6° Cachets Thurgood Marshall sworn in as U.S. Supreme Court Justice 50 Years Ago

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

6° Cachets Thurgood Marshall sworn in as U.S. Supreme Court Justice 50 Years Ago:
$5.01

6° Cachets

The cachet line, which began in 2008, was created for several reasons including to fill the void of philatelic covers depicting African Americans and Black Heritage, to educate collectors about Black stamp subjects or topics of interest, and to express Black culture in an atypical medium. The official first cachet was Charles Waddell Chesnutt whom cachet maker Don Neal wanted to depict in a way that was unique and in a way that would make the subject educational and collectible.

The original theme of 6° Cachets was that they have a Black connection. Some of the cachet subjects and the stamps relate or connect directly to Black heritage, but other cachet subjects or stamps may have to be “connected” to Black heritage, and 6° Cachets can do that in six or fewer steps with biographical information that is included with the cachet. The concept is based on the idea of six degrees of separation (also referred to as the “Human Web”) which theorizes that any person on the planet can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. The theory was first proposed in 1929 by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy in a short story called “Chains” and was popularized by the contemporary trivia game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon which assumes that any actor can be linked through his or her film roles to actor Kevin Bacon. Don Neal applied that “connection” concept to make a unique twist to his cachet line, linking for example Edwin Hubble (from the 2008 American Scientists stamp series) to boxing champ Jack Johnson. While attending the University of Chicago, Hubble gained a reputation as a gifted boxer. Promoters courted Hubble as the next “great White hope”—their pick to dethrone controversial African-American heavyweight champion Jack Johnson. Instead, Hubble accepted a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University, earned a degree in law, and ultimately turned to astronomy. Don likes to jest that Hubble chose to “see stars” through a telescope rather than on his back in a boxing ring.

Don also has made Black connections between the Frank Sinatra stamp and cachets of fellow rat pack member Sammy Davis, Jr., singer Billie Holiday, boxer Joe Louis, and architect Paul R. Williams—between the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy and Shani Davis, the first Black male to win an individual gold medal in a Winter Olympics—between the 2007 Jury Duty stamp and Oprah Winfrey, noting that even celebrities have to serve—between the 2008 Love: All Heart stamp and prominent Black couples—between the Chinese Lunar New year stamps and Black people born in the particular zodiac year—between various statehood stamps and African Americans born in or associated with those states—and between other stamps besides those obviously connected to Black heritage. 6° Cachets also has several covers commemorating President Barack Obama. Recently, 6° Cachets started connecting stamps and covers to other minorities, cultures, and ethnic groups, such as Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians commemorating theirachievements and contributions in an effort to show that we are all connected.

In order to preserve the uniqueness and potential value of 6° Cachets, they are produced in limited quantities (typically no more than 25). The cachets are signed by Don Neal and sequentially numbered on the reverse of the envelope.

These are great gifts to children and grandchildren!

offer with confidencePayment & Checkout

On since 1998

Many repeat buyers.

100% Positive response

Note: In somecases Iuse stock photos, therefore theitem may vary very slightly from the scanned image

I accept Pay Pal:

WV residents are required to pay 6% WV state sales tax.

NOTE: If you are planning on buying more items, please wait to pay so we can combine all of your items into one orderIf you are unhappy with your purchase for any reasonsimplysend the item back to me and once the item is back in my hands, I will refund yourPayPal payment (cost plus shipping)to your PayPal account. All I ask is that you pay the shipping back to my location.I leave positive response for all my buyers immediately (or shortly after) payment is received. I never wait for a buyer to leave me response first.International Buyers - Please Note:

Import duties, taxes, and charges are not included in the item price or shipping cost.These charges are the buyer\'s responsibility.

Please check with your country\'s customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to offerding or buying.