Dignitaries participating in a stamp ceremony as well as prominent legislatures, high postal officials, and the White House are routinely given copies of the new stamp being released in a specially prepared album called a presentation album.  At one time the PMG autographed the pane of stamps or FDC in the albums. In the last 10 or more years of their production a photocopied letter from the PMG was usually included with the album instead.   Recently framed plaques with examples of the stamps and a metal tablet with the date of the ceremony have been given to the ceremony participants at some first day ceremonies.  

Philatelic gifts to politically connected individuals seem to have a long history as evidenced by the Roosevelt albums of proofs in 1903, and of course the Farley's sheets, which were made available to collectors in 1935. 

 I have noticed presentation copies of stamps, typically of the 1857 issue, for sale on Ebay occasionally.  These usually had a magenta ink cross over the stamp.  Not being familiar with this item I posted a question on Frajola's Board for philatelists (http://www.rfrajola.com).  There a number of advanced philatelists informed me that the exact origin of these "presentation" copies are unknown. The most likely explanation was that they were either given by the Toppan Carpenter firm,  that printed the stamps for the USPOD, as samples to the post office department, or kept in the printer's files.  Additional information gleaned from Frajola's Board was that Postmaster John Wanamaker supposedly received imperforate 2c Columbians.    

What appears to be a very early presentation album is illustrated for the 1929 George Rogers Clark issue.  I was advised by an expert on the George Rogers Clark issue, on the same board, that this folder was given by the George Rogers Clark Committee to VIPs at the ceremony and that the stamps were signed by PMG New even though he did not attend the ceremony.   

A unique presentation piece was given to Alexander Graham Bell's eldest great grandson.  It included a full sheet of the Bell Famous American issue and was autographed by both the PMG and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.   

It is illustrated on the cover of this issue and in the Americover article.

 Initially the first sold panes of an issue were purchased.  An illustration of PMG Hubert Work purchasing the first pane to later be gifted to President Harding is illustrated in Gary Griffith's book (1).  When president Franklin Delano Roosevelt purchased the first panes of stamps money changed hands as illustrated by the photo.   

At ceremonies, at least in the 1960s and possibly until the USPS took over from the USPOD the sponsoring organization was asked to pay for the stamps that were included in the albums to be distributed.  In a letter from Kenneth D. Weaver the Director of Organization Relations for the Boy's Clubs of America to Howard Sunshine it was noted that only fifteen presentation albums for the Boys' Clubs of America issue were produced.  This makes sense if the sponsoring organization (in this case the Boys Club of America ) had to pay for them.  I had a conversation years ago with a postal official involved with first day ceremonies in the 1960s.  He told me that he always felt uncomfortable asking the sponsoring organization to pay for the stamps.  I do not know the exact date when this policy changed.   However, I was recently informed  by a former high raking postal official that after the USPS took over from the USPOD the USPS paid for the albums.  I was also advised that at least until the early 1990's it was unusual to produce more than 20 albums for any issue.  This seems to be different today according to Linns.

Bill McAllister reported (2) that "sixty-three current and former federal officials were given stamp presentation albums of each new stamp in 2004".   I have seen albums up to 1999.  These were typically distributed with a example of the new issue as a pane, booklet or coil strip.  If a high value stamp was used, such as Scott # 2541, the $9.95 Express mail issue, a block of four was included.  This is different than the earlier USPOD albums when only a FDC was included for the $5.00 Alexander Hamilton issue.

In at least the last 18 years, a FDC and first day ceremony program were included with the albums I have seen.  For the most important VIPs the ceremony program was affixed to the inside of the presentation album's cover.  There is also a history of non first day presentation albums being distributed at UPU conferences containing the then current stamps so that they may be recognized when used on mail entering their country.  The earliest ones I have seen contained the 1922 definitive series.   

Illustrated is the UPU album for 1989's World Stamp Expo.

There is little reported in the philatelic literature regarding presentation albums other than the Roosevelt proof albums.  Any collector with additional information to add would be contributing to our knowledge base.  

A previously unreported discovery was found in a presentation album given to an assistant PMG for the 1988 Special Occasions booklet.   Scott values them at $1,250.00 in the 2006 specialized catalogue, the presentation album had a copy of the never folded panes for both Sc #s 2398a and 2396a.  If you have one of these presentation albums it may be worth checking!  

* A significant part of this article was published recently in Mekeel's

1. Gary Griffith, Linn's United States Stamps 1922-26, Linn's Stamp News, 1997, Page 16

2. Linn's Stamp News, June 13, 2005 Page 1