Q703s

Winter Olympics

Downhill Skiing

Fred Collins Signature

Collins Cover Announcement

WINTER OLYMPICS

(set of four)

This set is being offered for the first time so all collectors now have the opportunity to acquire this Olympic set. Similar COLLINS sets for other Olympic issues have been very popular in the past.

The hand-painted cachets are most colorful and depict various events -- hockey, cross-country skiing, ice dancing and alpine skiing. All four of the cachets correspond to the appropriate stamps used on the covers and their style is consistent with my "early COLLINS" period (1978-1984).

The stamps were issued in Lake Placid on January 6, 1984. I stayed at the Holiday Inn just up the hill from Main Street and the post office. It was there that I worked after obtaining the stamps -- the small post office lobby was jammed. For my unofficial I chose Lake Placid's sister village of Saranac Lake -- the first four letters are the same as the site of the games --Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. This was one of my more tiring stamp days, and I remember relaxing (with my completed covers) at Saranac's "Dew Drop Inn" Restaurant -- some hot Italian food and a warm feeling of "mission accomplished".

At long last, the covers are ready to be offered. Hand painted cachets, nice unofficial hand cancel from Saranac Lake on a single, "First Day of Issue" machine cancel from Lake Placid on a second stamp and all four covers combining to make a really fine COLLINS Olympic set of four from my "early" period. 

Item #Q702 - $22.00.