Post Offices Prepare to Stamp Inauguration Day Into Memory : Collectibles: Jan. 20 will be busy for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, and it’s a double whammy for people who collect stamps and political memorabilia.

WASHINGTON —  On Jan. 20, the East Front of the Capitol will be the place to be. That’s where Bill Clinton and Al Gore will be taking their oaths of office as President and vice president.

But for hundreds of stamp collectors and others who want a low-cost souvenir of Inauguration Day, the place to be will be a post office on the other side of Capitol Hill.

At the National Capitol Post Office, 2 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., postal workers will be handing out Inauguration Day postal cancellations. The price: a 29-cent stamp and an envelope.

In a tradition that dates from Herbert Hoover’s 1929 inauguration, letters postmarked in Washington on Inauguration Day have become a valued collectible for both collectors of stamps and political memorabilia. In recent years, the practice has expanded beyond the nation’s capital to other communities with a tie to the President or vice president.

Four years ago, the Postal Service marked President Bush’s inauguration with Inaugural Day cancellations in Milton, Mass. (his birthplace); Greenwich, Conn. (his family home); Kennebunkport, Maine, (his vacation home), and Houston (his political residence) as well as Washington. For Vice President Dan Quayle there also were cancellations in Indianapolis (his birthplace) and Huntington, Ind. (his hometown).

This year, perhaps reflecting the austere times facing the Postal Service, only two other cities will have special postmarks: Hope, Ark., Clinton’s hometown; and Carthage, Tenn., Gore’s home.

Leo August, the New Jersey printer who is largely credited with creating specially engraved envelopes for the first day of issue of new stamps and inaugurations, said he expects more than 200,000 Inauguration Day envelopes will be canceled this year.

Long before the announcement of the three cities with special postmarks, August was ready for the Clinton inaugural. His firm, Washington Press Inc., produced four engraved envelopes to mark the Clinton-Gore inaugurations, ones that show not only the President and vice president-elect, but ones that show their wives as well.

Most previous August envelopes, sold under the Artcraft brand name, have featured sober portraits of the new Presidents and vice president along with a drawing of the Capitol or White House.

“The women are the big thing today,” said August, noting that women are not only more politically powerful but there are also more women stamp collectors.

Design may be a minor point as far as the envelope’s value is concerned. The most valuable addition to any Inauguration Day envelope is a presidential signature. Getting one of those on an Inauguration Day envelope can cause its value to skyrocket.

Of all the recent Presidents, the one whose autograph has proved most elusive is Jimmy Carter. “For one reason or another, you don’t see them around,” said August.

A signed Carter inaugural envelope would sell for $35 to $50, August said. That’s in contrast to the $3.65 that August’s firm asks for an unsigned Carter envelope.

August, 74, who runs a stamp and printing business in Florham Park, N.J., is largely responsible for the special Inauguration Day postmark. During the Eisenhower Administration, he approached Robert E. Fellers, head of philately in the Post Office Department, and convinced him that the Post Office should offer a special cancellation for the day. Fellers accepted the idea and the “Inauguration Day” cancellation was born with Ike’s 1957 ceremony.

Although the earliest inaugural envelopes date from Hoover’s March 4, 1929, ceremony, it was not until Truman’s 1945 inauguration that the idea began to catch on, according to August. Brookman Stamp Co. in Bedford, N.H., offers an unsigned Truman envelope from that day for $150, but its most-valuable offering comes from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fourth inauguration in 1945. It sells that envelope for $250.

Many stamp collectors like to use stamps related to the new President. For Richard Nixon’s two inaugurals, Artcraft found five stamps: a California statehood stamp to mark his birth state, an American Bar Assn. stamp to mark his profession, a Navy stamp to mark his military service, a Capitol stamp to mark his congressional service and a White House stamp to mark where he would live. Envelopes with those stamps sell for $12 for Nixon’s first inauguration and $8.50 for his second.

With Clinton, the stamp of choice seems likely to be a 22-cent Arkansas statehood stamp, issued in 1986. It shows the Old State House in Little Rock where the President-elect has held most of his news conferences.

There is one problem with inaugural envelopes, August said: Their appeal tends to be highly partisan.

That’s quite a contrast to the demand for the new Elvis Presley stamp. “With Elvis Presley,” August said, “everybody is interested.”