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Recently discovered is a March 1996 article written by W. M. Wickert on Vatican First Day Covers. Mr. Wickert’s article takes the concept that first-day covers are of one of two varieties. The first variety are covers being passed through regular postal channels as a matter of routine business where newly issued stamps are used and get postmarked as a regular part of mail processing. Thus, a first-day issue cover is created as something is mailed to someone. The second variety are first-day covers philatelically prepared specifically for the issue date. The stamp is released on the date of issue and very often has a special first-day postmark applied to a cover. The second example of first-day covers can be addressed or unaddressed. In the case of Vatican City covers examples of both first-day variety types can be easily found dating from the first day the Vatican City Post Office began operations on August 1, 1929. Mr, Wickert noted that the Vatican Post Office has never had a formal first-day service (like that of the U.S. Post Office) and Vatican stamp collectors have had to rely mostly on stamp dealers for first-day covers. Over the years, a great Vatican first-day cachet cover business developed that was serviced by the stamp dealers until the number of Vatican stamp collectors declined. By 2010 most first-day cachet cover dealers simply went out of business. The decline of cachet stamp dealers has left those of us who had enjoyed collecting beautiful Vatican cachet first-day covers some serious decisions on how to continue adding new material to our collections. Some Vatican collectors have been buying stamps on envelopes with our stamp orders from the Vatican Post Office. These covers have been postmarked with a standard circular everyday Vatican postmark with a 1 in the upper moon, an F in the lower moon, and the issue date in the center of the postmark. (See the left figure below.) Such dull-looking covers have probably not helped stimulate getting anyone excited about collecting Vatican first-day covers. 
2020 Easter Postmark Left figure is standard round standard cancellation Right figure is first-day postmark used by CFN With the recent discovery that the Vatican Post Office publishes new issue postmarks in the Vatican newspaper (and also the CFN press release on the CFN website, in Italian), the question now becomes to buy stamped first-day covers with day-of-issue postmarks has surfaced. (These are artistically produced postmarks such as on the right above.) Granted, such covers would probably not have the beautiful artwork as the covers historically sold by the cache dealers of years past but would be a huge improvement over the dull circle 1F postmarks that have been from the Vatican Post Office. To get to the bottom of this question, it was time to start another series of emails to the Vatican Post Office. The first email was a simple question of inquiry on what the procedure is for getting first-day postmarks on stamped envelopes. The response, sent by the CFN, instructed me to simply order it. This was done and I tried my hardest to explain I wanted the artistic first-day issue postmark as described in the CFN Press Release for each stamp and not the standard circular 1F postmark. The reply was to send confirmation as to which postmark I wanted. So, I sent a picture of each first-day issue postmark for the stamped cover I was ordering. I also added another copy of the order form showing each issue being ordered. I also suggested changing the standard CFN order form to include a check box on each line to indicate that the first-day issue postmark is wanted. Much to my surprise, I received back the standard reply they the CFN has received my order and it will process it as soon as possible. I now think I've got a set of the February 19th, 2024 Vatican issues with first-day postmarks on order. It has taken several emails. I will now wait and see what arrives in the mail. However, I think I have come up with a somewhat understanding of the process involved in getting first-day postmarks from the UFN. Time will tell! It beats having to buy all stamps on envelopes only the standard circle 1 F postmarks! So, now the wait begins. Guess we will wait and see what comes in the mail. Plan B will be to try to talk with someone when visiting Vatican City this spring. Stay tuned, another report is promised. References • W.M. Wickert, Collecting Vatican First Day Covers Vatican Notes, Volume 44 No.5, March 1966, pages 1,6-8 • Lanahan Marvin Vatican Postmark Announcements Found VPS Daily Email, published 03/10/2023 |
