Claude
The cachet features a hand-colored illustration of a Northern Cardinal in vibrant red with spread wings, rendered in a bold artistic style with black outlining, signed 'RMA' in the lower left. Two stamps are affixed: a 30-cent USA Cardinal stamp (showing a close-up of the bird's head) and an older 8-cent United States Wildlife Conservation Cardinal stamp (showing a cardinal perched on a branch with green foliage). The postmark is a standard circular machine cancel from Aurora, CO dated June 22, 1991. The cover text reads 'THE MAJESTIC CARDINAL' in bold red lettering along the bottom.
Mistral
This First Day Cover features a vibrant cachet of a Northern Cardinal in flight, illustrated in bold red with black facial details and a yellow beak, signed 'RMA' by the artist. The cover includes two stamps: a 30-cent USA Cardinal stamp with a red bird on a white background, and an 8-cent Wildlife Conservation stamp depicting a cardinal perched on a branch with green foliage. The postmark is a circular cancellation from Aurora, CO, dated June 22, 1991, with the text 'FIRST DAY OF ISSUE' printed nearby. The text 'THE MAJESTIC CARDINAL' is prominently displayed in red capital letters below the cachet.
(The automatic summaries sometimes misidentify the postmark as part of the cachet artwork.)
