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.)