My Newest Revenue Finds

I won these first issue revenues as individual lots at an online auction last week and they arrived today.

They were marketed as R6c (but really R5c), R18c, R24c, R39c and R68c.

Upon close examination I've determined that I am now the very happy owner of an R18d and R68d, having paid $1.39 and $0.44 respectively!

If they are really R18d and R68d you got a very good deal! Post a pic of the back and I will be happy to confirm it for you. 1868 is a little early for a "d". If you have a want list for US Revenues you should send it to me! I have Lot's of duplicates!




Edit for dumb mistake.

Very nice buy.

Revstampman,

Here are the scans.

I'm not sure I understand your reference to 1868 being late for silk -- the R68 was first printed in Nov 1862.

The R18:


The R68:

This is about the best scan I've been able to get but when viewed under a 30X light scope, what I'm calling the blue silk thread appears to be doubled over itself.


Thanks for the help!

Steve

The R18 Absolutely Silk.
The R68 High Possibility but without it in front of me I wouldn't guarantee it.



They were actually delivered to the USIR on 12/6/1862

OOPS! I have corrected the original post as not to confuse anyone.

The Silk paper was delivered by Hudson Paper Mills in 1869. While many times stamps were back dated, yours would be a year's worth of backdating. Highly unusual!

Thanks for the clarification on the date -- I've been trying to skim through the 1899 Boston Philatelic Society book on revenues to glean additional information but I'm discovering that I'll have to spend a good deal of time to make sense of it all.

The Boston Book does say that paper was used from at least one other manufacturer, a Mr. Harding, and allows for the possibility that others as well as Hudson were experimenting with the use of silk fibres in their paper.

Given the information you've provided and the above, I think I'll play it safe and categorize it as an R68c until I can clearly demonstrate otherwise.

I'll be tinkering with a different scanner over the weekend to see if I can get a better image of the back.

I've got another grouping that I still have to look at so I'll probably be coming back for more assistance.

Thanks, again.

Steve

Would what looks like 1 blue thread constitute silk? what is the line in the middle of the stamp to the right of his face?
if that is silk I got to re-examine some I have.

No matter how it turns out, Revenue Stamps to me will always be an attractive set with some very nice engraving that went into those, plus you have to love Manuscript cancels.

Stallzer, I couldn't agree more -- U.S. revenues are fast becoming one of my favorite collecting areas.

Daryl, that one little thread is all it takes.

Here is an earlier post on silk paper https://goscf.com/t/10328 and a good reference site with images is at http://www.revenue-collector.com/index.shtml

That line to the left of the face as you're looking at the back of the R68 is residual from whatever the stamp had been affixed to, just like those two other pieces near the top. There were a lot more when I received the stamp but I soaked off most of them -- got too impatient and pulled it out of the water before the last of it came off.

Here is the other group of revenues that I mentioned earlier in this post. They were marketed as R45a, R84c, and R95c. Admittedly they aren't in the greatest shape--the R45 has 3 pinholes and the R84 has the crease and tear in the lower left and a small perf tear in the upper left--I knew the R84 had problems when I bid on it but the R45 was a surprise. Only the R45 and R84 are known to have a silk variant.



The backs of both the R45 and R84:



A closeup of a portion of the R45's back:



And one of the R84:



It looks as if there may be additional fibers under the hinge remnants on both stamps and I am calling them both as being printed on silk paper.

What do you think?

i don't know that 1 blue fiber constitutes silk paper... what about the paper type between them. the above

Check out revstampman's comments in the thread Old or Silk Paper? that I cited above and also the images at the revenue-collector.com website.

Here is a description of the four paper types used in the first issue that was published in the book An Historical Reference List of the Revenue Stamps of the United States compiled by the Boston Philatelic Society and published in 1899. The last two sentences answer the questions about paper type and quantity of fibres.

fair enough... I have been corrected.

R45a Silk No such stamp as far as I know! That is the standard 1864 Old thin paper.
R84d

I thought I was getting the hang of this. How do I explain these on the back of the R45?

Because we are in mixed company, I won't say what those look like. (except for the color)