In addition to First Day Covers, the Bangladesh Postal Department prepares Special Covers, commemorating different events. These envelopes have the Post Office logo printed on the back flap, like the FDCs. Both an envelope and a commemorative postmark are created for the occasion. If the event is one being celebrated over several days, the same envelope is generally used, but there is a different commemorative postmark created for each day of the event. Inserts are generally not prepared for Special Covers. These covers and postmarks are separate from the Commemorative Postmarks and FDCs, listed elsewhere on these pages.
The Post Office Department has made many mistakes in the creation of these covers, often putting “FIRST DAY COVER” on the envelope and even using a cancelation that reads, “First Day of Issue” . As a result, many foreign collectors and dealers think some of these covers are First Day Covers.
As with the FDCs, these envelopes are sold for a minimal fee of a few Taka. These envelopes are offered at other post offices but are not very popular and the covers are seldom seen with non-Dhaka cancellations. Because of this, they must be considered rare. One purchases the envelopes, applies the relevant amount of postage (Usually the minimal acceptable amount) and then can cancel the cover him/herself.
In some instances collectors have applied the postmark to the envelope without stamps. Since they are not being sent through the mail, this poses no problem. These are certainly collectible and are often quite attractive, but covers with stamps are more desirable and sell for more than those without stamps.
A few covers are often cancelled with the canceling device more than once, with one tying the stamp to the envelope and the other to show the cancellation.
Only a few of these covers are cancelled with any color, other than the post office provided black. This listing will indicate the known colors found to date. Often only a few (2 – 19) were made in a particular color. It is not possible to indicate the numbers of such as there were no records kept by those making them, and they were not considered of any great importance. Like the FDCs, once collectors are aware of their existence, there will most likely be a demand for them.
As with the FDCs, the envelopes come in a variety of sizes. However, they are not found in the extremely large sizes like some of the FDCs.
Since these covers all exist with Dhaka postmarks, I have only listed the names of the other cities where covers are known to exist.
1973
1977
1978
20 March – “Seminar on Human & Natural Resources in the Islamic World”. Note that two different cancellations exist. The one from the Parliament Post Office was where the conference was held. Such post offices at events are referred to as “Camp Post Offices”.
1981
22 November – “5th Asian Junior Chess”. This is not a FDC even though it states such on the envelope and has a “FIRST DAY OF ISSUE” cancellation. Covers also exist for this event with Hotel Purbani Camp. P.O. cancellation.
1982
This is the type of item that poses tremendous problems for collectors. Someone put the cancellation for the Special Cover on an aerogramme. For Special Covers, one wants to collect both the cacheted envelope and the cancellation on the same envelope. No one collects the cancellations separately. This is not one of the Special Postmarks issued by the Postal Department. It is the cancellation that goes with the Special Cover.
1983
1984
13 – 15 May – “First Bangladesh National Philatelic Exhibition 1984”. The same cachet exists for the three days but is a different color for each day (13th blue-green, 14th dark green and 15th dark yellow). Additionally, there is a different postmark for each day. Covers also exist with Camp P.O. cancellation.
28 – 29 December – “KHULNAPEX 84”, Awards Day and Philatelist Day at Khulna stamp exhibition. Most of the covers were cancelled with no stamps, therefore covers with stamps are much more valuable. Additonally, the upper cancellation is very difficult to find.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
1985
1986
1988
1988
Above are the three varieties of this envelope. The scarcest of the three is the one with the smaller logo. Also note that the logo and writing is in one color, whereas the larger logo and writing is in red and blue.
7 April “World Health Day”. Three different varieties of this cover exist: 1) with no Post Office logo on the back envelope flap and no writing on the back of the envelope; and with two different sizes of logo – 2) 11 mm; and 3) 15 mm.
