Black Heritage

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Civil Rights Leader

Spring 2021 Mail Sale Commentary 

Lot 2 f103 — Martin Luther King — A RARE COLLINS AND AN EXTRAORDINARY PHILATELIC COLLECTIBLE — 1/13/79.

A very special and rare Collins was serviced for me by my friend and fellow cachetmaker Richard Byron. Dick, who has since passed away, and I had a two-hour Chesapeake dinner after the Viking Lander first day of issue several months earlier, and it cemented our friendship. After securing the stamps in the official city of Atlanta, I was now in Birmingham, Alabama. Dick was there and offered to take 36 of my covers to Selma and Montgomery. He not only got beautiful magenta first day postmarks, but, based on his conversation with postal personnel at both cities, he certified to me that these first day covers are the only ones in existence with both of these cancels on one cover. If that is true, and I believe it is, the thirty-six created that day are extraordinary philatelic collectibles. 

Spring 2025 Mail Sale Commentary 

Lot 3 T103 — Martin Luther King —A rare and extraordinary philatelic collectible — 1-13-79

This very special and rare Collins cover was serviced for me by my fellow cachetmaker Richard Byron. Dick, who has since passed away, and I had a two-hour Chesapeake dinner after the Viking Lander first day of issue several months earlier, and it cemented our friendship. The cachet design is the Martin Luther King, Jr. image placed in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. After securing the stamps in the official city of Atlanta, I was in Birmingham, Alabama getting cancels on some of my FDCs, and Dick who was also there offered to take 36 of my covers to Selma and Montgomery. He not only got beautiful magenta first day postmarks, but, based on his conversation with postal personnel at both cities, he certified to me that these first day covers are the only ones in existence with both of these cancels on one cover. That makes the thirty-six FDCs that were created that day extraordinary philatelic collectibles.