The Texas-based company Emrick Cachets has taken the top honour in the American First Day Cover Society’s (AFDCS) annual Cachetmaker Contest.
Owner Bob Emrick’s design – a first-day cover and cachet for the U.S. Arnold Palmer stamp issued in March 2020 – won both the “top cachet” honour plus first place in the “hand-painted/hand-drawn” category, of of the contest’s 18 categories.
Emrick previously won the competition’s top award in 2015.
This year, for the first time, a junior AFDCS member won an adult category. Arianna Calle, 17, won both first and second place in the “hand-painted/non-original art” category.
Her father and grandfather, artists Chris and Paul Calle, have both designed U.S. stamps.
Calle’s covers previously won first or second in the junior categories more than a dozen times dating back to 2009.
Her father Chris also won the “top cachet” honour in 2016, 2011 and 2007.
Officials announced the contest results during the recent Great American Stamp Show (“Great American Stamp Show ‘a very positive uptick,’” CSN Vol. 46 #11), which also included the annual AFDCS convention Americover plus the American Topical Association’s National Topical Stamp Show.
All of the contest winners are listed at afdcs.org.