First day cover

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As a First Day Cover or FDC (abbr. Of First Day Cover ) is a postal consignment ( letter or postcard ) indicates that on the first day of validity of the postage used stamps was stamped. In contrast to the requirement letter , it is typically created out of purely philatelic interests.

First day cover from 1998, it shows the 10-year sponsorship of the artillery school of the Bundeswehr with the city of Idar-Oberstein.

First day letters from the Post

FDC of the Deutsche Post of the GDR with day and additional cancellation

Many postal administrations issue specially designed jewelery envelopes for their stamp issues, indicating the occasion of issue, for which special first day cancellations are also used. These can be additional stamps to the day stamp used (e.g. with the inscription AUSGABETAG, ERSTTAG, FIRST DAY OF ISSUE, JOUR d 'EMISSION or similar), but more often it is first day special stamps with a clear motif reference to the issue of the stamp.

In the Federal Republic of Germany there are no first day letters issued by the postal administration. Instead, since 1974 the Deutsche Bundespost , subsequently Deutsche Post AG , has been issuing first-day papers (ETB for short) that met with great interest from philatelists in the 1970s and 1980s, but are rarely collected today. There are two first-day special cancellations for every German brand issue, with the place names Bonn and Berlin. First-day special postmarks are also used at Swiss Post ; Swiss Post issues corresponding first-day letters with every stamp issue. Additional first-day postmarks have been used in Austria since 1948; today, the uniformly kept first-day letters from Österreichische Post AG also include special postmarks with reference to the respective brand motif.

Russian FDC from September 26, 2011 with issue of stamps for the 50th anniversary of WWF
FDC of a private provider using the Bonn first day special cancellation of the German Federal Post Office

Collect first day letters

The first day letters issued by the postal administrations or private providers are mostly obtained by subscription by the collectors . Postage-correct franking is not necessary for these letters. Whether the entire set or only individual parts of it are glued depends solely on aesthetic considerations and the space available on the envelope. If this is not enough, the stamps of a set are distributed over several envelopes. The first day special stamps are usually applied using a suitable printing process (e.g. letterpress ).

In the last few years the interest in such first day covers among many collectors has clearly decreased. Really sent first day covers are more popular.

The collection of first day covers is not limited to contemporary stamp issues. In the case of editions of the classic period, the date of publication of which cannot be documented in the relevant files, collectors are always on the lookout for mail items with the earliest use date.

Last day letter

The first day cover is opposed to the last day cover . These are mail items whose postage was postmarked on the last day of their validity. An example is provided by the postage stamps issued by the GDR Deutsche Post from January 1, 1964 to June 30, 1990 , which lost their postage validity after October 2, 1990 and were stuck on a large number of last day letters. In some countries, special stamps are also used for the last day of validity of stamps.

See also

  • First day cancellation ; the Wikipedia articles linked there in other languages ​​also refer to first day letters.

literature

  • Wolfram Grallert: Lexicon of Philately . 2nd edition, Phil * Creativ, Schwalmtal 2007, ISBN 3-9321-9838-7 .
  • Jiri Novácek: ABC of Philately . Artia Publishing House, Prague 1984.
  • Ernst Schlunegger: Introduction to motive philately . Richard Borek Philathek, Braunschweig 1980.

Web links

Commons : First day covers  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Envelope  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations