[press release] [click on any of the pictures for larger versions]
AFDCS Republishes Mellone Cachet Catalogues
All 18 volumes of the Mellone’s Planty Photo Encyclopedia of Cacheted First Day Covers, encompassing issues from 1901 through 1939, are now available from the American First 
Day Cover Society, either as digital downloads or computer-printed unbound copies punched for looseleaf notebooks. That includes the long out-of-print Volume 17 that catalogues the Baseball Centennial issue of 1939, Scott 855.
The AFDCS obtained permission from Michael A. Mellone’s estate to reprint his important books on first day covers. Eventually, the society hopes to expand and update the listings. Already, Volumes 1 through 6 include updates that were published in First Days, the official journal of the society. The catalogues may be ordered from the AFDCS website, www.afdcs.org/catalogs.
“First day cover catalogs are essential for any collector of first day covers,” said Publications Committee chair Mick Zais. “They identify cachet makers and establish rough 
measures of scarcity and desirability. Providing these catalogs online is a great service that the American First Day Cover Society provides to its members and the public.”
Also available are reprints of Mellone’s Specialized Cachet Catalog of FDCs of the 1940s and the 1950s. A reprint of the 1960s catalogue should be available soon.
The cachet catalogues by Prof. Earl Planty first appeared in the 1970s, but Mellone’s FDC Publishing Co. was responsible for refining and expanding the concept and making the books available to a wider audience. The knowledge contained in these books revolutionized first day cover collecting, allowing philatelists to know what they had and what they didn’t have.
The AFDCS is the largest not-for-profit first day cover society in the world, with members 
in more than half a dozen countries. It publishes its award-winning journal, First Days, six times a year, as well as original handbooks, catalogues and YouTube videos, and is a co-sponsor of the annual Great American Stamp Show. It holds an annual cachetmaking contest and encourages philatelic exhibiting and writing about FDCs.
The AFDCS Publications Committee —Zais, Education Department chair Michael Lake, Tris Fall, Doug George and Pat Morgan —is working on reprints of other FDC Publishing works. The AFDCS also offers catalogues for specific issues, ranging from the 1969 Moon Landing stamp (Sc. C76) to Cats and Elvis.
There are lower prices for AFDCS members. Membership begins at $24 a year. The different options are listed at www.afdcs.org/Join-AFDCS
For more information about the AFDCS, visit www.afdcs.org, e-mail afdcs@afdcs.org or write the AFDCS at Post Office Box 57, Somerset, WI 54025-0057.
I am looking for the most up to the moment FDC information on The Four Chaplains covers; Scott #956. I thank you in advance for any and all information/response(s).
Respectively yours,
Mark S. Auerbach
facilitator@att.net
1-973-471-9596
I did a search of the Digital Archives for First Days, the official journal of the American First Day Cover Society. I didn’t find any significant articles, although a Herman Maul cachet showed up in an AFDCS auction. There was a B&W picture of it. Short of waiting for an update to the Mellone catalogue, I think your best bet may be to put an “adlet” in the online or print Member Exchange feature of the AFDCS seeking scans of any cachets for this issue that aren’t in Mellone. This requires AFDCS membership, though. Another possibility is to write an article for First Days on any post-Mellone cachets you have found, and ask at the end for others to contact you.
For free, you can leave a message in online forums that are active with FDC collectors, such as this one, the Stamp Collecting Forum or the AFDCS Facebook Group. I think, though, that we’re all going to have to wait for YOU to “write the book” on Four Chaplains cachets.