This cover was postmarked in Augusta, Georgia on June 6, 1944. That was the date Allied forces landed at Normandy, a day known as "D-Day." It was the beginning of the end for the Nazi regime in Germany. VE Day - or Victory in Europe Day - would come less than a year later on May 8, 1945.
This cover has a patriotic cachet that was designed by American Patriotic Press Publisher. I can't find much about this publisher, but they did produce several cachets during World War II.
The cover is franked with a 1-1/2 cent US Scott #805, one of the so-called "Prexies," or Presidential Issue stamps, that the Post Office released in 1938. That issue consisted of 32 stamps with denominations ranging from 1/2-cent to $5. Not all of the stamps depicted US presidents. This one honored Martha Washington. The other two non-presidential designs in the series were the 1/2-cent stamp picturing Benjamin Franklin and the 4-1/2 cent stamp picturing the White House.
This cover likely qualified as 3rd class mail since the cachet would have made this cover "merchandise," and thus eligible to be sent as a 3rd class letter. That is the likeliest explanation for why the cover was franked with 1-1/2 cents worth of postage, which was the 3rd class rate in 1944. Although the back flap is now sealed, the cover was probably unsealed and empty when it was mailed.
The sender was most likely Scott Nixon (Figure 2), the addressee. Thomas Scott Nixon was born in Georgia in 1901. His day job was insurance agent, but in his spare time, he was an avid stamp collector and amateur film maker.
He was a member of at least one stamp society - the Confederate Stamp Alliance - and he must have dabbled in the trade of cacheted covers based on a newspaper article from 1947 (i).
As an amateur film maker, Mr. Nixon recorded over 76,000 feet of film, and his 16-minute production titled, The Augustas, was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2012 as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" (ii).
Mr. Nixon passed away at age 78 in 1980 and was buried at Summerville Cemetery in Augusta.
(i) See page 9 of The Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer for October 23, 1947.
(ii) The Augustas - Wikipedia.
Figure 1
Figure 2 - Thomas Scott Nixon
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