G4902

Owney - The Postal Dog

Owney's Medals & Tags - Owney Visits Yellowstone cachet

Owney was a scruffy mutt who became a regular fixture at the Albany, New York, post office in 1888. The Railway Mail Service clerks adopted Owney as their unofficial mascot.

Collins Cover Announcement 

Owney Visits Yellowstone

In the 1890s and early 1900s, Owney was the most famous dog in America as he traveled far and wide from his home base of the Albany, New York Post Office. Not only did he ride in mail cars across the United States, but he also took a trip around the world as a canine good-will ambassador. The lovable

post office pooch became known as "Owney the Globe Trotter."

Since Owney owed his fame to his love of riding the rails, I wanted to show him in a setting that would be symbolic of his travel that would resonate with both Americans and citizens of foreign lands. Inspired by one of the actual metallic tags that he collected on his journeys, I chose to depict Owney in world-famous Yellowstone Park.

The individually hand painted cachets show the globe trotter sitting on the grass as the well-known "Old Faithful" geyser spouts its steamy spray in the background. At the right, a golden-mantled ground squirrel is shown with Owney's Yellowstone hotel tag which was the inspiration for the symbolic national park setting. Another nice touch for this watercolored cachet is that the "0" in his name is another of the metallic tags that he collected on his far-ranging trips.

I am very happy to offer this light-hearted and beautiful First Day Cover as a remembrance of this famous mascot of the United States Railroad Mail Service. Last month I actually visited him in his preserved state at his new permanent home in the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum. Now ready is Owney Visits Yellowstone. Collins #G4902 — $14.00.

Winter 2026 Mail Sale Commentary 

Lot 34 G4901 — Owney the Postal Dog plus FREE companion Owney cover —7/27/11

This is a very special lot as the cover features a historic Collins cachet. In a competition held by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, this Collins cover was named the Overall Best Cachet by their selection panel. And it has become a permanent part of the popular Owney exhibit in Washington.

To give you a little background on this unique canine, a homeless, mixed-breed dog, was adopted by the mail clerks at the Albany, New York Post Office. They named him Owney and grew very fond of their new pet. He loved to cuddle up on piles of old mail bags and then began riding among the mail bags on the wagons that transported them from the post office to the railroad depot. Soon he was on trains accompanying the mail bags further away from home and was becoming the most famous dog in the United States. The mail clerks in Albany still had deep affection for Owney, and they made a simple harness for him on which postal employees could attach metal or leather tags that would record his journeys. They would sometimes remove tags and send them to Albany for safekeeping, and because of this, the collection survives to this day. Incredibly, in 1895 he left Seattle, Washington for a goodwill visit to Japan and China. He then visited Singapore, Suez, Algiers, and the Azores on his around-the-world journey. Afterwards he got a new tag inscribed "Owney the Globe Trotter." Owney was eventually preserved by a taxidermist and in 1911 was given to the Smithsonian. Today he resides at the National Postal Museum in Washington, DC.

My individually hand-painted cachet shows the famous mascot at a train station with some of his travel tags. Steaming by is engine 999 which was built in Albany, New York in 1893. Accordingly, this locomotive is a great geographic and period link to the "Good Luck" railway dog. The completed watercolored cachet is a really beautiful first day cover and a great philatelic remembrance of the traveling canine as he rode the rails on his many mail bag beds.

The free cover included with this lot is G4902, which is still in stock and shows Owney visiting the world-famous Yellowstone Park with the metallic tags that he collected on his farranging trips. This light-hearted FDC is a remembrance of the famous mascot of the U.S. Railroad Mail Service.