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 17^th , 1933. However, it was later decided to also issue the stamp through the Nira, Iowa P.O. on August 17^th, 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?