Afdcs Cachet Contest Opens

American First Day Cover Society Holds Annual Cachet Contest
The Year's Best FDC Designs To Be Chosen In 16 Categories + 2 For Youth

Entries are now being accepted for the American First Day Cover Society's annual Dr. Earl Planty Cachet Contest. The best FDC designs from 2012 will be chosen in 16 categories.

The deadline for entries is April 15. Those entering covers must be members of the AFDCS. (Youth cachetmakers need only be related to an AFDCS member.)

The entry fee for adults is $5 if the cover is donated to the Society, or $10 if the cachetmaker wants the FDC returned. A complete set of rules and an entry form can be found in the December 2012 issue of First Days, the official AFDCS journal, and on the website, AFDCS.org.

One change this year is that the first and second place winners in the Rookie of the Year category cannot be the same person.

"We want to encourage more artists to try their hand at cachetmaking, and more new cachetmakers to enter the contest," said contest chairman John Byrnes of Ajo, Ariz.

A cachet is the artwork on a first day cover envelope that complements the new stamp. These designs can be as simple as a few words of text or as complicated as an oil painting or mosaic. Typically, the media used in the entries to an AFDCS cachetmakers contest range from colored pencils and markers to acrylic paints, woodblock prints and movable parts.

Some of the categories include hand-painted; hand-colored; computer-produced; one-color; event (not first-day) covers; Rookie of the Year and two age groups for young cachetmakers. There is also the top award, which cites what the three judges feel is the best cachet submitted in the entire contest, regardless of the media used. In each category except noncommercial and youth, a minimum of ten identical covers must be produced.

Last year's winner, Chris Calle of Connecticut, entered a first day cover for the gummed coil version of the two-cent Navajo Necklace stamp (Sc. 3758B). It also won the Hand-Painted/Mechanically-Reproduced category.

As winner of the top award, Calle may enter the contest again, and win in individual categories, but his 2012 cachets are not eligible for the Grand award.

The results of the contest will be announced on Friday evening, August 16, at Americover 2013 in Independence, Ohio, and later that evening online.

The American First Day Cover Society is the largest not-for-profit organization of FDC collectors in the world, and has members as far away as Australia. It publishes its award-winning journal First Days eight times a year.

For more information about the AFDCS and the contest, including a set of rules, contact the AFDCS, P.O. Box 16277, Tucson, Arizona 85732-6277, e-mail AFDCS@afdcs.org or visit www.afdcs.org.