Example Of Why Not To Soak Common Stamps From Covers US

Hello all,

I was reading through a thread about soaking off the more common stamps from covers. I forgot to comment on that thread but thought I would add one here, as I had a few questions on the stamp as well.






Above is the actual cover: nothing too spectacular, but a nice little cover. No sender's address though, which I would of liked a bit more, but on to the cover.

The cover is addressed to a Miss Sarah B. Moody using the interesting "f" in Miss. I am also particular to the script of this era.

I have not looked up anything on the postmark, but would figure a pretty common one, so others may still be thinking of soaking the stamp off this one: but there is more.

Now we get to Miss Moody:

Her birth and the date of her death are unknown as far as I can figure through research up to now. She was born in Ohio and buried at Boardman cemetery, Mahoning County, Ohio, Lot 4 (from the 1920 Thorne Record).

Here are the grave stones:








An 1860 census shows that a James C. Moody age 50 and a farmer was born in Ohio lived with his wife Susan, age 43, born in PA. There were two children Sarah Moody who was 24 at the time of the census and Fredrick Rathwell "Fred" Moody who was 19 at the time of the census.

Sarah was a member of St. James' Episcopal Church of Boardman Ohio.


Her father:

James Clark Moody. Birth unknown, and he died June of 1892. He was also a member of the same church and was confirmed by Bishop Leonard on April 24th 1890 and buried on July 1st 1892.

Mother:

Susan Moody: Born on June 19th 1815 PA, and died on May 19th 1868 OH. Also a member of the same church.

Brother: This will lead me to more investigating as well as I love Civil War items.

Private Fredrick Rathwell "Fred" Moody. His birth is also unknown and died in Nov. of 1866.

He was a Civil War soldier and died in his home after being wounded during battle. (I still have to see if I can find out what battle and what wounds he suffered) He served in the 2nd Regiment, Ohio Calvary, Company E, as a Private.

Also went to the same church and was confirmed by Bishop Beddell on Nov. 30th 1850's and buried on Nov 17th 1866. His burial was lead by Rev. A. J. Warner.

There is much more information I have gathered from this cover, but just wanted to give a quick overview.


On to the stamp itself:






I believe we have a Scott 65 here with a nice color. The margins are bit off and the stamp almost appears to widen as it goes towards the bottom. (I still have to do some measuring on this to confirm)

Looks to have the "THREB" variety. (Not sure this is a "real" variety) The last "E" is close to being a "B", but I am not sure if the ability to see the faintest lines of the "E" arms negates this, or not.

The "N" in CENTS appears to be curvy and has a lump on its left side.

The "P" in POSTAGE appears to have a ponytail, even-though I know this has to be part of the lattice work, which has connected to the "P".

And Finally (so far), can someone tell me about the small dots below the bottom ornaments on this stamp? I have many of these and none of them appear to show these dots. The dots are the color of the ink used in the stamp design, so I know they came from when this one was printed, yet I find it hard to believe it a ink mistake as there is one on each side as if done purposely. Any an all help on this would be appreciated.






Anyway, this is my quick reference for not soaking stamps off a cover. I would never have known all this information (along with much more) without the envelope.

Here's another piece of trivia on the addressee of your cover, who was the Boardman Town Librarian in 1875:




Here's the source for that quote:

http://www.boardman.k12.oh.us/trivia/bannon.htm

Those small dots appear to be guide dots. A definition from the United States Stamp Society glossary of terms follows:

WT1 thank you for the extra information. I have bookmarked the website.

Tomiseksj thank you for the answer to my question pertaining to the dots. How many of these would have been on a plate? I wonder because of the several copies I have of 65s I had never noticed any before. And could you get a general idea of plating with these dots, or were they not used in a strict placement scheme for the stamps?

Lovely example of not soaking sirruspoe, thank you.

Glad you enjoyed Puzzler. I just picked this one up a week or two ago and of course because of the Ohio connection.

sirruspoe,

I wish I had the answers to your questions. Perhaps one of our more knowledgeable members will be able to enlighten us both as I've had little success trying to find the answers online.

I know that the guide dots play a role in helping to plate the 1c Franklin and 3c Washington of the 1851-57 issue so I imagine the same might apply for this stamp issue.

Here is one of my Scott 65's with a guide dot in the upper left corner -- unfortunately the cancellation obscures the upper right corner.



Steve

Mr. Steve, Thank you again for the information. I did a quick search as well and came up empty.