1861 3c Washington On Cover January 1861???

I recently acquired a bunch of 3c 1861 and 1851 Washington stamps both on and off cover. Within the bunch I found an 1861 issue on cover with a date of Jan 9 1861, which is about 8 months before the stamp was released. Additionally, I found 2 1851 issues on cover that display the dates of Sept 26 & Aug 18 1861, which I think should have been too late to be considered of any postage value since the 1861 had already taken their places. I guess I wanted to see if anyone out there could provide an explanation as to why all 3 issues made it through the post office without issue. Also, do these potentially have an increased value for collectors.
Thanks for the help - Jason

are you sure about the dates? just because someone wrote it on the back doesn't make it true.

The dates on the back of covers 1 & 3 could be correct, cover 2 is not correct.

The demonitization of the 1851 design did not take place until Nov. 1861 at the earliest. It was implemented, depending on geopraghic location, in 3 stages on Nov 1, Dec. 1 and Jan. 1.

The contract for National started on July 1, 1861 and the first shipment of stamps was not until Aug. 16.

This from a collection I inherited from a fairly serious collector who passed decades ago. His name was Ingle Barr. I have probably 50 more similiar envelopes with the 3c stamp most of which share the same address as the covers I posted. I wish I could read the hand stamp of the 1861 issue better, but it is obviously tied to the envelope.

I forgot to mention that of the 50 or so similar envelopes, the date on the back matches the postage date on the front perfectly. That's why I thought the Jan 9th envelope was of interest.

Jan. 9, 1862 is possible

I'm skeptical on the dates. Maybe an another way to look at it is by the shade of the 1861 stamps.

Not skeptical here on the 3c 1861 stamp date in Jan '61. 100% certain it can't be the date. Doesn't look like docketing.

Now the good news-- although it could be brilliant rose, and you can look at my past posts for an example, it does look fairly pink, at least on my iPhone screen. Only way to know would be to have one in hand and that doesn't work all the time either

So, I wish you luck, since the stamp is faulty I'm not sure that I'd spend the full amount for a certificate, but you might consider sending it to APS if you're a member, or send a scan for an ID, and it would cost you $5. Bill Weiss also offers a $5 ID only option, but I'm not sure on this price. Either way you'd have confirmation of the color and a good reference for others later.

Good Luck, Ray

Thanks Ray and everyone else for your insights - I'll try the color id thing for now. Also, this is just a few of many in my collection of 3c covers. Out of about 50 there are definitely some pink looking stamps in the bunch. I'm not exactly sure what pink means as I'm fairly new to collecting, but it sounds like a good thing from what Mr. raymac wrote. Thanks again