Very Odd Revenue Usage

Here is a partial cover, with mixed usage stamps.
a .30 and .50 plus the others.
The .30 and .50 on cover are supposed to be valued at over 1000.00
Would this be the case? I'm sure this was revenue usage from the "cancel"

and then there is the .30 and .50 ID issue... they are perf 10, so who knows..
depending on the watermark...

Any sign of the year ?

nope

Well the earliest it can be is 1917 so the .50¢ would be a 477.(I'm assuming it's a Perf 10 ? ). I would doubt it's a Revenue piece but rather a Parcel piece. What the Documentary Stamps are there for needs to be explained. Nice piece.

After further thought, it's definitely franked for weight (Parcel) as Revenue's were taxed either a few cents or .25¢, 50¢, $1.00, $1.30, $2.00 etc. The Stamps make up a .89¢ rate + 4¢ = .93¢ if the Documentaries made it through as postage. The Documentary Stamps were probably used in lieu of Postage Due Stamps.

Not saying this is the case, but. Years ago the Post Office is known to use regular postage on large parcels (books) to pay the postage due. I think that may be the case here as well. I have also seen where to pay the postage due, entire sheets were cancelled with a continuous mark running through each stamp. That's why you can find cancelled stamps still with NHOG.

Art

I have 20 - 30 Parcel pieces with Postage Stamps. I've just never seen Documentary Stamps being used as Postage Due.

Here is a Parcel tag with Postage Stamps.

I may be wrong, but I though revenues in the US were not allowed to be used for postage? Would those be improperly used?

It's most likely a World War I piece. A war tax was implemented on parcel post mail as described in this news article and the "tax" had to be paid with revenue stamps (postage stamps were not valid for the tax):

Good find Wt1, that would explain the 4¢.




Had the Documentary Stamps been used in lieu of Postage due (Which I have now found to be done) it would not be an illegal or improper use as they would have been applied by a Postal employee instead of a Postal customer trying to avoid payment.

awesome find, now I know what time period this is.
thanks wt1