Danny Thomas Commemorative

I can (and have) done that, but the end result is that it's a made-up cancellation that was simply done for philatelic purposes. In that situation it is my contention that sort of cover never actually saw postal use, just as "official" first day covers never do (as they are seldom cancelled exactly on the first day of issue).

In the example posted, the cover was actually place in a mailbox, processed through the area's general mailing facility and returned to me in my home mailbox by a postal carrier. So my 45c stamp paid for that service, therefore the stamp was legitimately used in the mails (and the reverse side of the cover has those orange bar codes to prove it).

It is truly a "first day of issue" cancel, as no one can dispute that the dated postmark was applied on any other date but February 16, 2012 (assuming, of course, the spray on date is reasonably legible).

Besides, the post office branch I use is only a short distance from my home and is in the "middle of nowhere". In the past six months I have only encountered two or three occasions when anybody else but me was in the lobby, so there's never a wait, and since it's such a small, one person operation there, they always have plenty of the new issues out on the first day they are on sale.

I guess I just don't see how sending the cover through the mail with a hand cancel that was applied on February 16th is any different from sending it through the mail to receive a spray-on cancel on February 16th.

Now that's a bit different from what I initially understood you to say. Yes, I could easily have the post office apply a handstamp postmark and enter the piece in the mailstream, but that only overprints the handstamp cancel with a spray-on that is applied at the general mailing facility.

Unless a postal clerk hands back to me the handstamped cover, I know of no way that I could place that item in the mail and not have it postmarked a second time by the spray-ons.

I had a situation once where I went to a certain post office that was known to have been visited by Owney the Postal Dog, and had a Owney stamp hand cancelled on the first day of issue. (That post office didn't even have the Owney stamps that day, I had to purchase them from another post office and then have it cancelled there.)

Anyway, the postal clerk wouldn't give the handstamped cover back to me but insisted it go through the post office for delivery, and assured me that it would be returned without a spray-on cancel overprint.

End result is that the postal clerk was wrong, not only did the cover receive a spray-on cancel anyway, but I found out after the fact that there is provision in USPS guidelines that handstamped pieces may be handed back to the customer upon request.

Here's a curious thing. For those who typically service their own first day cancellation requests, I promptly sent my covers to the USPS in Memphis, TN for the FDOI cancellation.

I received the cover:



What was curious, though, is that it did not come in the traditionally shrink wrap package, but instead was forwarded to me in a USPS envelope from another town I never heard of (Burlison, TN) along with a flyer advertising a special Colorano Silk Cachet FDC of the stamp which was available from that post office:



Is this just a way of marketing some extra philatelic products? According to Wiki, Burlison, TN is a small town some 40 miles away from Memphis with a population of only 453. Is this town somehow taking on some of the FDOI cancellation requests from Memphis?

A story about the person who lobbied for the Danny Thomas Stamp:

http://www.therepublic.com/view/sto...stage-Stamp/