Rememberance of the 1967 USPO Finlan Commemorative Stamp
Back in 1967, I lived amidst many sons and daughters of Finnish descent while spending a couple of wonderful years in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In this year, the United State Post Office issued a very nice stamp commemorating the fiftieth year of Finnish Indepencence. However the official first day of issuance ceremony was assigned to a small Minnesota community. Learning of a consolation prize, a local "second day issuance"event in Hancock, Michigan. I essayed to obtain spamped covers of this event to add to a very new stamp collecting attempt. A few years later, I conceded defeat and abandoned my unrproduction efforts to create a first class accumulation of little colored pieces of paper. However, in this Finland Stamp area, I did have some fun, and a few years later (1992) I wrote a little account of this event which was published in First Days, the magazine of the American First Day Cover Society. It has been 54 years since, and I am here republishing my small contribution to philatelic history.
On October 6,
1967, a simple and beautiful stamp commemorating the fiftieth year of Finnish
independence was issued in Finland, Minnesota (pop 300).
Many communities of the Upper Peninsula
of Michigan were very disappointed not to have been chosen as the official FD
city. That fifteen county region contains the largest number of persons of
Finnish descent outside of Finland. The Upper Peninsula hosts a number of
Finnish cultural institutions, such as Suomi College, Hancock, Michigan.
I had been introduced to FDC
collecting about a year before this, and I was living in the Upper Peninsula at
this time. It seemed to me that it would be great fun to prepare covers for the
Finland issue. In the midst of this effort, I read a notice in the local newspaper
that greatly confused me! A “second-day-of-issue” for the Finland stamp was to
be held on the campus of Suomi College! The article went on to state that “This
marks the first time in post office history that a second-day issuance of a commemorative
stamp will be made.” The guest speaker at this second-day event was the
regional director of the Post Office Department’s Chicago district.
As a brand new member of the AFDCS,
I had just read about the “Second Day of Sale” for the 1932 NRA commemorative
in July/August 1967 First Days. Could this Finland stamp event really be a first?
I turned to Mr. James Schaeffer, then the Corresponding Secretary of the AFDCS
for advice in this matter. His response is shared below.
“To
the best of my recollection, the NRA stamp was originally announced to have its
first day of issue at Washington, D.C.
on August 17th , 1933. However, it was later decided to also
issue the stamp through the Nira, Iowa P.O. on August 17th, 1933.
Advance notice of the original first day was sent to all collectors on the
mailing list of new issues (I was one of the recipients of new information),
but no notice was given, except to stamps editors, dealers, etc. of the
additional issue or second day.”
“I
had to obtain my covers from a dealer of the second day issue, although I sent
my envelopes to Washington for the first day.”
“Back
in those days, collectors obtained souvenir covers of the actual first day when
the stamps went on general sale, usually obtaining them from Washington D.C.
post office. This was sort of a semi-official second day of issuance in those
days, since the commemorative stamps were not distributed to every post office
in the USA like they are these days. Then, new stamps were sent automatically to
the larger post offices and the smaller post offices had to requisition them
from those post offices, with the third and fourth class post offices not
obtaining many if any.”
So it seems that the post office did
sanction some form of at least semi-official second day of issuance event for the
NRA stamp in 1933.
Regarding the Finland stamp, Schaeffer suggested that if an official announcement of
the second day was found in the Postal
Bulletin, this would be the first time that an “official” second-day issuance
of a commemorative stamp was ever made in USPO history. Schaeffer later
informed me that he had discovered no announcement about a “second-day issuance”
of the Finland stamp.
Schaeffer also pointed out that some
small POs are not open for business on Saturdays. Since the First Day was on a
Friday, the actual general sale of the stamp would not be made until the
following Monday. Possibly the sale of the Finland stamp at this Saturday event
was the reason for the local newspaper’s claim of the first Second Day issuance
in USPO history.
In an exchange of correspondence some
months later, John P. Funkey, the Hancock Michigan Postmaster stated that “The
Second-Day issuance at Hancock was unique in that it was the first time in history
that the post office has held two special events in connection with issuance of
a new stamp.”
The absence of an announcement of an
“official second-day issuance” in the 1967 Postal
Bulletin probably means just that – the October 7, 1967 Hancock
cancellation was not officially a “first time in history” event. The rubber
stamp used for the Finland second day event certainly is not the same level of
official cancellation as those illustrated in Dunaier’s article, in which the “second
day of issue” is designed into the official cancel.
However, as in 1933, it seems that
the post office in 1967 did at least sanction something for the Finland stamp. Perhaps
a “semi-official second day of issuance” event? That Saturday event was
certainly an authentic Second Day of Issue. The statement of the Hancock
Postmaster that the event was a “second special event held by the post office”
in connection with the Finland Stamp, the presence of the Chicago Regional
Director of the Post Office Department, and the application of the “SECOND DAY
OF ISSUE” rubber stamp impression by the Hancock post office all point to a
sanctioned, if unofficial, second day of issuance event by the post office.
Have other such actual, but unannounced or unofficial events taken place?
