First Day Covers (FDCs) are a popular collecting item. Some collectors focus on a single stamp and acquire as many different cachets as possible. Others may just collect cachets by one artist, while others collect whatever FDCs suit their fancy.
I have a collection of FDC cachets for two stamps: US Scott #739, which was issued on July 7, 1934, to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the first European to land in what is today Wisconsin, and US Scott #957, which was issued on May 29, 1948, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Wisconsin statehood.
I'll write-up a description of those two collections at some point, but right now I want to concentrate on the cover in Figure 1. It is a FDC with an ArtCraft cachet for US Scott #1952. That was a 20-cent stamp issued on February 22, 1982, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of George Washington's birth.
This is not a rare FDC - it has a catalog value of just $1.25 - and the fact that it is addressed detracts from its already minimal value. But it's special to me. First, I was born on February 22, 1957; I was 25 years old on the date this stamp was issued. Second, it was sent to me by my parents for my birthday. And third, the address is for the first apartment that my wife and I lived in. Indeed, we were married for only about nine months in February 1982.
A plain, ordinary FDC? Not to me!
Figure 1
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