Official First Day of Issue Cancel

At the 1996 Summer Olympics, the official Olympic site for the U.S. Postal Service was at OLYMPHILEX '96 on the 7th floor of the Merchandise Mart in downtown Atlanta. Here, the Postal Service had a large booth where the Olympics Centennial stamp was sold to the public following July 19 ceremonies where the stamp was unveiled. Anyone wanting a souvenir could purchase the stamp, apply it to an envelope (or any other item, such as a souvenir card), and have Postal Service Clerks apply the official first day of issue cancellation shown above. In addition to this example of a plain envelope, a number of souvenir first day covers were prepared with commercial, hand-drawn, or computer-generated cachets (designs related to the stamp printed on the left side of the envelope).

(c) Carl Vinson Institute of Government, The University of Georgia

Go to Centennial Olympics stamp page

Go to Georgia on Stamps page