A Lament For The First Day Cover

A Lament for the First Day Cover

One of the true joys of stamp collecting is the pursuit of having a cover cancelled by the Post Office on the stamp's official first day of release (or issue) to the yearning public.

But, wait, what has happened to the simple First Day Cover over these many years?

Starting in the early years with a simple envelope or piece of paper folded to 'cover' the message written inside being cancelled with a First Day of Use postmark the First Day Cover has grown to include the nicely done cachets of designs or pictures, this cover being cancelled on the first day of issue (well, it started out that way anyway, now it is done beforehand) and progressed to the mass production of many, oh so many covers and cards and pages and sheets (different countries do different things), produced in vast quantities to satisfy the collecting market, the whole 'First Day' market including many different and separate collecting interests rather than just the one of stamps collecting.

I am afraid that if all this mass production of thematic and topical items was to rely solely upon the true market value of each item, sold at a fair(?) price so as to return a profit, the Post Offices would go broke very quickly. Too many of the same item put on sale at the same time I think.

I grant you, there are many nicely produced and designed items out there and their sophistication and eye appeal is increasing as time goes by.

But isn't all this manufactured wonder missing the stamp collector's main interest in the postal use (or not) of his stamps, the main reason of being of these little pieces of design and beauty?

The treasure hunt, nay, the quest of getting a real-life day-of-issue cancellation is a hard one, sought by some hardy souls, appreciated by few, most being more attracted by the colourful, new, pristine covers and cards pumped out of the FDC mills. Well, most of the work is probably done by machines now I suppose.

So, do we collect originals or reproductions? Same as in the art world, it comes down to the individual collector's wallet or purse and or time expended on this, the passionate philatelic quest for truth and beauty.

Are you up to the grueling, grinding work of purchasing stamps on the day of issue (or close to), when you can find them in stock at a nearby Post Office that is, the traveling to a hopefully open Post Office through rain and hail, sleet and snow? The mails must go through! Do you dare to challenge the elements, remembering to bring properly addressed covers and money to purchase stamps?

Then, after all this trouble to get the stamp(s), will the cover(s) be cancelled clearly, with sufficient readability, no smudges, no wrong dates (or close to), over a pleasing (non-obscuring part of the stamp and cover? Will they (or only the one perhaps) make it's way back safely to you in your humble abode where you wait patiently to see if all of your heart-felt effort was in vain? Have you or have you not assisted in the creation of a piece of philatelic postal history?

Well, now that I think of it, perhaps we should buy a manufactured FDC while we are at the friendly Post Office, just in case? One never knows, you know.

The entire and complte FDC set for Australia
was worth around $700 circa 2003

I can appreciate your lament for the first day cover.

I don't know how it currently works in Canada, but as a US collector, I can tell you that today's FDC's are no longer being produced the way they were originally meant to be. One is encouraged to buy stamps as they are released from your local post office and you have 60 days to apply them to covers and mail them into the first day city to get the special cancellation "First Day of Issue". In the minds of many (most?) collectors, that is so far apart from the true meaning of "First Day of Issue" that a lot of collectors have dropped out of collecting them altogether.

Personally, when I pickup a new stamp at the post office on the first day of issue, I apply them to some covers and mail them to myself at the local post office. I know the end result is that horrid "spray-on" cancel, but it is a legitimate postal use of the stamp on the first day of issue that cannot be replicated any day thereafter, so for purists, it is a true (albeit "unofficial") first day of issue.

I also lament the pressure sensitive adhesive stamps with the die cut perforations that no longer allow a First Day Cover collector to apply plate blocks or coil pairs or any other combination of stamps to a cover, since they can no longer be placed on a cover as a multiple pair or block but the stamps must be separated individually.

When I was a teenager in the early 1970's I remember sending away for a bunch of cacheted envelopes from the big cachetmakers (i.e. Artmaster, Artcraft, etc.) and servicing the covers myself by sending them into the first day city with a check covering the cost of the stamps (8 cents back then) and they would return them with the "first day of issue" cancel. Back in the early 1970's, I remember buying the cacheted envelopes at 2 for 40 cents or 4 for 65 cents. I just looked it up today and the same Artcraft cacheted envelopes go for 2 for $2.30 or 4 for $4.35, which is a 475% increase in price. When comparing it to 1970's US postage rate of 8 cents versus today's 44 cents, that's only a 450% increase, so today's cacheted covers are actually costing more than the stamps! A valid reason, I suppose, as to why many collectors, including myself, creatively apply their own custom cachets to covers, so as to avoid that outrageous pricetag for the professionally done covers, when the secondary market suggests that most are worth less than the postage stamp(s) applied to it.

Nowadays, not only do you have the "first day of issue" cancel applied up to 60 days after the stamp is issued, but the current system is that I am required to mail my requests for the cancel to the issuing city, but did you know that the issuing city Post Office takes my request, along with the thousands of others, and ships them all off to Kansas City, MO where the first day cancels are applied? It's a process that boggles my mind. I suppose the US Postal Service probably looks at it as a cost-saving measure, but it is never what a "First Day of Issue" cancellation was ever intended to be.

I'm so glad that, with the odd rare exception, FDCs are unknown from the Indian States. For my main squeeze, Barwani, in some cases we struggle to work out the year, never mind the month or day, of issue. I can happily say that I don't own a single FDC.

However, if I were to take a country from which FDCs were feasible, I'd only want to collect commercial uses on the first day of issue. As Puzzler says, stamps are supposed to be for sending letters.