Vintage USPS Elvis Commemorative Stamp Collection, Sealed, 1993
Viridian Eclection
The Piece The complete Elvis Presley commemorative collection issued by the United States Postal Service in 1993, still shrink wrapped, and with something most surviving examples have long since lo...
The Piece
The complete Elvis Presley commemorative collection issued by the United States Postal Service in 1993, still shrink wrapped, and with something most surviving examples have long since lost: the paperwork. The set comes in its original USPS mailing carton, the flaps still carrying the printed address label to the original purchaser and a strip of tape marked Elvis Stamps in red felt pen by whoever put it away.
Inside, sealed, is the Legends of American Music commemorative album in navy and gold, and laid over it the first day cover: a card printed as a forty five record sleeve in cream and deep red, the Elvis script logo across the top, and set into the centre circle where a label would sit, the twenty nine cent stamp itself, cancelled with the pictorial first day die. That cancel is a drawing of a stave of music running into the brick front of Graceland, and it reads FIRST DAY OF ISSUE, January 8 1993, Memphis TN.
Folded in with it is the original receipt. It records the order placed on 10 March 1993 through the Postal Service's Stamps by Phone line, item A9918, Complete Elvis Collection, forty four dollars ninety five, plus a three dollar service charge, forty seven ninety five in total. It lists what the collection contains and what each part would have cost alone: the commemorative album at 19.95, the limited edition print at 14.95, the stamp sheet and saver sleeve at 11.60, and the first day ceremony program at 5.95.
History & Provenance
The Elvis stamp is the most consequential piece of paper the Postal Service ever printed. Through 1992 the USPS ran a public ballot asking Americans to choose between a young Elvis and an older one, an exercise that generated over a million votes and a volume of press coverage no stamp had attracted before. The young Elvis won. The stamp went on sale on 8 January 1993, which would have been his fifty eighth birthday, with a first day ceremony at Graceland.
It became the best selling commemorative stamp in American history, and by a wide margin. The Postal Service printed hundreds of millions, and a very large share were bought and never used, which was the point: a stamp that is saved rather than spent is revenue with no service to deliver against it. That is also why loose Elvis stamps are worth nothing today and always will be. They were saved by the tens of millions.
What is uncommon is this. A collection still sealed, in its own mailing box, with the purchaser's label, a dated receipt naming the item number and the price, and the first day cancel intact. The stamps are common. The documented, unopened, thirty three year old parcel is not, and everything interesting about this object is the paperwork rather than the philately.
Product Details
| Era | 1993, documented to the day twice over. The stamp carries a first day of issue cancel dated 8 January 1993 at Memphis, and the enclosed Postal Service receipt is dated 10 March 1993. No estimation is required |
| Issuer | United States Postal Service, Legends of American Music series |
| Contents | Complete Elvis Collection, USPS item A9918, comprising the commemorative album, limited edition print, stamp sheet with saver sleeve and first day ceremony program, as itemised on the enclosed receipt |
| Stamp | Twenty nine cent Elvis Presley commemorative, issued 8 January 1993, cancelled with the pictorial Graceland first day die |
| Documentation | Original USPS mailing carton with printed addressee label, and the original dated purchase receipt recording item, price and service charge |
| Original price | Forty four dollars ninety five plus three dollars service, as printed on the receipt |
| Dimensions | Carton approximately 12 in. by 11 in. |
| Condition | Sealed and apparently never opened. Shrink wrap intact and clear. Album, cover and print bright with no fading, foxing or handling marks visible through the wrap. Mailing carton sound with light shelf wear, the address label and felt pen annotation intact. Receipt clean and fully legible. Offered unopened |
Why It Belongs in Your Home
Framed, the first day cover alone is a good piece of graphic design: a record sleeve that is not a record, with a stamp where the label goes and Graceland drawn into the postmark. But the set is better left as found. It is a small sealed parcel of 1993, with the date somebody ordered it, what they paid, and the pen mark they made before putting it on a shelf for three decades. Objects that carry their own paperwork are rare, and they are the only ones that can prove what they say about themselves.
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