This official First Day Cover features the 13¢ First Civil Settlement in Alta California stamp issued September 9, 1977, in San Jose, California. The colorful cachet depicts the 1777 expedition led by José Joaquín Moraga and commemorates the bicentennial of the founding of the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe.
The stamp marks a pivotal moment in California and Western history: the establishment of the first civil settlement in Alta California on November 29, 1777. This pueblo became the modern city of San Jose and served as an early center of Spanish colonial governance and agriculture in the region.
The cachet artwork shows period figures on horseback with a pack mule against a California landscape, paired with a detailed illustration of an early adobe dwelling on the stamp itself. The cover is inscribed “Official First Day Cover” and carries the clear San Jose, CA postmark dated September 9, 1977.
A fine addition for collectors of California history, Spanish colonial themes, or U.S. bicentennial-era issues, this well-preserved FDC displays strong color and a crisp first-day cancel.
