Beschreibung:

Lot of 11, including: 2 First Day of Issue covers with postmark from Washington, DC, 4 July 1957 with 4¢ flag stamps. Both are signed by Harry Truman. One has an Art Craft cachet with red and blue ink. The other has a C. Stephen Anderson cachet, with paragraph noting that this was the first rise in first class mail rates in 25 years; design in blue ink only. The Truman signatures both are signed onto the stamp (like a cancelation). They are slightly different, and differ from most autopen exemplars we could locate (the "H" especially is different). Truman was "retired" by this time, so may have been able to sign at least one of these. One FDC is postmarked Honolulu, Hawaii, postmarked July 4, 1960, "Honoring the 50th Star." This was the date Hawaii officially became the 50th state, although Dwight Eisenhower had signed the bill making Hawaii a state in late summer of 1959. Eisenhower would also have been a good choice to sign this because of his WWII association, and the war started in Hawaii (although Ike is more closely associated with the European theater, he served a number of years in the Pacific from the mid- to late 1930s). Also included is a typed letter signed by Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Robert Schulz, Executive Assistant to Eisenhower, on Eisenhower's letterhead from Gettysburg, PA, dated 26 Aug. 1965. In the letter Schulz notes: While under normal circumstances and because the volume of requests for the General's signature would preclude exceeding to your request, I will nevertheless endeavor, within the next few months, to have the General sign the first-day cover of July 4, 1960 for your public service collection -- although I am fully aware that this is contrary to a policy he has had to establish many years ago concerning philatelic material. This strongly suggests the cover was signed. There is a FDC "Commemorating 100th Anniversary City Mail Free Delivery 1863 - 1963, postmarked Washington, DC, 26 Oct. 1963. Inscribed and signed, Sincerely Norman Rockwell This Fleetwood cover has a cachet of an overloaded postman, with the "Mail Early for Christmas" logo at the bottom and the Norman Rockwell "Letter Carrier, 1863" 5¢ stamp commemorating City Mail Delivery. (And although Rockwell was not a politician, Eisenhower was an artist!) There are several Inauguration Day covers, including Richard Nixon, postmarked Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 1969, with Fleetwood cachet of Nixon and White House in background; with Nixon autopen signature. There are two Lyndon Johnson Inauguration day covers, postmarked Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 1965, both with Johnson's signature. The Fleetwood cachet on one is similar to Nixon's with Johnson's portrait, White House in background. The second has no cachet. There is also a typed letter signed by (Mrs.) Willie Day Taylor, Johnson's assistant, on LBJ letterhead dated 26 Feb. 1970. The short note indicates: As you requested, President Johnson has autographed your first day cover. It comes to you with his very best wishes for the success of your display. The two signatures are slightly different, but the Fleetwood cover autograph has the dot/period below the "B," something apparently Johnson would not let his secretaries do. We have also not seen it on autopen signatures. So this cover might be signed; the plain FDC is autopen. The last item is Vice Presidential. It is the same Jan. 20, 1965 Inauguration Day cover with no cachet, but this one signed by Hubert H. Humphrey. It is also accompanied by a letter on "Office of the Vice President" letterhead, dated March 20, 1965, and signed by Humphrey's personal secretary, Violet Williams. This one appears to be (and is most likely) autopen. While many of these covers are signed with an autopen machine, we should realize that they are legal signatures, and the machine is even being used occasionally to sign bills that come to the President from Congress. Autopen-signed pieces are an affordable option for beginning collectors. Assembled by a Montello, WI Post