A first day of issue cover or first day cover (FDC) is a postage stamp on a cover, postal card or stamped envelope franked on the first day the issue is authorized for use within the country or territory of the stamp-issuing authority.
Are first day issues worth anything?
Usually First Day Covers are more valuable than ordinary used covers, postcards, or envelopes with cancelled stamps. Some rare examples of FDCs are worth thousands of dollars.
What is the value of a first day cover stamp?
In 1996, a unique issue in the United States sold for about $120,000. Increase the value of your first day covers by using limited-release stamps on matching cover. An informative or complimentary cachet to the left of the stamp also increases value.
Who are the publishers of first day of issue stamps?
Australian First Day Covers: A Guide to Identifying Australian, Illustrated, First Day of Issue Covers and Their Publishers by Michael Victor Moore, Colleen A. Woolley, Frank Pauer. The Cachet Identifier of U.S. Cacheted First Day Covers by Michael Mellone and Barry Newton. Collect GB First Day Covers: The Booth Catalogue by Jeffrey Booth.
When did hand painted stamp covers become popular?
The cachet trend began in the early 1900s and is reminiscent of 19th-century advertising design. Hand-painted artist covers usually command a premium over mass-produced cachets, such as those marketed by Artcraft, Artmaster, Fleetwood, and other popular brands.
What do you call the first day of a stamp?
Over time a group of collectors looking for a challenge began trying to find stamps on envelopes postmarked on the very first day the stamp was released by the post office. These became known as First Day Covers, or FDCs, and all kinds of sub-groups of FDC niches have been developed by intrepid collectors.
When to buy a first day stamp cover?
Most legitimate producers will note when their covers contain an add-on cachet, though the collector of older first-day covers should do a bit of research to make sure they are adding the real thing to their collection when they purchase from first-day cover dealers.
Australian First Day Covers: A Guide to Identifying Australian, Illustrated, First Day of Issue Covers and Their Publishers by Michael Victor Moore, Colleen A. Woolley, Frank Pauer. The Cachet Identifier of U.S. Cacheted First Day Covers by Michael Mellone and Barry Newton. Collect GB First Day Covers: The Booth Catalogue by Jeffrey Booth.
What’s the value of a first day cover?
In any event, the one certainty in the world of FDC collecting is that blank first day covers with only stamp and cancel are virtually worthless in today’s stamp collecting marketplace. In general, only stamps canceled with the first-day date are deemed collectible without a cachet.
The cachet trend began in the early 1900s and is reminiscent of 19th-century advertising design. Hand-painted artist covers usually command a premium over mass-produced cachets, such as those marketed by Artcraft, Artmaster, Fleetwood, and other popular brands.
