Perforated 1¢ Bisect On Cover Postaly Used?

OK while surfing around the auction sites I run across an oddity. This is the auction for a "bisect" usage on postal stationery to make up the ½ ¢ postage needed (I'm supposing?). I'm guessing that this may be a contrived cover sent to another collector as such because I'm relatively certain that these stamps were never perforated for separation like fractional postage! Anyway take a look and tell me what you think? I am not going to bid or buy this but thought it odd enough to show here.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/intracity-S...em51a2b8863c





EDIT: added images

Looks like an altered item to me, for many reasons.

Also, notice the date/time is in a different ink and completely different font from the rest of the postmark.

Adlerika is a real company that sells products like "Adlerika Natural Bowel Cleanser" You can search for them on google and find papers from the 20s and 30s that have ads for them. So I suspect it's real.

I'm inclined to think it's real too. Interesting that the half-stamp is perforated instead of cut with scissors. Stuff like this was more or less tolerated until World War II.

So just like I suspected then- although legitimate for postage, contrived for collector purposes.

The cancel should not have had a date/time stamp as this was mailed at the bulk mail rate of 1.5 cents. Someone later added in the datestamp information in an effort to make the cover look "more genuine".

Just because the company is real doesn't mean the item hasn't been altered. Forgers who specialize in this type of activity deliberately use genuine items and then change them to something more valuable or more easily sold. I suspect the alteration was done well before the current seller obtained the item.



That's what I was thinking. That's why I said it was altered. I never questioned whether the entire item was a fake.

There is also an extraneous "smudge/arc" at the left of the "bisect" that is not related to the main postmark.

I'd be a bit surprised if this item was able to get certified as completely genuine. My "non-expert" opinion.

Stupid question, but why would the sender have a machine to perforate the 1¢ stamp anyway, if not a philatelitist?. I doubt that it would be an essential (or even remotely useful) part of a business or household....

It was NOT legitimate for postage, but collectors in that era did a lot of this sort of thing. They usually did not bother to perforate them, but finding bisects of 20's and 30's commemmoratives is not particularly uncommon.
Normally for third class the cancel would be a dummy, so the datestamp was very possibly added later. It certainly looks like it.

I googled St Paul Walloon bisect and found three postmarks apparently made by the same machine and they all have the "smudge/arc" irregardless of where the postmark appeared on the stamp or cover. I found a forth cover on bidstart. I'd say that makes the smudge related to the main postmark since it is also of the same color ink. The rest of the cancel and the bisected stamp also appear to be genuine with the possible questionable exception below. Additionally, It may not have been all that difficult for someone to obtain a perforating device to make the vertical bisect perfs. For example, Christmas, Easter Seal and cinderella stamp printers had them.

On the questionable side: All four covers have the same darker ink for the date and time. The date and time is the same for all four as well. If this part is an alteration, someone did an excellent job with the centering, excluding the darker color.

Well-researched, Marty!

k

Now that's really really weird. And, I've found a 4th one as well. Some are bisected vertically, others diagonally.

Four bisect items of the same style mailed the same day and same city, to the same company and received at the same time. If the time/date stamps are taken to be genuine, were they all mailed by the same person? I wonder what was the nature of mailing? Seems like too much of a coincidence that all 4 covers would be so similar. Now I'm tending toward thinking the covers are all contrived. Again, it would be interesting to know the nature of the mailing.

k

Thanks Kim, I just found a 4th cover on bidstart and edited my original post accordingly. One website google directed me to is: http://www.worthpoint.com/worthoped...ly-131039442

This is all kinda fishy; they may have all been mailed and thus postally used for legitimate business bulk mailings and all mailed and postmarked at the same time. Or someone knew someone at the addressee business which would fit the contrived mail theory

Well, the 4th one you found is different from the 4th one I found, so that makes at least 5 bisect items in this group. Most likely a 6th one exists for that missing half stamp.

Interesting item, regardless of what the final conclusion will be. Real or contrived, its definitely got a good story with it.

I agree, quite interesting. The vertical bisect perforations on 3 of these is what has really caught my attention and consequently provoked my research. I am no expert on bisects and I have seen officially produced bisect perforations but never private perforations.

I previously posted my Grandmother's attempt to work the system. She was successful getting this one through the system. She was unsuccessful on another.