F2604

Prehistoric Animals

Saber-tooth Cat

Collins Cover Announcement 

PREHISTORIC ANIMALS

Saber-Tooth Cat

It is with some sense of personal excitement that I present the first of four COLLINS Prehistoric Animal cachets. These stamps are of excellent color quality and design and I'm sure the subject matter will find widespread appeal among collectors. They were issued at the 1996 CAPEX International Philatelic Exhibitiion in Canada at the United States Postal Station. Soon I'll be announcing the other three in this beautiful Prehistoric set.

A pair of enlarged canines protruding down from the upper jaw provided the name for a fearsome carnivore -- the saber-tooth cat. My hand-painted cachet shows this powerful and ferocious beast about to pounce upon and attack an unsuspecting deer. The watercolors chosen complement very nicely the colors in the attractive stamp. This cat, sometimes called the saber-toothed tiger, was about the size of a large, modern day lion but had a more massive body. It became extinct about 11,000 years ago. Bones have been found in Southern California and the known ranges of these animals include the continents of North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Prehistoric Saber-Tooth Cat. Item #F2604. $11.75.

Summer 2024 Mail Sale Commentary 

Lot 24 F2601, F2602, F2603, F2604 — Prehistoric Animals (set of 4 covers) — 6-8-96

The four stamps for the Prehistoric Animals mini-series are interesting and unique. Eohippuses (F2601) were the ancestors of today's horses, but they were much smaller — about the size of a fox. It took that prehistoric animal about 50 million years to grow into the large horses we know today. They lived in North America and Europe and had eyes in the middle of their skulls. The Wooly Mammoths (F2602) roamed the Northern Hemisphere for at least a half a million years. They were ancient elephants and grazed on plants. They gave birth to one calf at a time. Females and young roamed in herds of about 15 individuals. Wooly mammoths weighed between 5 to 13 tons each, and they were extinct as of 4,000 years ago. Mastodons (F2603) were also enormous and weighed as much as 6 tons. They had low-domed heads with prominent upper tusks. They were related to but not the same as wooly mammoths. Their extinction was complete about 10,000 years ago. Saber Tooth (F2604) cats weighed about 350 to 620 pounds and were the size of today's Siberian tigers. They were ferocious and were able to successfully hunt larger animals such as bison and horses. Saber tooth cats went extinct approximately 10,000 years ago. This is the first time these Prehistoric Animals have appeared in one of my sales.