About Us

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About Us

How it all began

In 1840 a new way of delivering letters came into operation. For 1d you bought a small black square of paper (the famous Penny Black!), stuck it on to your envelope and your letter was delivered for you. Little did those trying the service on the 'First Day' know that nearly 160 years later others would be doing the same thing each time a new stamp was issued. And that those envelopes dated 6th May 1840 would sell for over £20,000!

The first in First Day Covers

As the leading independent producer of First Day Covers, we have been in operation for over 30 years and our philosophy is simple - to produce the most beautiful covers in the world, a joy to collect and increasing in value as time goes by. When we design our own covers, we go to enormous lengths to create ones you will be proud to own and display.

We capture the theme of the stamp issue and print it onto 'silken' fabric. We attach these to the covers by hand and frame them with gold-blocked borders. We sponsor our own special Royal Mail postmarks to add even greater appeal.

When finished, each one presents a total picture linking the stamps, postmarks and cover designs to create a miniature work of art.

Why a special postmark?

When you receive a letter through the post, the postmark is simply intended to show you where and when it was posted.

With a Benham First Day Cover, we take this a little further. For each cover, we find a place connected with the person, event or subject featured on the stamps and create a pictorial postmark. The date featured is the date of the first day the stamps are available.

Other special Benham features

Benham was the first company in Britain to produce the beautiful 'silk' covers once only available in the US. And we like to maintain our reputation for adding those touches that make our covers that extra bit special.

Many of our covers, for instance, are carried on historic journeys. They took the first trip through the Channel Tunnel and sailed on the ship bringing Chris Patten home after the handover of Hong Kong.

THE FIRST IN FIRST DAY COVERS

We accept the following cards:

8.30am - 5.00pm MON - FRI

CALL 0844 994 9400