American First Day Cover Society republishes cachet catalogs

By Linn’s Staff

All 18 volumes of the Mellone’s Planty Photo Encyclopedia of Cacheted First Day Covers are available from the American First Day Cover Society, AFDCS president Lloyd de Vries said in a Dec. 4 press release.

The volumes encompass issues from 1901 through 1939 and include the long out-of-print Volume 17, which catalogs the Baseball Centennial Issue of 1939 (Scott 855).

The AFDCS also offers reprints of Mellone’s Specialized Cachet Catalog of FDCs of the 1940s and the 1950s. A reprint of the 1960s catalog should be available soon.

The catalogs may be ordered from the AFDCS website at www.afdcs.org/catalogs and are available either as digital downloads or computer-printed unbound copies punched for looseleaf notebooks.

The cachet catalogs by Earl Planty first appeared in the 1970s, but Mellone’s FDC Publishing Co. refined and expanded the concept and made the books available to a wider audience. The AFDCS obtained permission from Michael Mellone’s estate to reprint his books on first-day covers.

The society hopes to expand and update the listings. Volumes 1 through 6 already include updates that were published in First Days, the official journal of the society.

“First day cover catalogs are essential for any collector of first-day covers,” AFDCS publications committee chair Mick Zais said. “They identify cachet makers and establish rough measures of scarcity and desirability. Providing these catalogs online is a great service that the American First Day Cover Society provides to its members and the public.”

The AFDCS also offers catalogs for specific issues, ranging from the 1969 Moon Landing stamp (Scott C76) to Cats and Elvis. The AFDCS publications committee is working on reprints of other works.

Members of the AFDCS pay lower prices for catalogs, and membership begins at $24 a year. Different membership options are listed at www.afdcs.org/Join-AFDCS.

The American First Day Cover Society is the largest not-for-profit first-day-cover society in the world, with members in more than a dozen countries. It holds fundraising auctions; is a co-sponsor of the annual Great American Stamp Show; conducts an annual cachetmaking contest; and encourages philatelic exhibiting and writing about FDCs.

More information about the American First Day Cover Society is available online at www.afdcs.org, by emailing afdcs@afdcs.org or by writing the AFDCS at Post Office Box 57, Somerset, WI 54025-0057.

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