Civil War 1862 Stamp Issue (Fdoi 04/24/2012)

I just picked up my 1862 Civil War Stamps at the post office today...did you?





As this is apparently a very popular issue, the postal clerk had only one sheet left from their original shrink wrap package (UL) they opened this morning and had to open a new one for the second sheet I asked for (LL). When I saw the clerk throw out the pack card, I asked for it and even affixed a stamp to it and got an unofficial first day of issue postmark applied. (The clerk was shocked when I mentioned that SFS charges collectors $0.95 for these cards.)

Nice sheets. This may seem a strange observation, but I find the word 'FOREVER' accompanying the scenes of battle an odd juxtaposition. Somewhat unnerving, to my mind.

I saw them yesterday at my local post office, but the postal clerk couldn't sell them quite yet. Unfortunately, I'm out of town for the week and have to wait till Friday.

Is there a market for the pack cards? I have a bunch the local post office has been saving for me.

Interesting question. I'm not really sure why these cards are considered collectible, yet some do actively collect them. I classify them more as ephemera, however, others may disagree.

I know the USPS is selling them at $0.95 (uncancelled) and $1.95 (with stamp affixed and color postmark applied). I think it's more of a marketing ploy on behalf of the USPS to raise additional revenue, rather than trying to create a collectible. However, as most of us will agree, anything stamp-related becomes a collectible to someone, somewhere.

Will it ever be worth anything? Well, that's an entirely different story.

There have been several topics recently concerning "flyspecking" stamps to view what are not really errors, but may appear to be anomalies that just don't look right.

I thought I'd add to this thread, by suggesting that the date shown on the 1862 US Civil War Antietam stamp issued today has an unusual gap of space between the "m" and "b" in the month "September", as shown in this detailed image:



I realize it's clearly not an error, as the stamps are all the printed the same. In my opinion, it's either poor quality control or poor design selection of the particular font used to print the date.

What do you think? (I think maybe I have too much time on my hands looking at all of these minor details! But that's part of what makes stamp collecting fun!)

I thought I'd share my Battle of Sacramento pictorial cancel for the First Day of Issue of the 2012 Civil War Stamp. (The cachet was my choice of appropriate artwork found on the internet.)

wt1, enjoyed your Battle of Sacramento cover and the beginning of Nathan Bedford Forrest's illustrious/notorious military career. Undeniably the consummate tactician, Forrest's reputation unfortunately will always be marred by his post-war activities (and the Fort Pillow massacre). I've often thought that it is the ultimate in "nonpolitical" correctness that there still remain a couple of high schools in the US that carry his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan..._High_School

Interesting information. Frankly, I never heard of the name before looking up "Battle of Sacramento" and getting the lead paragraph from Wiki. Here's another link about Nathan Bedford Forrest and the controversies that still arise over his place in history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan...ford_Forrest