Questions On Early US Cancels

Here are two items of interest to me:
1. Is it uncommon to find a "foreign mail" cancel on Parcel Post stamps?
2. Is this marking on a 1c Proprietary a precancel? If so, any particular value?

The special use of parcel post stamps was ended in July 1,1913. They were used as general postage until supplies were used up. The revenue stamps are somewhat common. You need to determine if it is silk paper or olr paper. The silk paper has red fiber added but may only contain 1-2 short pieces per stamp.

I forgot to add the cancel on these are collectible. I don't collect them and can't tell you which cancels are worth more than others.

I'm well aware of silk paper and the subsequent usage of Parcel Posts for first class mail, as I have many examples of the 1c and 2c on picture postcards. Let's go back to my original questions:
1. Is it uncommon to find a "foreign mail" cancel on Parcel Post stamps?
2. Is this marking on a 1c Proprietary a precancel? If so, any particular value?

If I may interject. I think 1847bill's response answered your first question. He stated that after July 1 1913 special use of parcel post stamps ended and stocks were used up as regular postage. Your stamp is dated a year later in 1914, which I think indicates that this would have been used for general mail, and therefore, foreign mail.
I'll bow to greater minds to answer the revenue stamp query.

Close, but no cigar. I have never seen a parcel post with the NY Foreign cancel, and I'm curious to know if it's unusual.

I've look through my parcel post stamps and don't find foreign mail cancels. I doubt they would bring much if any premium as that particular cancel is pretty common.

Thanks, my experience too, none found. Now, on to the revenue! Somewhere, there must surely be a catalog of precanceled (?) 1st through 3rd issues.

The R3c with the B&D dated stamp is nice. The cancel is what will bring a premium. Stamped with name and date is what collectors look for. I just don't get that far into them offer any help. I have a lot of the first issue revenues and look at them when I'm bored. You might email revenuecollector and ask him if he can help.

It's almost certainly a match & medicine overprint. Have to look in a specialized BOB catalog...revenuecollector would know almost certainly!

I was able to find this one in a quick Google search -- but it still doesn't answer the "unusual" question.

Agreed. There are some older catalogs on-line with certain names that could match the B&D referred to in your Revenue Stamp, such as:

Brown & Dunham;

Brown & Durling (although they used B.&D. (with periods) in examples I have seen on-line; and/or

Bowers & Dunham

There may be others, though and I can't say for sure if any of these firms used the cancel shown on your stamp.

It's lucky I asked the revenue question - I would have never guessed all this.

As others have already speculated, the revenue cancel is most likely match or medicine. It's not one I have imaged yet for my site, although there might be one lurking amongst the thousands of stamps I have yet to process.

Nothing comes up in either Eric Jackson's inventory or his auction archives.

When I was at Chicagopex, Richard Friedberg allowed me to take pictures of his cancel stock, and I don't see one there either.

There were literally thousands of companies with cancels, and sometimes without context, i.e., finding one on a document or piece of merchandise, there's no way to know for certain which company it is.

Bart might have an idea (revcollector), but I'm coming up goose-egg.

Here's a free on-line reference from 1899 that could be helpful for some of these earlier Revenue issues (it's where I got the possible names recited earlier):

http://books.google.com/books?ei=Hh...ge&q&f=false

I Googled the r3c B&D revenue earlier and found 1 listing in a Eric Jackson auction. Unfortunately didn't state who B&D was.