First Day Covers – A Devalued Commodity?

The Association has received correspondence from members concerned that a recent craze for publishing Anniversary Covers is devaluing the market. As with stamps, there is the vexed question as to whether or not Anniversary Covers are collectable and again, are Commemorative Covers collectable? One simple answer seems to be that if the covers are tied into the issue of a new stamp, they are collectable. We will attempt to explore this issue in the hope that more members may let us know their views in time for perhaps a longer article in the Journal.

There really can be little argument that quality First Day Covers connected to a Salvation Army anniversary or commemorative event continue to be collectable. Some are particularly interesting for example that produced in 1989 by Charlotte Horridge to commemorate the publication of her book The Salvation Army – A Pictorial Record. Not only was the book a best-seller but this cover is quite valuable as a philatelic item in its own right as although it bears the official dated Post Office ‘First Day of Issue’ slogan, the stamps were in fact not officially issued for another few days, ie the slogan was misdated by mistake at the Post Office. 

The correspondence we have received suggests that there is irritation amongst collectors with the literally dozens of covers commemorating little known Corps being issued annually – all from one source, probably in Australia. The Covers look similar to each other and sometimes have spurious pictures. Amongst the questions asked are who is buying these and what will they be worth?