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. It was from the Postal Service's large booth at
OLYMPHILEX that not only were the daily shown cancels used but also the
pictorial cancel for each sport venue.
Members and staff of the International Olympic Committee, as well as many
National Olympic Committees, were housed at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. To
mark their headquarters hotel, representatives of the IOC arranged to have
the U.S. Postal Service issue a special pictorial cancel. This cancel, which
was marked with a separate date for each day of the Olympics (unlike the
other special Olympic cancels which only showed "July 19-Aug. 3 1996").
This cancel, which received no advance publicity in the philatelic press,
was only available at a special USPS station in the hotel's lobby. And,
unlike other Olympic cancels, the U.S. Postal Service made no reference to
it in any issue of Postal Bulletin. However, the special cancelling unit servicing Atlanta Olympic pictorial cancels included this among the cancels entitled to the
usual 30-day grace period following initial use.
Return to Olympic cancellations