Clyde J. Sarzin ?

As I look through my cover albums ..Dutch First Day Covers from the 1960's , Argentine Polar covers from the 1970's..one addressee keeps popping up.....Clyde J. Sarzin !! Amazing...i did a Google and Clyde J. Sarzin is a private stamp company operating out of Port Washington, New York. I do not know if Clyde is with us..but if not for him I would have a lot fewer covers...would like to hear from others familiar with Clyde...but sadly I will be out the door for 3 weeks ...see you on the flip-flop !! phil

I was web searching some unrelated item and came up with this brief summary of Clyde J. Sarzin and his "metallic" covers that were popularized in the 1970's (I remember it because I have a space-related one somewhere.) Hope this brief summary is helpful.

"Clyde J. Sarzin (1915-85) of Long Island, New York developed a method of producing cachet designs on thin sheets of metal, which were then affixed to paper envelopes. The result is a unique and highly attractive first day cover. Although Sarzin created many kinds of cacheted covers (including Churchill "day of death" and "day of funeral" covers), he may be best known for his covers chronicling America's space program. The last Sarzin metallic cover appeared in 1977."

WT1 thanks for the info ...he must also have been a collector..i have some pricey Netherlands First Day covers from the 1950's addressed to him !!

I did a reshuffle of my albums Phil and didn't realise how hard I made it for myself to check anything in them .

Just came across this FDC from Norway addressed to Clyde J. Sarzin:

He must be or was a cover nut like myself...i see his name on Dutch covers I purchased in the 1970s..on Argentine Antarctic covers I have been pursuing lately and I picked this one up Sunday just because !

I did a search on Clyde J. Sarzin...there is a stamp company by that nam e on long island....but other than the fact that he was born in 1915 and died in 1987 at the young age of 72...i can find no other information about him...was the man a recluse ?

The AFDCS Publication "First Days" did an article about him some years ago as shown in this index. Unfortunately, I don't have a collection of those periodicals (but maybe someone here does and can share it):

Thanks WT1, hes a tough nut to crack...no obit..he lived and died ..i could try "askphil !

I came across this. This is a new one you probably haven't seen. I think I have more from him. I'll check. Each one is very unique and very limited.

I found information about Clyde J. Sarzin (1915-1987), suggesting that the Sarzin stamps and cachet products continued sometime after his death under the ownership of his daughter.

What's curious is that three different on-line sources refer to his date of death as 1985, 1986 or 1987. (Not sure which is correct.) It would seem genealogy sites use 1987, another stamp board recites him having died in 1986 and a cover dealer has his date of death listed as 1985.

I am Clyde Sarzin's eldest daughter. (It was another daughter that continued his business for awhile and then sold it. ) Yes, he was born in 1915, and he died in 1987. He got involved in the stamp business through his father-in-law, who was a collector and dealer in Europe. He loved the business, got up early every day to do it, and enjoyed history and creating new types of covers of all kinds. I even drew some of the images on his metallic covers! It is great to know his life work is still remembered and valued.

Thanks for posting Stefai1979, I acutally received covers on approval in the early 1990's (I thought it was from Mr. Sarzin himself but I guess I was dealing with your younger sister). Back then there were a lot of space themed special cancellations and I was making my own covers and purchasing others. I had to stop because I was beginning a Master's program and funds were tight so I put my collection on hold for a while. I am now finishing up my Ph.D in history and recently re-started making new covers and decided to look around for Mr. Sarzin to see if he was still in business. Sorry to hear about his passing, I really enjoyed his items. I still have several of his metallic covers and a few with photographic cachets as well. I didn't realize he'd been the one who made the metallic ones himself. Now that I know they came from such a legendary cachet maker they'll mean much more to me.

Great post, one of his metallic covers:

Hello Phil. I read your post RE: covers from Clyde J. Sarzin. I have a collection "Artic Exploration" and have several of his covers. Also included are covers from Eugene Stanley, AUS. Bernard V. Coyne, El Paso and many others. The earliest is Oct 9th, 1933 and run thru 1970. I have 53 or so covers, some to our embassy in Buenos Aires. Anyone interested in this collection, please contact me.

Hi Stefani,
I read that you are a daughter of Clyde Sarzin, the famous dealer in New York.
I am from Austria and Mr. Adolf Kosel from Vieanna had a much letter traffic to your father.
My question: Are there any letters from Austria to Clyde Sarzin from the 40th and 50th.
If you know something about it, I am very interested.
regards from austria
Josef Lumetsberger