A Very Scarce Revenue Usage On Document

This is the first use of this particular stamp that I have ever seen in person, and searches of SAN and other auction sites only turn up 3 or 4 examples on document.

I spotted it on ebay with about 24 hours left to go and it only had 1 bid at $5.99. The seller was unaware of the significance of the stamps, so there were no indicators in either the auction title or the listing. I was hopeful I might get a steal, but apparently a few other folks saw it for what it is, so in the last few hours 4 of us pushed it up and up and up. I still ended up with it, but I had to pay for it. Sigh.

It's two R50b singles along with an R78c on an 1864 Indiana land sale document, with a single manuscript cancel crossing all 3 stamps.

I've examined the stamps under high-power magnification and can find no evidence of tampering or any indication that these are not legitimate R50b. The only thing I see that I suppose could be odd is that the tops of both stamps are torn edges and the bottom of both appear to be cut. If anyone sees any red flags as to these being legitimate R50b, please let me know.

The bottom perfs on the leftmost stamp stamp are a bit worn down from hanging over the edge of the document, and the stamps are a bit schmutzig, but other than that I can find no major condition issues.

It would be sweet if it were a pair on the document, but I'm not going to complain. All the other documents I've ever seen with R50b have been just a single R50b, and the majority of R50b stamps off document I've seen in the market are trimmed fakes. Even the one in the Scarsdale auction looked somewhat iffy to me, and it sold for double Scott.

The first image shows the document front, and the second a closeup of the stamps.

thanks revenuecollector. I would not have caught the significance either, but it sure is nice to learn about them. - jeff

A little detail can make a HUGE difference in value, which is why so many of the part perfs out there are trimmed fakes. An R50c (perforated) catalogs $47.50, whereas a legit R50b catalogs $675.00... definitely an incentive for people to "get creative".

Part perfs (and valuable imperfs) are safest when in multiples and on document... the problem you inevitably run into, especially with the high denomination imperfs, is that there may be only 1 or 2 multiples known. So now what?

It's a minefield...

Wow that's really interesting revenuecollector! Great find!