Another Ebay Find-- Poss "D" Grill

Got this in the mail today-- paid $3.60 + $1.25 shipping for 3 covers and you usually can't pay too much attention to something that's been written by a collector or dealer on a cover front, but this one caught my eye, and for $5, who cared?

It says on the bottom left of the cover "85", and the color of the stamp told me that it would be no worse than an "E" grill #88, but when I put a light on the front of the stamp at an angle, it has 15 COLUMNS, which is a "D" grill, and #85.

I've got a couple of other bad copies of #85 with certs, and unless the grill is a fake-- and it could be-- the stamp is not tied to this cover, and was probably placed there much later, this well could be a #85, $1000 Scott CV, "D" Grill.


I'll be heading to Louisville in the morning with Al E. Gator-- looking forward to a nice drive with some nice company and hope to bottom feed for covers all day tomorrow!

Ray

Still a nice pick-up! You guys have fun and stay out of trouble! lol

Do you think the bulls eye cancel was added after?

Also, if it really isn't tied to the cover, you should remove it. I have used stamp lift before and it works very, very well.

Your photo seems to show some signs of the third ring of the bull's eye on the cover just left of the stamp. Are you guessing that this was added along with the stamp? Looks to me like the stamp is tied to the cover. Congrats on a nice catch.

Thanks for the note. I showed it to a couple of dealers in Louisville on Saturday and at least one nationally known dealer told me that he would consider it tied.
So we'll see. Thanks, Ray

I don't see how it ties to the cover but on the other hand, why would anyone fake a cover like that ? I'd lean hard towards it being totally legit, hope it ends up being the "D" Grill Ray.

Great pickup!


Out of curiosity, if it isn't a D grill or its a fake what will you do with the cover?

Fair question new12-- I'm mostly interested in year dated covers but although there isn't a year date we can assume late '60s.. I don't have my Scott with me so I can't list the earliest known use of the E grill but could be '68 or close based on the month.

Other than that it goes into the pile of non-dateds and there's a bunch of those

Thanks, Ray

EDU for E-Grill 3-Cent is 02/19/68; D-Grill is 2/2/68 according to Siegel web site. Scott lists E-Grill as 2/12/68; D-Grill on cover front at 2/1/68, full cover 2/2/68. Siskin/Berkin EDU Data Base lists E-Grill as 2/12/68; D-Grill as 2/2/68.

Find out when that post office was in use and if it's still there. That might help date it too. I noticed that sometimes postmasters/postal clerks had these stamps in stock for quite a while and so it would not be too awful uncommon for a possible late usage of any particular stamp. Just a thought.