FDR Cover Dated 4 12 1945

Hi Family,

Any thoughts on this cover? Its exactly what I've been looking for except now I think it may be a fake. The cover has a ice picture on it and it is postmarked Washington DC April 12, 1945. Exactly what I've been looking for. Unfortunately, it is postmarked 1:00PM; about the time FDR was stricken. He died three hours later. Fake?

Thanks,
Jack Kelley

Larger image of slightly different cover? (on ebay)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/U-S-809-Fl...232919734009



Don

Thanks Don. I was happy when even my little one was uploaded. I really want to know what anybody thinks about this cover. If its too good to be true,....

Jack

The time slug in Don's example is clearly 7PM.

FDR was pronounced dead at 3:35pm Eastern. If real that means they had just under 3.5 hours to print this, address it, and get it cancelled- If they knew he was dead immediately.

I have a letter a lady in LA was writing in the morning and sent that day, but no mention of his passing so pretty sure she wrote it before the news was out if he had already passed. If you are interested in something actually cancelled that day PM me...

Most sources say his last illness was kept a secret so the public was unaware until probably a radio announcement was made of his death.

I don't know the history of Fluegel/Staehle with event covers, but Fluegel's first FDC was that of the 3c Roosevelt memorial (#932) and this predates it.

It's possible that this was produced in such a short time. But I can see where the cachet could possibly be added after-the-fact. (Say) the yellow gold text could be set and printed immediately with stamps added to envelopes and taken to the PO and postmarked. The (few?) addressed could then be printed and addressed and the cachet added upon return. The addressed ones would be returned to the post office and mailed before midnight; the day/date would be still correct and (I think) found to be acceptable by the PO for delivery. The balance (whatever that number could be) could be printed later. This was the beginning of the era of unaddressed event covers and FDCs so there would be no questions about getting an unaddressed cover that was ordered later.

Or the scenario of all of these being unaddressed hand-back covers which then had the cachet and address added later and subsequently sent under cover to the recipients. Keep it simple on a hectic and emotional day.

Thank you all for your inputs. I ended up purchasing the cover last night after discovering the postmark was 7:00 instead of 1:00. In all probability, I would think the cachet was added later but that's OK with me.

Jack Kelley

By the way, I contacted the seller prior to purchasing. He told me that Fluegel/Staehle was a well known cachet maker in the 1940's. At this point, my only regret is that it wasn't postmarked Warm Springs, GA.

Jack Kelley