Thanks for the suggestion. I am not aware that the time of day was included during the mid 1800s. One thing for sure is that the "3" is quite clear. The last symbol appears to be a "D" since the left side is a straight vertical line with a clear serif on the bottom. The middle symbol is not very legible.
I suppose it could also be "3RD" as in the postal clerk or section of the post office that handled that piece of mail. One thing is for sure, the postmark is Philadelphia so that would have been a larger post office, even in 1865, that would have had multiple clerks handling the mail.
IMHO, it doesn't look like an R next to the D, but it is underlined like a superscript might be. The shadow/engraving of AJ's eye makes it difficult to see anything.
The '65 is clear. But, we're going to have to wait on one of the cancellation experts, I guess...
Here is a sharper scan with some modification to remove grayish tones. The symbol, be it a letter or otherwise, is still not identifiable to me. I still tend to believe it might be an "R", possibly indicating 3RD work shift. Still, I'm just guessing. I've have seen thousands of cds cancels on classics and don't recall ever having seen one with a fourth entry between the day date and year.
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Posted 04/13/2011 12:14 am
