Z1501s

Great Americans

Johns Hopkins

Fred Collins Signature

Collins Cover Announcement 

JOHNS HOPKINS

One Dollar High Value 

Famous American Series

As with the previous Bernard Revel $1.00 issue that sold out immediately, I wanted to make sure that this high-value stamp was equally attractive to my collectors. The Revel stamp had a great unofficial postmark from Bernardsville, New Jersey.

After a long search, I located a small Massachusetts community called Hopkinton, and I knew I had hit on the perfect unofficial. The stamps were released in Baltimore (site of Johns Hopkins University and Medical Center), and after securing them, it was off to a flight to Boston. By rental car it was westward to Hopkinton and the fine related unofficials that once again confirm that these one dollar stamps were truly "Day of Issue" ones -- and not sent in during the grace period after the fact as is the case with 99-plus percent of FDCs produced. You, and your fellow collectors, will forever know that the COLLINS Hopkins covers were actually done on the Day of Issue with the wonderful Hopkinton postmark. As is often the case, COLLINS was the only one to obtain it.

I'd also like to say a few words about the hand-painted "entire" cachet. Hopkins was an extremely industrious and accomplished individual. Over his lifetime, he was involved in many business and commercial enterprises, and my cachet captures in panoramic fashion many of his endeavors. During his youth, he grew up on his father's tobacco plantation, and workers are shown toiling in the cultivated fields. He then started a freight and transportation company. A covered wagon and a side-wheeler steamship represent this part of his life. Hopkins then became involved in the formation and operation of a railroad and an 1800's locomotive and its train of cars comes steaming across the cachet. Representing the hospital and university that bear his name are chemistry, pharmaceutical, and medical items as well as a diploma. Finally, a fairly large portrait of the man himself peers out from the cover.

If you look back over the years at my high-value items, they invariably sell out quite quickly. As always, I'm happy to accept multiple orders subject to fair distribution to eliminate a collector from getting shut out. Several collectors were disappointed at not obtaining Revel because they didn't order in a timely manner. My advice then, as now, was if you need this high-value one dollar item for your collection, order it relatively soon to avoid "sold out" status. Item #X1501. $9.00

Summer 2023 Mail Sale 

Lot 28 Z1501 — Johns Hopkins — One-Dollar High Value Stamp — 6-7-89

Hopkins was a successful merchant, investor, and philanthropist. At age 17, he settled in Baltimore. He invested in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and became its finance director. He was a strong supporter of Abraham  Lincoln and_the Union cause. He prospered by selling various goods and wares in the Shenandoah Valley from conestoga wagons. His fortune, however, came from a wide array of varied investments with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Johns gave money to important causes his whole life. His funding established the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins University. My hand painted cachet is a dandy picturing Hopkins, one of his covered wagons, a railroad, a merchant steamer, a diploma, and medical equipment. The onedollar stamp has a magenta first day cancel from Hopkinton, Massachusetts. This is an exceptional "entire" first day cover.