King Gustav V Opens 1912 Summer Olympics

Part of the development of my stamp collection has become telling the story of the Olympic Games through stamps, postmark cancellations, and first day covers. Telling the story sometimes goes beyond just collecting "Olympic" stamps. It now includes adding stamps that commemorate the associated events and people connected with the Olympic Games.

For example, I discovered this First Day Cover featuring the US stamp commemorating Jim Thorpe the most decorated athlete of the 1912 games in Stockholm, Sweden. But it wasn't the stamp that drew me to the cover. It was the cache depicting King Gustav V who officially opened the 1912 Summer Olympic Games.

The cache was designed by Lorraine Bailey, a cache maker in the Washington, DC. area.

Then I searched for stamps commemorating King Gustav V and found several. I bought these five that were issued in 1911 to 1919 adding them to my collection and creating this new page.