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History:
First Day Covers
For almost every postage stamp there is one or
more first day covers. First day covers as their name indicates are covers (envelopes) that are cancelled with a date
cancel that has the same date as the first day of issue of the stamp. The United States Postal Service doesn't produce official
first day covers. Instead, the USPS applies the first day cancel to envelopes that are submitted by individual collectors
or cachet makers. A cachet is an illustration that is applied to the envelope by various means and is usually related
to the design or subject of the postage stamp. The postal service will apply the first day cancel up to thirty days
after the issue of the stamp. Because any number of first day covers with different cachets can be produced for a particular
stamp issue in the United States, this is an obvious collecting area for first day cover collectors.
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My Background:
Designing Cachets
I'm a retired postal manager of which the last 10 years of my career I spent
in the retail end of the Postal Service. At my office I got involved in the promotion of new stamp releases. I saw first hand
how collectible cachets were. I met many cachet designers who would travel great distances just to be able to get the postmark
on thier cachet. I found this to be very enjoyable and I knew that someday I would be involved in the process of creating
cachets. With no formal training I started creating cachets for various stamp releases. I knew that my
technic would have to improve, so I invested in computer programs, Adobe Photoshop to imrove my images and Corel Draw
to Illustrate my designs. After many years of trial and error I improved my skills to become one of best cachet designers
in the country.
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