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Enjoying ArtCraft
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Have you seen the latest ArtCraft cachets lately? They’re quite a bit different from the ones many of us remember from our childhoods. They’re no longer entirely engraved, but, more importantly, they’re also no longer just black-and-white.
I picked up several issues at the ArtCraft booth at Americover 2014.
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This wonderful Neon Celebrate (Sc. 4502) FDC was produced for the Garfield-Perry stamp show that is held each year in Cleveland, and at which the stamp was issued.
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All cachetmakers are running into rights issues, especially as the USPS issues more and more of these commercial, pop-culture issues. ArtCraft avoided the problem for the Harry Potter stamps (Sc. 4825-4844) in late 2013 by designing a generic cachet that never mentions the Boy Wizard and doesn’t show the movie actors.
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A few years earlier, however, ArtCraft got around the rights issues in other ways for The Simpsons stamps (Sc. 4399-4403). In the above cachet, the stamp completes the picture.
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And in this one, look carefully: The Digital Color Postmark completes the picture, showing The Simpsons family, not the cachet.
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Rights weren’t a problem here: ArtCraft produced 5- by 7-inch cards for the Ted Williams stamp (Sc. 4694) on behalf of the BoSox Club. Williams’ daughter is on the club’s board.
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Finally, I also picked up this older #10 envelope ArtCraft FDC, just because I like #10’s, and I like dual-canceled joint issues. The U.S. and Sweden in 1988 issued stamps with similar designs to commemorate Swedish settlement in the New World.
Lloyd A. de Vries
©2014 de Vries Philatelic Media