National Cachetmakers Day postmark available

By Linn’s Staff

American First Day Cover Society president Lloyd de Vries designated Saturday, Aug. 17, as National Cachetmakers Day in a July 11 presidential proclamation.

The Aug. 17 date coincides with the cachetmakers bourse (sales area) to take place that day from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Great American Stamp Show in Hartford, Conn.

A special postmark, shown nearby, will be available at the show.

Cachets, printed designs common on the envelopes used for first-day covers, “add to the theme or subject of the stamp or postal issue,” the proclamation said, “either with clever artwork, interesting information or in some cases, neither.”

Cachets were used as advertising as early as the Civil War, according to de Vries, and 1923 saw the first cachet intended specifically for a first-day cover.

The American First Day Cover Society is the largest not-for-profit first-day cover society in the world, with members in more than a dozen countries. It publishes an award-winning journal, First Days, six times a year; holds fundraising auctions; is a co-sponsor of the annual Great American Stamp Show; conducts an annual cachetmaking contest; and encourages philatelic exhibiting and writing about FDCs.

More information about the American First Day Cover Society is available on the society’s website, by emailing afdcs@afdcs.org or by writing the AFDCS at Box 27, Greer, SC 29652-0027.

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