Nevermind...

My eyes must have been fooling me this morning I suppose.. I apologize.

OK, According to my Scott's Catalog (2009 edition), the earliest known usage (EKU) of Scott #319 is listed as 11/12/03. Today I seem to have found a cover with an earlier date than what Scott's lists? What do you make of it?

Scans:

Obverse:



Reverse:

Yours is Scott 301 -- its EKU is Jan 28, 1903.

HAHA yeah it is! Sorry

Is that a mourning cover, or just shown on a black background?

Nice little cover though, Jeff. Maybe you didn't have your quota of coffee before you started stamping (or philateling, and I like to say).

Doug, doesn't look like a mourning cover, but for Jeff, perhaps a 'too early in the morning' cover?

Definitely! It's just a cropped out cover on a black vario sheet. Not a mourning cover.

Nice machine cancel on the back.

In the strictest sense it is not -- although I'm sure Jeff is mourning the fact that he's not the proud owner of the Scott 319 EKU!

It is still a nice cover with good cancels. Its too bad we can't get clean strikes like those on our current day mail.

Thank you for being so polite about my goof-up. It really was early and I was groggy yet...lol What a great bunch of folks we have here!

Hey Jeff--

FYI, Even if it was 319, you wouldn't get a cert for the date, since it doesn't tie the stamp to the cover.

I found out this the hard way a few months ago....I bought for a few bucks, a #26 on cover with a 1866 date on it, and the 1857's were demonetized in 1861 making them illegal for use. I thought I might have a nice prize, but mine wasn't tied either, so it was an obvious change of a stamp on the cover.

Hope this is helpful....Ray