1945 U.S. Iwo Jima Issue First Day Cover Cachets

It's been quite some time since I added anything to this collection. This cover arrived today -- the copy of Mellone's that I have indicates the designer is unknown (ME-60)  but a cover with the same cachet and no border is attributed to Detroit-Ludwig.



I wouldn't normally have considered buying a cover in this condition (scuffs and smears on the cachet); however, in the 3 plus years I've been trying to build the collection, this is the first one with this cachet that I've seen listed on ebay. I'm just glad to have it and happy that I didn't have to pay too much to get it! 

Another has been scratched from the list!

I saw this cover listed at auction but thought the opening bid was too high so I allowed the auction to lapse in the hope that the seller would relist it at a lower price. He relisted it at the same opening and, unlike the first auction, someone placed a bid on it. 

Did I mention that this was only the second time that I had seen this item listed since I had begun checking the ebay listings daily (I bought my first Iwo Jima FDCs on May 27, 2011)?

I went back and looked at my records and saw that the previous listing of 929-61 sold for $180.50 on Nov 18, 2014. Needless to say, I needed to be prepared to pay dearly for this one but, to my good fortune, I won the item at a price well below what I had been prepared to pay. 

She is a card, rather than a cover, measuring slightly over 5"x8.25" and bears the same basic design that Staehle used on cachet 929-53, less the silver border.

It occurred to me that, for those who don't have access to Mellone's Specialized Cachet Catalog of First Day Covers of the 1940s (Vol I), it might be helpful to see images of the 20 cachets on my want list. Here are the cachets that I am still missing:

It has been almost 7 months since I was able to add another cover to my collection, although the 20 shown several posts above continue to elude me.

My latest addition is this addressed cover with a colorful Fluegel cachet and a large CDS over a block of four Scott 929s -- the composite image in the initial post has been updated to include this cover.

This Iwo Jima cover collection is a great and worthy quest, Steve (tomiseksj), and I wish you every success in completing it.

Having served in the Marine Corps myself, I am finding this thread very interesting indeed. Thanks, Steve!

Yesterday another Iwo FDC with Jacques Minkus cachet arrived in my mailbox.

It has been slightly more than 6 months since I've been able to add anything to this collection. In the past week I've added two first day covers that were needed with the machine cancel (small CDS) and another that was not listed by Mellone.

Pent Arts 929-44 and 929-46, respectively:


Not Listed:

Very Impressive collection! Good luck finding the remaining.

So Steve, I have and have seen others that you do not have, are they just not listed in the book? Are you going to get the ones not listed?

Another recent addition, although not listed in Mellone under the Iwo Jima issue. This Art Craft cachet depicting the leaders of four of the Allied nations (U.S., Great Britain, China, Soviet Union) made its debut in January 1943 with the issuance of the United Nations stamp (Scott 907).

I agree, salentin .  Stalin was a special kind of evil, and certainly not a proponent of the four freedoms!

OK Steve, So I have been collecting the Iwo Jima Covers for years now, but only started to get large and small cancels after reading your post last year.

I just figured out that there are two versions of this cover.

I have 6 of this cache with different postmarks, singles, blocks or plate blocks. The one above, is the only one I have that is different. I guess I bought it and never noticed it was different until yesterday.

I finally got around to scanning my latest gap-filler that was acquired in late March -- the W.G. Crosby cachet is listed in Mellone's as 929-35. The cover was purchased as part of a two cover lot, the other being an Aristocrats-Lowry (929-1) with plate number block of 4. The latter cover included a Church Committee For China Relief pamphlet titled "Have a Heart for China."