Bought these on
ebay last week, and was waiting until I had them in hand to show them to you. The seller advertised them as 'fantasy cinderellas', but I had other suspicions.
As you can see they are what appear to be US #1 & 2, but without the text or denomination. They are engraved and printed on a medium card stock.
What got my imagination going about these was the tiny initials at the bottom of each portrait, B.E.&P. (the original 1 and 2 had the initials R.W.H. & E. for printer Rawdon, Wright, Hatch and Edson). The initials B.E.& P. (Bureau of Engraving and Printing) appeared on the 1947 100th Anniversary of U.S. postage stamps souvenir sheet (see where I'm going with this?
)
So my assumption was that these are essays for the 1947 sheet. I'd emailed the seller a couple of questions but he knew nothing about these, had them for years.
Now, I see that the website 1847usa.com says that the 1875 reproductions were also printed by B.E.& P. But these look very clean, so I doubt they are that old.
So I want to know what you all think. Do you think these are essays?
Spoiler alert, I've already emailed Roger Kirby at swedishtiger for his opinion, and he was very kind in getting back to me quickly. His opinion was quite favourable.
I throw it out there.
Could be my find of the summer.
bring on the dancing fruit!
Posted 09/09/2011 1:21 pm
), hi identifies these as being trimmed from a souvenir card for the Anphilex '71 (Souvenir Card Scott Catalog #17). The show was in New York and the card honored the 75th anniversary of the Collectors Club.
