Look Close When Sorting The Common Ones.

After years of collecting many of us when sorting will just glance at common items and keep going but sometimes an item will jump out at you. Can anyone see why this cover is so special.

I'll guess that it's because of the two different numbers above the stamps.

Dianne

Well I'm stumped. I would go with the numbers also.

Hi folks.....


Multiple plate numbers are common on multi-colored stamps...a number for each color. But, it's not often that you see consecutive numbers.

nr- notrare is correct about the plate numbers but this is still not the answer.
In the seventy's a new collecting format came out by plate number strips or slogan blocks in numbers of 6, 8 10.

Keep trying, when you see why it is special it will be a eye opener.

Found it Mac.......that is a NICE one.
(I'll Let others keep trying.)

Just gave it a fast glance I did notice there are a few women. I will have to look at it later tonight.

Ok after looking at the cover the only thing I can come up with is that it is an early release. It appears that the stamp was post marked a little early since the official release date of the stamp is 7-21-1980.

nr-notrare probably knew where I was heading with this one. And mkfarm yes the cancel tells the story.
If verified down the road. The cover has the potential to be listed as first known use.
You just never know what gems may hide in a common stamp issue.

At the large processing centers, first day covers would sometimes get the wrong first day cancel -- that is one meant for another stamp issued that same year. This cover received the first day cancel for #1822, the Dolly Madison stamp, issued on May 20, 1980. This lack of quality control in the mass production of FDCs (all processed together in a centralized facility) happened fairly often in the eighties. They are considered curiosities and not early uses.

I knew it was the Dolly issue and since it was a catchet maker this was my thinking also. As large batches are assembled at the same location sometimes.
Here is a question I have wondered about though, which would be more possible. A die cancel left over from the earlier FDIC or actually a stamp being mixed in at the earlier date of issue?

FDCs are typically processed for months after the actual first day of issue. It is likely a worker had just finished up with the Dolly Madison covers in July and then loaded up a batch of the new VA covers for processing, forgetting to change the cancellation to the new "first day" of issue.

To me it seems more reasonable that the wrong die was used rather than a stamp being available to be canceled that much early.

Here's one that is even more curious.....Apr, 15, 1942 is not a first day for any stamp that I can find......and it's not the first tax day either. This thing has puzzled me for quite a few years. Any ideas ??

very tiny...just 3 1/2" x 2 5/16"

April 15, 1942 was the first day of operation of the Post Office in MacArthur, Raleigh County, WV (1942-Date). MacArthur is a community in central Raleigh County named for General Douglas MacArthur.

I have read along the way that the first day covers were abused often by some postmasters. Early dates happened often in hopes of having something rare.

Today I think that FDCs can be offered with the original date for many weeks after that date.

When I worked for the Post Office, the new stamps came in sealed pacckages with taped on printed warnings not to sell before the release date, because, typically, they would arrive from the Stamp Depot a week to ten days in advance.

One time, one of the Postmistresses in one of the offices downriver found herself accidentally short of definitives at month end when the biggest employer in the town was sending out its month-end bills. The way she saw it, she had no choice but to "early release" an issue, and so she did.

Within four days, she was the focus of a Canada Post Security and Investigations probe, operating on the premise that she had released the issue early in order to create a rarity.

Except S&I didn't realize one thing at the outset: the lady wasn't a stamp collector. When they finally figured this out, the matter was dropped with a stern warning to her that early releases wouldn't be tolerated in the future.