, 1¼ inches in diameter, and there is a minimum of 50 pieces. Covers must have at least first-class postage, currently 55 cents. The special cancellations are not available for APO or FPO addresses.

The cost of the cancellations is the same as for first day covers: The first 50 are free, and additional ones are 5 cents each. Orders should be sent to

USPS SFS Cancellation Services
8300 Underground Drive, Pillar 210
Kansas City, MO 64144-9998

Don’t need or want 50 covers commemorating an event? Look for other collectors who may want to service some, too. That’s what I did to produce 18 of the Dragon Cards shown here for the 50^th anniversary of the U.S. Postal Service. And you’ll notice the Amtrak card above has the same postmark, even though Amtrak officially began May 1, 1971.

You can use this to fill in the gaps in the stamp program.

[This is a modified excerpt from my First Day Covers column in the January 4, 2021, issue of Linn’s Stamp News.]

The Dragon Cards shown here can be purchased, while supplies last, on the Dragon Cards website.]

The American First Day Cover Society presents
The Amazing Cachets of George H. LaffertA Zoom seminar by collector Robert Lewin
May 16, 2021 8PM EDT/5PM PDT

Starting with a brief overview of the development of both the hand painted cover and the cacheted first day cover, the program will focus on the work of George Laffert, a pioneer producing beautiful covers from 1930 – 1941.

Join the Zoom Meeting by clicking this link:

Or, the meeting ID is 959 3561 0121 and the passcode is 616395.

Effective with the first issue of 2017 (Lunar New Year: Year of the Rooster), there are new addresses for submitting first day covers for servicing. For non-dealers and any submissions without USPS Stamp Fulfillment Services work orders, the format is
New FDC mail-in address for non-dealers:

FDOI-[name of issue]
Stamp Fulfillment Services
8300 NE Underground Drive, Suite 300
Kansas City, MO 64144-9900

If a particular type of cancel is desired, such as the Digital Color Postmark (DCP), that should be indicated in the address for fast processing, as such:
New FDC mail-in address for non-dealers:

FDOI-[name of issue] DCP
Stamp Fulfillment Services
8300 NE Underground Drive, Suite 300
Kansas City, MO 64144-9900

Dealers with work orders should use this address:

USPS SFS Cancellation Services – Dealer Processing
8300 NE Underground Drive, Pillar 210
Kansas City, MO 64144-9998

The major differences are no name of the issue, “Pillar 210” rather than “Suite 300;” and the ZIP extension.

Collectors and dealers alike who have questions may contact Celia Rodriguez, the Customer Service Specialist for Cancellation Services, at the Pillar 210 address, ☎ {816} 545-1345, or ✉ e-mail Celia.Rodriguez@usps.gov

(Celia is shown here hard at work at the USPS cancellations booth at World Stamp Show-New York 2016.)