Welcome to our listing. Offered today for your consideration is: an Artmaster cover from 1987 celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the State of New Jersey.
This item comes from a smoke free home
and will be carefully packaged to insure it comes to you in the condition we
state. We do offer a full refund, although buyer will need to pay the return shipping
to us, unless we have made a serious error, such as shipping the wrong item, or
misrepresenting the item we sent.
We will be happy to combine shipping
for multiple items and offer free shipping for $100 or more in total sales.
Please allow us to send an invoice for combined shipping as it varies depending
on volume and weight. Sending a message is always appreciated.
During the period between
Thanksgiving and Christmas we offer free domestic shipping (first class) and
will be willing to credit upgrades to priority or express shipping.
Purchase any five items and get a
gift of $10 in value with your package. **Add Items to your cart to receive discount
shipping and gifts:
3 items => One Free Gift
4 items => Two Free Gifts
5 or more items => $10 value gift
+ Two free gifts
Thank
you for browsing our items. We are a Veteran owned business and appreciate your
support. We have quite a few foreign and US coins as well as a wealth of First
Day Covers. If you are interested in similar items, but do not see them listed,
send us a message – we often can provide what you’re looking for, if not, we
can likely suggest a source to find it.
First Day Covers
The first day cover (also known as a first day of issue) is
a means on commemorating a postage stamp. Began informally over a Century ago,
it has evolved into an industry which even the National Postal Services
participate in. There are as many as four elements to the first day of issue
commemorative:
A.) Stamp
cancellation on first day of issue – Originally this was a standard
cancellation, but they have evolved into pictorial cancellations, often
specially made for the occasion. The key element of the cancellation is that it
postmarks the stamp on the first day of issue. The postmark is often from a
city significant to the stamp being issued such as Celeron, NY being used for a
Lucille Ball stamp as this is the City she was born in.
B.) Event
covers, or commemorative covers have taken off as an industry. The cover is
specially designed by a company to reflect the stamp being honored. The left
side of the envelope will typically have an illustration, referred to in the
industry as a cachet which reflects the theme of the stamp. Postal Service
officials frequently schedule a ceremony for the issue of a first day cover and
cancel a large number of covers at that event. Major companies like Artcraft,
Artmaster, and Fleetwood are primarily focused on making these commemorative
covers, having them appropriately postmarked, and then selling them to the
public.
C.) Back
of envelope history and education. Fleetwood in particular uses the entire back
of the envelope to dedicate a portion of the history, trivia and background on
the stamp being commemorated.
D.) Addressee.
First day covers were often mailed to an individual until they began to be mass
produced. The Postal Commemorative Society created books of sequential covers
which would be addressed to the subscriber. These had an entire standard sheet
of information to which the envelope fit above or below the text in a large
album.