Because of Sydney's selection to host the 2000 Summer Olympics, Australia Post had a major presence at OLYMPHILEX '96. Additionally, as part of a special partnership with the U.S. Postal Service, Australia Post had a booth selling Australia postal items in at least one downtown Atlanta Postal Store.
Australia Post also rented Atlanta's classic Fox Theater for the first of two first day of issue ceremonies for its commemorative Atlanta 1996/Sydney 200 Olympic stamp. To mark the occasion, both Australia Post and the U.S. Postal Service had postal stations in the lobby of the Fox Theater throughout the Olympics. For this station, officials of the Postal Service's Atlanta district prepared a special cancel for use at the booth throughout the Olympics.
As shown above, the pictorial cancel shows the logo of the Fox Theater, with no overt mention of the Olympics. Yet, by virtue of the July 19-August 3 Olympic dates on the cancel and its use in conjunction with the joint Australia-U.S.P.S. presence at the Fox, this seems to clearly qualify as an Olympic cancel.
Of all U.S. pictorial cancels marking the1996 Summer Olympic, this one will prove the rarest. There was no mention of the cancel in any issue of the USPS's Postal Bulletin, nor did Linn's or any other stamp weekly list the cancel's existence. A check with the USPS's special cancel unit in Atlanta (which is responsible for all cancels provided during the 30-day grace period) on September 5 revealed that few requests for this cancel were received at the unit. In cases where a collector sent sufficient stamped covers with requests for all July 19 postmarks (the first day of issue for the Discobolus stamp), cancel clerks did provide the Fox Theater cancel along with other cancels. But, of all pictorial cancels provided during the grace period, this one received the fewest requests. Thus, this cancel could become the sleeper of all 1996 Summer Olympic cancels--simply because only a few collectors ever found out about it.
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