Great St Thomas Bisect On Cover (Which Makes Me Want To Cry)

Obviously there is nothing I can do - such a nice bisect/cancellation

Was it in a box lot? Looks like someone tried to make a swan out of it or some other origami animal. At least the cancels and stamp look pretty intact.

It looked like this when I inherited part of my grandfather's collection

just get it into something that will press it out properly and soon it will look so much better, but you have a great cover there just be nice to it. - jeff

I would press it into a double glass frame. Should flatten it and make it easy to display.

I would make it a Stamp on piece

A little humidity, a lot of patience and a lot of care would greatly improve this cover.

A bisect on cover is far more compelling than a bisect on piece, especially when displayed above a scan of the reverse side.

Is a bisect stamp a full stamp cut on the diagonal? Never saw a stamp like that before.

Yes, a bisect is a stamp cut diagonally. In this particularly case, St. Thomas had a shortage of 2 cent stamps, so authorized the bisecting of 4 cent stamps. This was authorized only from Jan 20 - May 23, 1903. Obviously soaking it off the cover would destroy any value it has since there would be no way to prove that an off-cover 4 cent stamp hadn't been bisected.

I would keep it that way. This one just as an idea, anyway, I like what he is doing(!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmp8-Cs6K1A

This a related link - hope it is useful

http://www.mostlyclassics.net/phila...alStamps.pdf

Carefully un-crinkle it, keeping it somewhat moist might help, and then press it. Wadmalatz'z you tube video could prove useful with techniques.

PP

I would not recommend applying moisture to any old covers/papers unless you have at least a basic working knowledge. While there is usually little risk to the stamp/cancels, the last thing you want to do is for some other part of the cover to have an ink smear/blur or reactivate some long dormant spores. The rule of thumb is to keep it dry unless you feel comfortable with whatever process you are using. But then again, maybe I'm just being overly cautious...