Approaches to First Day Cover Collecting

Approaches ToFirst Day CoverCollecting

by Earl Netwal

Approaches to First Day Cover CollectingEarl Netwal

What is a First Day cover?

A first day cover is usually an envelope upon which a postage stamp or otherindica is printed or embossed for the purposes of paying postage, and which iscancelled on the first day said postage stamp or other indica is released forsale to the general public for use.The concept of first day covers is to collect newly released stamps in use atthe earliest possible date. In recent years this is relatively easy to do as thepostal service actively promotes the concept with special events and a 30 daygrace period to claim a first day cover.In earlier years, it is often not even known what date various stamps were putin service, and little if any heed was paid to the concept. Not surprisingly such19

th

and early 20

th

century covers are scarce and many are quite valuable. Wewill not spend much time in this report of such scarcities but will generallydiscuss the collecting of covers from approximately 1923 and on.

The First Sort

There are two major condition categories we should discuss right off the bat.The first is whether a cover is addressed or not. The second is whether or notthe cover is cacheted or not.

Addressed vs. Unaddressed

Generally speaking most modern collectors of first day covers prefer to buycovers that are unaddressed. There are some collectors who collect first daycovers mailed to international locations that make an exception to this rule.While a home made cachet sent off by an individual may be more unique, thedemand isn't for the unique in this case, but for the clean and presentable.In the 1920's, 30's and arguably into the early 40's most first day covers are

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Approaches to First Day Cover CollectingEarl Netwal

addressed, and collectors are far more willing to add an addressed cover totheir collection. Unaddressed covers from this period should garner apremium, as they are decidedly less common. After the 1950's and certainly inthe 1960's and beyond, addressed covers tend to be shunned by collectorsunless there is something else of particular note about them.

Cacheted vs. Uncacheted

A cachet refers to a printed design on the envelope or card, that was placedon the item to commemorate the issuance of the stamp. These designs wereproduced by individuals and companies. They are often sold to the collectingpublic in advance of a stamp issue so that individual collectors could securetheir own first day cancellations. More commonly the publisher would securethe cancellations and then sell the completed cover to the collecting public. The valuations of many first day covers are influenced more by collectordemand for the cachet maker than any other single factor usually includingthe actual stamp issue itself.While there are collectors who prefer uncacheted first day covers, the vastmajority of people collect cacheted first days, and typically shun thosewithout a cachet. Thus we have as a general hierarchy in most demand an unaddressed cachetedcover, a cacheted addressed cover, an unaddressed uncacheted cover and leastof the lot, the addressed uncacheted cover.But as noted above, there are collectors who enjoy what everyone else shuns,and those whose collections specialize in one or another additional factor forwhom some of these rules are less important.

Cachet makers

As mentioned above, the collection of first day covers is often the collectionof first day cachet makers rather than the collection of the stamps.

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