Horrible Top-To-Bottom Centering!

I should really find a better example... shouldn't I?... hmm...

It won't look so bad when you perf the top and right sides.

It is #0000001 though! Always a silver lining.

Heh. You got it right off the bat. After I bought it at COMPEX on Friday I showed it to several different dealers, and two of the dealers didn't even notice the serial number and wondered why I would have bought the stamp, since 20th century revenues really are not my thing. Estimates as to its value are ALL over the map, as no one had seen a #1 on the reds before. It's probably an item with very narrow market appeal, at least as far as premium. For example, there's a subspecialty amongst currency collectors that collect #1s, low numbers, mirror (palindrome) serial numbers, etc.

There are 444 total years and denominations within the "reds". There can be at most one #1 per denomination, so there are at most 444 #1s across all the reds in existence... who knows how many are extant. I've never seen one before.

As far as rarity, a #000001 is no more rare than any other number combination, same as with a currency serial number. It just has to do with the aesthetics or "importance" of being the first.

I must admit until seeing that revenue stamp up close did I realize that I never knew much about the portrait of the man shown on the stamp simply referred to as "J.A. Dix".

However, his illustrious career summarized below makes me tired just thinking about it!




More detail about him can be found at this link (and yes, Fort Dix, New Jersey was named after him, too.):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams_Dix

Good lord, I was putting baseball cards in my spokes when I was 14. Some are just born to lead.

The really scarce reds and greens almost always have low numbers, so finding a number 1 is always a possibility. I seem to recall seeing a few over the years. The more common ones are less likely, since so many were issued even though by percentage they probably have a relatively low survival rate. This is pretty average centering for these, and of course any top position in the pane would have two straight edges. The best part is the ms. cancel without a cut cancel or a perf initial. Nice stamp.

BTW, reds are a very popular area. This is probably worth somewhat more than a higher number would be in identical condition.