‘Fun’ collections spark collecting
Our 135 March Party was a great success. I want to thank all those people who volunteered to help make the show successful.
I continue going to shows and have trouble finding material for my Jewish National Fund exhibit. Therefore, I look for items for my “fun” collections, first day covers of United States Judaica stamps.
Among the ways to collect this material is to save one FDC of each stamp or a particular cachet designer for each stamp or all cachet makers for each stamp. I try to collect as many different cachets for each stamp as I can find.
In 1996 the United States and Israel issued a joint issue Hanukkah stamp. The cover pictured nearby is an Olde Well cachet with the United States 32 cent stamp and the Israel joint-issue postmarked in Washington, D.C. and Jerusalem, Israel, on Oct. 22, 1996. The Israeli cancellation features American and Israeli flags flanking an amphora, an ancient vessel for holding oil. Oil is a central aspect of the holiday of Hanukkah.
Shown nearby is the Collins cachet for the 41-cent Hanukkah issue of 2007. The cachet captures the spirit of the holiday with a grandfather lighting the Hanukkah candles with his grandchildren.
Fred Collins of Allentown, New Jersey, started creating cachets in 1978. He now specializes in full-cover brightly colored cachets.
The 2004 Collins cachet for the 39-cent Hanukkah stamp shows its usual attention to detail. There is a hanukkiah (9 branches), a dreidel, jelly donuts, potatoes for making latkes, sweet apples for making apple sauce, gifts and Hanukkah gelt (money). All of these items are associated with the holiday. The Collins artist (JEP) centers the design around two curious children.
Enjoy your collection!
Philatelically yours,
Howard S. Chapman
