H601

Balloons

Intrepid, 1861, Explorer II, 1935, Hot Air Ballooning

Collins Cover Announcement 

HOT AIR BALLOONING

This issue presented a challenge as two First Day cities were chosen -- Washington, D.C. and Albuquerque, New Mexico. I knew this would be a very popular issue, so I decided to do two covers with a friend handling D.C. and myself taking off to the southwest. Choices of the respective related unofficials were, in my opinion, quite appropriate. The D.C. unofficial is "Capitol Heights", Maryland which is where a balloon in Washington would be. The Albuquerque unofficial is "Mountain Air", New Mexico which is where a balloon in the Manzano Mts. would be. The visual quality of the unofficials (especially Mountain Air) is not very good, but they serve the primary purposes of being related nicely to the issue and substantiating that the covers were indeed serviced on the actual First Day.

The cachet for all of the covers is a cluster of three colorful balloons with each of the two covers being hand-painted in different watercolors. There is no usual border, and thus the balloons in this "free-form" cachet blend with the balloons on the stamps to provide a very nice effect. For the D.C. cover, the pair featuring the colorful modern balloons is hand-canceled "First Day of Issue" at the official city. The op7osite pair (Explorer II and Intrepid) is hand-canceled unofficially at Capitol Heights. For the New Mexico cover, the Explorer and Intrepid pair has the official FDOI hand cancel. The opposite pair is unofficially canceled at Mountain Air.

These are two interesting covers, and I'm glad after the fact that I decided to do both First Day cities. DC is Item #H601, and Albuquerque is Item #H602. Each is $6.00.

Winter 2024 Mail Sale Commentary 

Lot 18 11601 and 11602 — Hot Air Ballooning — 3/31/83

Hot air ballooning originated in France in 1797. Modern interest in the exciting sport saw a revival in the 1960s in the U.S. There were two official first day cities, four colorful and historic balloon stamps, and two exciting unofficial day of issue postmarks that I obtained.

H601 has a pair of the long horizontal stamps affixed to upper right with the Washington, DC first day of issue postmark tying the pair to the envelope. The remaining pair of vertical stamps has an unofficial magenta first day postmark from Capitol Heights, MD which also cancels the horizontal pair. The H602 has the vertical pair affixed upper right with the Albuquerque, NM first day of issue cancel as the postmark. This cover's unofficial magenta postmark from Mountainair, NM ties both pairs to the envelope. The hot air balloons are painted different colors on each envelope. I was working with four extra large stamps, four postmarks, and an array of bright and varying colors. These two Collins covers are beautiful to look at and loaded with philatelic significance thanks to the unofficial day of issue postmarks