N1801s

Olympic Flag

Olympic Rings

Fred Collins Signature

Collins Cover Announcement 

U.S. FLAG WITH OLYMPIC RINGS

When considering what design concept to pursue for this issue, I decided to literally follow the "Olympic Rings" theme. Although the issue title refers to the familiar Olympic logo of five inter-woven circles, there is an actual Olympic gymnastic event called "The Rings". A tremendous amount of strength is required for this competition and my hand-painted cachet depicts five different gymnasts demonstrating various moves in their "ring" routines. It is a very balanced cover and, in addition to its place in a COLLINS collection, it is also a very attractive FDC for a "Sports" topical collector.

A nice touch is the hand painting in red, white and blue of the issue title -- "Flag" and "Olympic Rings". It looks sharp. With the hand-painted title at top center, the regular text at lower left, and the stamp at lower right the term "visual balance" again comes to mind. This is a very crisp FDC. An Atlanta, Georgia bullseye cancel ties the new stamp to the cover.

Mine may be the only cachet that actually developed the stamp title "Olympic Rings" and came up with a cachet for the gymnastic event of the same name. You will like viewing the athletes in their multi-colored uniforms as they demonstrate this graceful but demanding event. Item #N1801. $8.50.