W1001

Stamp Collecting

Hobby

Collins Cover Commentary 

STAMP COLLECTING BOOKLET 

(Four Different Stamps)

This is really an exciting and colorful First Day Cover -- it is one of those items that you plan very carefully and then hope that the end result is up to expectations. Well...the end result here exceeded my hopes, and here is a FDC that will long be sought by stamp and cover collectors. It is a beautiful COLLINS.

The day of January 23rd started for me in the cold, pre-dawn darkness. With a thermos of hot coffee and a buttered roll, I slid behind the wheel. After a long drive west, I arrived at the town of State College -- the home of Penn State University. It is a very typical college town with one main street dividing the stores on one side and the campus on the other. At the modern Post Office I secured the very attractive and jumbo-sized stamps with four different designs. I placed one each in the two right-hand corners and they are tied with the official State College, PA bullseye cancel. After another long drive to the southeast, I arrived at my unofficial city of Swedesboro, New Jersey. The other two stamps are in the left-hand corners and are tied with this excellent unofficial. One of the stamp designs shows the 3-cent 1938 "Landing of the Swedes and Finns" issue, and this is why I chose the unofficial. To add an extra-special touch to this super cover -- each and every one also has the ACTUAL 1938 stamp and it, too, is tied by a second strike of the Swedesboro unofficial as it is affixed side by side with the new stamp that shows it. An excellent combo FDC with stamps that span half a century.

Nestled between this very colorful array of stamps is a lovely hand-painted cachet. It shows an early sailing ship anchored in the natural harbor having disembarked some of its passengers. A newly constructed fort can be seen on the distant shoreline -- the awaited destination of the newly arrived Swedes. The watercolors chosen carefully blend with the colors of the stamps themselves.

You have a money-back guarantee, so there is no reason not to see this cover...and see it you must. If you see it, you will be happy to include it in your holdings. A perfect hand-painted cachet. Two new stamps with official State College cancel. Two new stamps with unofficial Swedesboro cancel. And, the actual 1938 stamp (as shown on new stamp design) and the new stamp also tied by a second strike of the Swedesboro unofficial postmark. A super COLLINS FDC -- please don't miss this one. Item #W1001 - $8.75

Summer 2020 Mail Sale Commentary 

Lot 8 W1001 — Stamp Collecting 1-23-86

This cover has all four lovely, extra-large stamps from the Stamp Collecting set. My first stop was State College, Pennsylvania, to obtain the official first day cancel. Then it was off to Swedesboro, New Jersey, for my unofficial. The stamp at the lower left has as part of its design a stamp from 1938 showing the landing of the Swedes and Finns. To add a "just right" final touch, I affixed to each cover the actual 1938 stamp that depicts the 1638 landing at Fort Christina three hundred years previously. Both of these stamps were then postmarked with the Swedesboro day of issue postmark This is an exciting Collins first day cover from over 35 years ago.