H602

Balloons

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

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