What To Bring To A First-Day Ceremony
By Lloyd A. de Vries

Most U.S. commemorative and “special” issues and some of the others have events on the day that they go on sale: first-day ceremonies. Some are organized by U.S. Postal Service headquarters, others by local people, ranging from postal people to interest groups.

The listing of what happens at these events is the “program,” which is what we collect. However, we can do more than just accumulate these souvenirs. We can actually go to these events. (Shown above, the unveiling of the stamp design, launching the 2017 Flag stamp at Southeastern Stamp Expo near Atlanta.)

In 2018, word is that first day sites again will have a wider geographic distribution around the country than in the past. We saw that beginning in late 2016, when the Hanukkah stamp ceremony was moved to Boca Raton, Fla., the Kwanzaa ceremony was held in Charleston, S.C., and Nativity was at a church in Washington, D.C. In the past, almost all non-Christmas stamps for winter holidays were issued at the big New York City show in October.

In 2017, for example, Love Skywriting was issued in Chino, Calif., WPA Posters in Hyde Park, N.Y. (home of FDR, in whose administration the Works Progress/Projects Administration was created), and Flowers from the Garden in Sioux Falls, S.D., at the Mary Jo Wegner Arboretum.

Nearly all U.S. first-day ceremonies have free admission (even when the event to which they are attached charges admission). In most cases, you don’t need to bring anything other than yourself in reasonably presentable condition. However, experienced ceremony attenders often come prepared. Here are some suggestions:

Money, checks or payment cards to buy the new stamps, of course: The U.S. Postal Service also is likely to offer other “philatelic products” at the ceremonies, such as uncacheted FDCs, press sheets, framed stamps and so on. Nearby, you may find cachetmakers selling their own FDCs, both serviced and unserviced.

Envelopes or cards of your own for servicing as FDCs: Cacheted is better, but cachets can be added later, if there isn’t time to prepare them in advance. Bring extras; non-collectors or those who haven’t read this column may want to trade for or purchase what you have brought.

Savvy FDC collectors who attend first-days keep a supply of good-quality envelopes for issues announced at the last minute.

Something in which to carry your collectibles: The Postal Service may or may not have large glassine envelopes, but even if it does, those aren’t very protective.

Absorbent paper to put between your freshly-postmarked covers and cards: Most on-site cancelers aren’t using quick-drying ink, and the postmarks on glossy paper may smear otherwise. Post-it notes also work well.

A good-quality pen for autographs: There is usually an “autograph table” with the dignitaries from the ceremony, and they are usually supplied with “Sharpies” (permanent ink markers). The key word here is “usually.” Also, not all dignitaries participate in these autograph sessions, so you may have to chase some down, or you may see a celebrity not involved in the ceremony whose autograph you want to obtain.

The Sharpie is a good choice: The ink dries quickly and it will write on practically anything.

A keen eye: Look for postmarks that won’t be offered by mail, such as the double-ringed red registry plug, which postal regulations state cannot be backdated. Watch the cancellation clerks at work; you may decide you want a particular clerk to handle your covers, or none at all. If you plan to obtain autographs after the ceremony, see where the autograph line will be and perhaps take a seat near where it starts.

Keep an eye out for “ephemera” that might make a nice first-day collectible: A brochure for the attraction at which the ceremony is being held and which is related to the stamp subject, for example. But don’t be greed: Don’t clean out the rack or stack, take just a few.

Also watch for programs left behind by non-collectors. Even if you only want one for your collection, the extras may be “trade fodder.” Or, in the case of multi-stamp issues, you may need more than one program to complete the set..

You may wish to add additional stamps and cancels or autographs to your first-day ceremony program to differentiate it from those that were not distributed at the event; that is, purchased from the USPS sales department.

An Attention Span: It is amazing what you might learn at a first-day ceremony. At one in 2015, for example, collectors learned how hard the Postal Service designers tried to make the person attractive. Best of all, though was the definitive bird stamp ceremony in January 2004 where a local postmaster, reading a script prepared for him by USPS Headquarters, let drop that there would be a not-yet-announced John Wayne Legends of Hollywood stamp later that year!

by Lloyd A. de Vries.

A philatelist friend alerted me that this cover featuring ABC News anchors Max Robinson, Peter Jennings and Frank Reynolds, and autographed by each of them. I presently work as a freelance writer for ABC News, so I bid a few dollars and won it. With shipping and sales tax, my total was $4.52.

It’s not a pretty cover, and I wasn’t sure of its significance.
The description said “1976,” but upon closer examination, the postmark dates are 1978. When I brought it to work, coworkers pointed out that that was the year ABC’s evening television newscast was reformatted and named “World News Tonight,” which is its present name, in July 1978.

Robinson, the first African-American to anchor a major network’s newscast, was stationed in Chicago, with an emphasis on domestic news. Jennings anchored from London (thus the British stamp and cancel), reporting on foreign news. And Reynolds was in the network’s Washington bureau, for political news. There are Chicago, Washington and, for some reason, Buffalo NY cancels on the U.S. flag stamp.The (upside-down) reverse of the envelope has a London “backstamp” as well. There is no clue who produced the cover or whether more than one was produced.

According to Wikipedia, the format worked, and the ABC newscast eventually overtook both the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News, for the first ratings win in the news division’s history.

In 1983, Reynolds became ill and eventually died from bone cancer. Robinson’s personal problems took their toll, and he was pushed aside to the weekend edition, and Jennings became the sole anchor.

The autographs are probably worth more than the cover is as a philatelic item. It isn’t really “postal history,” either, because what it documents isn’t postal. I still think it’s a fun cover to own, and I’m glad I have it.

Ho, hum, another American Philatelic Society election. There’s only one candidate per office, so why bother?

If you are an APS member, you should vote anyway, even though the outcome is known. The same people who are in office now will be in office for the next three years. They’d like your support. They deserve your support.

So why bother? Because low voter turnout tells a stamp society’s leaders the members don’t care. The rank-and-file can’t be troubled to find a 55-cent stamp and spend 60 seconds ticking off check-boxes.

As a former officer of the APS and a current officer of other stamp societies, I can tell you, that’s discouraging. I’m volunteering my time and many expenses, and so many other members can’t find a minute and postage.

The APS usually does have more than one candidate per office, especially for the four director-at-large seats, which act as “entry level positions.” The lack of candidates here is also disheartening.

The society’s elections seem to run in cycles: Several cycles of quiet, separated by a single hard-fought and often nasty campaign. I worry that the last round of nastiness, when one candidate sued others for defamation, false advertising and more, is scaring off potential candidates.

But that shouldn’t stop you from voting. Pull out the ballot, mark it, and put it in the mail.

I’m betting you have a stamp or two lying around.

Opinion by Lloyd A. de Vries

Royal Mail goofed.

As part of its preview of its 2019 “special” or “commemorative” stamps, it sent out what it said was a representative design for an issue of 11 stamps marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day. It turned out the sample design was erroneous and showed a different amphibious landing during World War II.

For the record, it showed the U.S. Coast Guard (not “Allied soldiers”) landing on May 17, 1944, at Sarmi in Netherlands New Guinea, now Indonesia. Here’s the design: Royal Mail quickly sent out a correction, adding that the stamps had not yet been printed and, of course, this design won’t be printed.

“End of story,” I thought. The mistake was caught in time, there are no “error design” stamps for collectors to seek and no economic penalty for Royal Mail of having to destroy already-printed stamps. I relabeled the erroneous illustration on my hard drive “not D-Day” and, since I hadn’t yet published the press release, I didn’t see the need for a retraction. End of (non-) story.

Boy, was I wrong!

I don’t know if it’s the times we live in, where any mistake by a public figure or agency must be trumpeted from the ramparts no matter how profuse the apologies, or if it’s the mindset of stamp collectors to seize upon any error or variation. Maybe it was just a slow news period. The incorrect D-Day stamp design became a hot topic in online discussion groups and a lead story in Linn’s Stamp News. All that’s missing is a formal complaint to the Royal Philatelic Society of London, and, for all I know, that is in the works.

I don’t know my history of wrong-design British stamps, but I can think of several design errors on U.S. stamps that did get printed and go on sale, including putting the Grand Canyon in the wrong state and showing Bill Pickett’s brother instead of the African-American cowboy in the Legends of the West sheet. Sending out a press release with an incorrect image pales by comparison.

Perhaps collectors are annoyed that the Sarmi stamps weren’t printed and they won’t be able to add them to their Mistakes On Stamps collections.

When the catalogues with the 2019 British stamps are published, I would hope this episode doesn’t even merit a footnote.

As someone who writes news for a living, I know first-hand that errors creep in all the time. You try to catch them, you hope someone else catches them before the mistakes are public, and when they do go public, you fix them. I would also estimate that 8 out of 10 major-newspaper articles I read on their websites have footnotes about corrections made. That is one of the disadvantages of the instant publishing made possible in this digital age.

Mistakes happen. This one was caught in plenty of time, with no real harm. It has already received much too much attention. Let’s move on.

by Lloyd A. de Vries

What were they thinking? Awarding $3.5 million dollars to the sculptor of a Las Vegas replica of the Statue of Liberty, because the U.S. Postal Service used a photograph of it on a stamp.

I’m often critical of the USPS, but this decision makes no sense to me. The justices say the agency made $2.1 billion from the sale of 4.9 billion stamps. That’s the gross, at 44 cents per stamp. The printing cost is a small fraction of the selling price, but a stamp represents a payment, whether it’s a tax on alcohol or playing cards, or, in the case of postage stamps, for delivering a piece of mail.

Stamps like this one are called definitives, and are the workhorses of postage stamps: Unlike stamps for celebrities or ice pops or other pop culture, which are aimed at collectors and aficionados of the subjects, definitives are intended to carry the mail. Yes, first-class mail service shows a profit, but not 43 cents out of 44!

Perhaps Judge Eric Bruggink’s dog was bitten by a mailman.

Most of us would be thrilled to see our work on a postage stamp, nationally distributed through more than 30,000 retail outlets and ending up in millions of homes and businesses.

Davidson and his attorney were no doubt encouraged by another sculptor’s successful lawsuit against the USPS. He created a sculpture for the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington. The USPS showed the sculpture — which was commissioned and purchased by the U.S. Park Service — on a stamp, the artist sued, and the USPS was ordered to pay damages.

Did Davidson pay royalties to the Park Service for his version of the Statue of Liberty? No, of course not. Legally, he is not required to do so. A purely federal agency like the Park Service can’t copyright anything. (The Postal Service is a corporation owned by the government, and therefore can claim copyrights.) Parody — such as a half-size replica using your mother-in-law’s face — is also protected from copyright.

Apparently, the USPS was faulted by the Federal Claims Court not so much for using the wrong image, but for not immediately pulling the stamp off sale and out of its tens of thousands of retail outlets. The mistake, as well as other incorrect stamp designs (the wrong African-American cowboy’s picture, putting the Grand Canyon in the wrong state, and, of course, the Korean War Veterans Memorial stamp), are affecting my part of stamp collecting: The USPS now triple-checks everything, runs it all past attorneys, then triple-checks everything again, and first day cover collectors and servicers are getting information about new issues later and later. “Even though George Washington had no children of his own, have we checked all the descendants of his stepdaughters to see if we have permission to use ‘Washington’ in a postmark?”

The Postal Service is everyone’s favorite whipping boy. It’s even part of our lexicon: “The check is in the mail,” we say, when it really hasn’t even been written.

Conservatives in particular love to attack the Postal Service. They would like to see it privatized, as in other countries, although it hasn’t always worked well. The U.S. Constitution requires that the federal government provide mail service. The USPS also delivers to every address in one of the biggest countries in the world, and for far less than most other countries’ postal agencies.

Listen to what Judicial Watch, a conservative foundation which has described climate science as “fraud science,” had to say about this case:

“Even for the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service (USPS), a bastion of mismanagement, this appears to be a new low…

“Profiting from an artist’s stolen work is simply the latest of many transgressions committed by the USPS in recent years.”

In the article, Judicial Watch calls the USPS “a perpetually troubled government agency notorious for its egregious spending sprees and dire financial woes” and “a bastion of mismanagement.”

Ouch!

But even the liberal Washington Post couldn’t help smirk about the decision. Three days after running the just-the-facts-ma’am Associated Press story, a WaPo “Post Nation” column played it as a soap opera.

“They met totally by accident … It was like the premise of a rom-com,” wrote Avi Selk, referring to a romantic comedy.

Even non-collectors have come up to tell me, and perhaps chortle, about the USPS mistake that may cost it $3.5 million.

I hope it doesn’t. I hope the U.S. Postal Service appeals the decision, or at the very least, sues Getty Images (to whom it paid $1,500 for use of the photograph on the stamp) for failing to label it properly.

And when Judicial Watch or the Washington Post wonder why its mail is taking longer to arrive, someone will point out the USPS had to cut corners somewhere to come up with that $3.5 million.

By Lloyd A. de Vries

Good thing I didn’t print my Dragon Cards for the United States Airmail stamps before seeing the design and measurements for the first-day cancels! Figure 1 shows my original design, which cropped (cut) from the photo several unnamed people at the launch of airmail service to New York City.

I figured chances were good those people wouldn’t complain!

The Digital Color Postmark measures 3.0 inches by 1.5 inches. The Pictorial Postmark was nearly as big, at 2.96 by 1.5.

The digital mock-up showed that that design would be like trying to fly from Washington to New York by following the train tracks south. (It didn’t work for the pilot that day, either.)

I re-edited the photo. Putting back the bystanders on the sides not only increased the width, it also decreased the height of the picture. The result (also a mock-up) is shown in Figure 2.

I also considered using my two vertical designs for dual cancels: One with the May 1 blue version of the stamp, and then with the August 11 carmine version. I expect similar first-day postmarks for the second stamp.

Again, I created a “mockup” and decided it could work, but the chances of failure were too high: No, no, discretion is the better part of valor. I’ll use a different design for the dual-canceled Dragon Cards.

by Lloyd A. de Vries
The Virtual Stamp Club

If you collect first day covers in the U.S., you owe Michael A. Mellone a debt of gratitude. Maybe two debts of gratitude: He helped establish independent shows for first day cover collecting, and wrote and published the catalogues that made it possible to identify and systematically collect cachets.

He passed away February 12, 2018, in West Palm Beach, Florida, at the age of 72.

For nearly two decades, Mike guided the annual shows and conventions of the American First Day Cover Society. He and his promoter partner Steve Ritzer produced two of the society’s first standalone conventions in the “modern” era, in 1986 in Morristown, N.J., and in 1988 at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, Calif.

In 1992, with Ritzer providing behind-the-scenes support, Mellone produced the AFDCS Cover Fest in Columbus, Ohio. Steve Ripley was the wacky chairman and programmer, but Mellone handled logistics: Finding and checking out hotels, selling and setting up the bourse, and all the myriad details necessary for a successful show.

The following year, Mellone and Ripley called the AFDCS show “Americover.”

On the right, Mike looks puzzled after the Stamford Marriott, where Americover 2007 had just begun, is evacuated because of a fire. His assistant, later his wife, Dottie Graf is with him.

The significance is that, until these shows, the AFDCS was a guest at someone else’s party. Space for first day cover exhibits and dealer booths was limited. The hosts even controlled the events the AFDCS could hold.

Along the way, Mellone and friends invented the cachetmakers bourse, where the people who design first day covers could sell their products at a reduced-price for tables. It came about at the 1986 show, after cachetmakers and other small dealers took over the hospitality suites at earlier conventions to sell FDCs, pushing out collectors who simply wanted to sit around, eat, drink and talk.

Earl Planty, a business professor, was the first to catalogue different cachets for early first day covers, identifying them, assigning a catalogue number, and even assigning a value. Mellone, however, as they say in football, “took the ball and ran with it.”

First, he added photographs of the different cachets to make identification easier. Instead of parsing a written description, collectors could compare what they had to the pictures. He also expanded Planty’s listings, adding dozens of cachets for those issues.

Then Mellone went a step further: He added issues, first for the 1930s and eventually for nearly every issue through the 1960s.

The first Mellone Photo-Encyclopedia appeared in 1976. It was no coincidence that within a few years, first day covers were one of the hottest specialties in philately.

A collector of a specific issue now knew not only what he or she had, but what he or she didn’t have. “You have a Crosby for that issue? There are five different Crosbys for it, and here is what you’re missing.” Many collectors then made an effort to buy the missing covers. That increased sales, which in turn increased dealers’ interest in acquiring FDCs for sale. Prices rose. Interest increased.

Also helping increase the interest in FDCs was his pocket catalogue. It was first titled Discovering the Fun in First Day Covers, with a license from Scott Publishing Co. to use its catalogue numbers. After a few years, Discovering became the Scott Catalogue of U.S. First Day Covers, with introductory material on collecting, identifying and valuing FDCs that Mellone had written. (Scott discontinued publication of the catalogue after the 2009 edition.)

Mellone’s F.D.C. Publishing Company also produced books and catalogues on other FDC-related subjects, encouraging research and scholarship in the specialty. It also printed 3″x5″ inventory cards for first day cover collections; I still have mine!

Mellone revised the 1930s catalogue, and extended it earlier, into the 1920s. He never got around to doing more with the other decades than reprinting them. Publishing the catalogues was expensive and time-consuming, and he told me he didn’t make much money on them, if any.

Above, Mike receives an Honorary Life Membership in 2005 from AFDCS president Tom Foust, while Dottie gets her HLM from board chairman Dick Monty.

Mike was shy and preferred to work in the background: Steve Ritzer and Steve Ripley were his “front men,” glad-handing and interacting with the public. At some of the shows he produced alone, after splitting with Ritzer, he even asked me to make the public address announcements for him. Mike did the physical work.

This summer, at Americover 2018, as you walk through the cachetmakers and dealers bourses, checking your photo-encyclopedia, take a moment to think of Mike Mellone.

by Lloyd A. de Vries

The CBS version of my weekly radio stamp collecting feature will end on the final day of 2017. CBS News, Radio, has canceled the feature, saying no station was playing it anymore. (That may be news to friends who say they were hearing it every Sunday morning on KNX Los Angeles.)

It debuted April 4, 1997, and has been a part of the Weekend Feature Package offered to CBS Radio Network stations ever since. In its 20¾ years, there were only five repeats! And all 1,000+ ran between 59 and 61 seconds.

Since 1999, a version of the feature has also been available on my website, The Virtual Stamp Club. Eventually, there were two basic versions every week: The minute-long piece, for CBS and breaks in the web-radio show “APS StampTalk;” and a version that was often longer, which ran on VSC and KNLS, an evangelical shortwave service.

The pieces were always written for a mass audience, not stamp collectors, and rarely used philatelic jargon. In fact, they rarely used “philatelic” — making it hard to talk about the bigest stamp collecting organization in the U.S., the American PHILATELIC Society! It was kept to one minute, so that commercial radio stations would run it.

On the left, as I interviewed the head of Scott Publishing for radio, he snapped a picture of me for Scott Stamp Monthly.

Nearly all the pieces were positive and upbeat. The major exceptions were a few complaining about the U.S. Postal Service, which every collector of modern U.S. stamps does.

On the right, I interviewed supermodel Heidi Klum in 2002.

My plans for “the feature” aren’t firm at this point, but I do intend to continue it on The Virtual Stamp Club site. However, I’m not sure it will remain weekly.

I won’t miss the pressure of having to have a new piece (and a new subject) every Thursday morning, or producing features in advance if I were traveling. On the other hand, I had a great deal of fun with them and they were often more creative than my “day job” radio work.

by Lloyd A. de Vries

Although Canada Post produces its own cachets, such as the one shown on the right, it is possible for individuals to submit their own covers.

However, there are some notable differences from how the U.S. Postal Service services customers’ own FDCs.

On the left is shown a Dragon Card produced by me for the same issue and submitted to Canada Post for servicing.

Like the USPS, Canada Post gives collectors (servicers) a 60-day grace period, and sufficient postage must be affixed to meet current mailing rates. If the FDCs are being returned in another envelope, that means the first-class domestic rate. If the FDCs are being mailed individually, then the current rates prevail.

All FDCs for servicing, however, are submitted to the FDC canceling unit at The National Philatelic Center, 1-133 Church Street, Antigonish, NS B2G 2R8, not to the first-day cities.

There is a charge for all cancellations: 15 cents if the stamp or stamps are already affixed, 20 cents if the stamp or stamps need to be affixed (plus the cost of the stamps), and Canada Post will even supply an uncacheted envelope, for 25 cents plus the price of the stamps. Several sizes of envelopes are available, too.

Canada Post will not cancel covers that “bear foreign postage or previous cancellations.” That means no combination FDCs with another country’s stamps, such as the 1999 U.S. Star Trek stamp (Sc. 3188e). Earlier Canadian stamps are acceptable for combos.

However, a dual-canceled U.S./Canada FDC is possible, if the Canadian stamps and cancel are applied first. That was easy with several months between the Star Trek stamps. Some planning is required, however, if the U.S. stamp is issued first or on the same day.

Canada strongly prefers that its stamps be in the traditional upper right corner, but is flexible.

Canada Post produces its own cacheted FDCs, and they are quite attractive. Amateur cachetmakers intending their FDCs for sale will be competing against professionals. Also, the “OFDC,” as they’re called, often have cancellation varieties that are not available to private servicers. The gold postmark for No. 2 Construction Battalion was only available on the official FDC, shown in the illustration. These OFDCs are produced and serviced by another unit of Canada Post.

There is no minimum number that must be submitted, and no difference in procedures between dealers and individuals. All orders must be paid by credit card, which takes care of currency conversion. Currently, the Canadian dollar is around 80 percent of the U.S. dollar.

by Lloyd A. de Vries

Both the U.S. and Canada have been teasing with the subjects and designs for two multi-stamp issues coming out this year: The U.S. for its National Park Service Centennial set and Canada Post for “Star Trek.”

Each country is handling this differently: The USPS told us in advance there would be 16 stamps, and one would be “unveiled” each weekday starting April 4th. Canada Post has not told us how many “Star Trek” stamps there will be, and the “unveilings” are at no set interval. The USPS Parks are announced in a press release; Canada Post seems to be creating “photo ops” for each announcement.

My first reaction (kept mostly to myself) was, “Aw, c’mon, just give us the *(&^@! information.” But as we’ve gone along with the announcements, and posted them one-by-one on The Virtual Stamp Club website, I’ve found myself enjoying it, particularly trying to guess what subjects are next.

The U.S. Parks were announced in alphabetical order. I was hoping for Great Falls in Paterson, NJ, one of the newest National Parks, and I was sure the Statue of Liberty would be included — after all, Lady Liberty is the symbol of World Stamp Show-New York 2016, at which the stamps are being issued. I was wrong on both, although I was fairly sure Yellowstone would be the 16th subject announced, and it was.

When I saw that one of the Canadian stamps would show “Star Trek” star William Shatner, a Canadian, I was also fairly sure another Canadian in the cast, James “Scotty” Doohan would be honored, and I was right. The Spock (Leonard Nimoy) stamp made me suspect a DeForrest Kelley stamp was coming; it is.

Kelley was born in Atlanta, Nimoy in Boston, so the hangar deck doors have been opened to other non-Canadians. If a supporting character like Scotty is included, can Sulu, Uhura and maybe Chekov be excluded? How about Majel Barrett, who was associated with “Star Trek” longer than any other actor. She appeared in all five of the TV series (including the pilot, which was nixed by NBC), was married to creator Gene Roddenberry, and supplied the computer voice.

Oops, there I go again, speculating on who will be in the set.

I’m having fun! And isn’t that a good part of what stamp collecting is about?