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HISTORY OF FIRST DAY COVERS If you are a stamp collector, you probably have a few First Day Covers (FDC's) in an album or shoe box. For most collectors a FDC is a cacheted envelope with a new stamp and a "First Day of Issue" postmark. Some might also have a First Day of Program, outlining the Ceremony held on the First Day in the official First Day city. First Day Cover collecting as we know it today did not start until the 1920's and 30's. Between July, 1922, and Sept. 1923, the first official First Day of Issue, the First Day Ceremony and program and the first commercial FDC cachet all appeared. It wasn't until 1937 that the familiar "First Day of Issue" slogan was first used. Since then these elements of FDC have changed very little. When considering FDC's before 1922, all the rules change. Collectors accustomed to an official First Day for each new stamp will be surprised to learn there were only nineteen Designated First Days for all U.S stamps issued before 1922. These official dates were designated by the Post Office in either PO instructions for stamp sale, with the PO announcement of the new issue, or by the Congress in the bill which authorized the stamps. Even with these few cases, First Day Covers do not exist for all issues with designated First Days. Often the stamp was not available for sale until after Designated First Day, and in at least one case there is evidence that a stamp sold before the Designated First Day. First Day Covers for most issues before 1922 are more properly called "Earliest Dated Covers". An Earliest Dated Cover is one with the earliest known postmark for the particular issue on cover. The history of First Day Cover collecting changed when the USPOD designated the first official First Day of Issue on July 12, 1922. This was the first Day of E12, the 10 cent Special Delivery Stamp. The next stamp issued with an official First Day was the 11 cent Hayes regular issue, on October 4, 1922, in Washington D.C, and Fremont, OH. This FD included several new firsts: the first FD city outside Washungton D.C, the FD ceremony and the FD program. On September 1, 1923, George Linn serviced the first commercially produced US FDC cachet. Linn printed a simple five line cachet on a black bordered, mourning envelope. Several hundred of these cacheted FDC's were prepared and offered for sale in philatelic journals of the period: Collector's Club Philatelist, Meekel's Weekl yPhilatelic Gossip, as well as his own paper, Linn's Weekly Stamp News. From a simple start of one cachet in 1923, cachet making grew grew in popularity to over thirty different cachets per issue for the Clark and Sullivan commemoratives of 1929, and nearly 100 different cachets per issue for many of the three cent purples of the 1930's. Cacheted FDC's before 1935 were made in very small quantities and they are getting harder to find every year. Because of this, many collectors are happy to have uncacheted covers in this period. Covers with addresses of prominent FDC enthusiasts, Adam Bert, C.E Nickles, Henry Hammelman, Philip Ward and Edward Worden are highly sought after by many FDC specialists.
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