United States Presidential Inaugural Covers

United States presidential inaugural covers are a fun field of philately. Any cover canceled with a United States postmark on the day a US president is sworn into office qualifies as an inaugural cover. However, a postmark in the city where a president is inaugurated is more highly prized. Most collectors would prefer also to have a cachet to identify the item and to honor the president. Fortunately, cachets were invented in 1928, so all presidents from Hoover onward have been honored with such covers. Nonetheless, there is another way the pre-1928 presidents could have cacheted inaugural covers. Privately made American postcards have been available since 1898 so inaugural day postcards are possible. From McKinley in 1901 up to Coolidge in 1925, we have eight inaugural days to add to the total. For the span 1793 to 1897, inaugural covers would have to be without cachets. These covers are much less common and sell for large sums of money. Furthermore, the pre-1847 covers would be stampless covers. Thus a President Washington inaugural cover would be without stamp or cachet and would be posted in New York or Philadelphia.

Use the grid below to help you determine if a cover was used on an inaugural day. Even covers postmarked in other United States locations could be of strong interest to a collector. Thus presidential inaugural covers are a very interesting field to collect.  (From Jefferson onward, all inaugurals are in Washington DC unless stated otherwise.)

• Washington  - April 30 1789 in New York and March 4 1793 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania
• Adams  - March 4 1797 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania
• Jefferson  - March 4 1801 and 1805 in Washington DC
• Madison - March 4 1809 and 1813
• Monroe - March 4 1817 and March 5 1821
• JQ Adams - March 4 1825
• Jackson  - March 4 1829 and 1833
• Van Buren  - March 4 1837
• Harrison - March 4 1841
• Tyler  - April 6 1841
• Polk - March 4 1845
• Taylor - March 5 1849
• Fillmore -  July 10 1850
• Pierce - March 4 1853
• Buchanan - March 4 1857
• Lincoln - March 4 1861 and 1865
• Johnson - April 15 1865
• Grant - March 4 1869 and 1873
• Hayes -  March 3 1877 (also March 5 1877)
• Garfield -  March 4 1881
• Arthur - September 20 1881 (also September 22 1881)
• Cleveland - March 4 1885 and 1893
• Harrison - March 4 1889
• McKinley - March 4 1897 and 1901
• Roosevelt  - September 14 1901 in Buffalo New York and March 4 1905
• Taft - March 4 1909
• Wilson - March 4 1913 and March 5 1917
• Harding - March 4 1921
• Coolidge - August 3 1923 in Plymouth Notch, Vermont (also August 4 1923 in DC) and March 4 1925
• Hoover - March 4 1929
• Roosevelt - March 4 1933 and January 20 1937 and 1941 and 1945
• Truman - April 12 1945 and January 20 1949
• Eisenhower - January 20 1953 and 1957 (also January 21 1957)
• Kennedy - January 20 1961
• Johnson - November 22 1963 in Dallas Texas and January 20 1965
• Nixon - January 20 1969 and 1973
• Ford - August 9 1974
• Carter - January 20 1977
• Reagan - January 20 1981 and January 21 1985
• Bush - January 20 1989
• Clinton - January 20 1993 and 1997
• Bush - January 20 2001 and 2005
• Obama - January 20 2009