Another Revenue Jumbo.

I previously posted about an R21c, 4-cent Playing Cards, that I picked up at Chicagopex because it was pristine as far as condition and centering. Well, for the last several weeks I've had an eye on a comparable R17c (3-cent playing cards). Nice centering on the R17c isn't quite as scarce as on the R21c, but they are still not very common both sound and well centered. This one, however, was also a jumbo margin example (for the type), which is fairly scarce.

It was in a lower-profile online auction, so my hope was that it wouldn't be seen by as many people. I ended up with the stamp for about 85% of Scott after buyer premium and shipping, whereas in a high-profile auction, or in Richard or Eric's inventory, I think it would have gone for multiples of Scott.

There was one aspect of the stamp that gave me pause though: the 4th perf along the top from the right corner is a bit short. However, that may be somewhat splitting hairs, as many would likely not even notice if I didn't point it out. Heck, the major grading companies don't even consider those to be faults. If it were a pulled perf, that would be different. I think they just penalize the numeric grade rather than calling the stamp faulty, which would disqualify it from a numeric grade (that's bogus logic, IMO, but that's a subject for a different discussion).

For example, see this stamp that the Philatelic Foundation graded 80. While it has similarly large margins compared to my specimen, I count 5+ short perfs.




At any rate, here is the new acquisition:




P.S. This is another stamp where, if professionally graded stamps were more accepted in the revenue-collecting arena, some scoundrel would probably reperf the oversized margin at bottom, thus creating a uniformly-sized jumbo, deserving of a higher numeric grade. I still find it absolutely idiotic that PSE, PF, and PSAG penalize oversized jumbo margins on a perforated stamp, but not on imperfs. It boggles the mind.

Very nice.

A novice in this area - tell me were US revenues always pen cancelled?

No not always.

There are basically three types of cancels on first issue revenues. The usual order of value is manuscript (pen), handstamp cancels (like the one above), and printed cancels which are generally the best. Some handstamp cancels can be better than some printed cancels, but that is not usually the case.

On these items, was this a normal or accepted practice to use a hole punch to cancel as well?

Very much so; the government encouraged it to prevent reuse. Reuse was a major problem during the first-third issue era. That is why the shades change so much on so many values. Dark stamps were made lighter and light stamps were made darker in an attempt to show where cancels had been cleaned off, and also to make the cancels more obvious in many cases. Remember, this was still the candlelight era.
By law, proprietary stamps and taxpaids were supposed to either have a cancel or be positioned on the article in such a way that it would be torn when the article was opened. That is why so many are defective, especially taxpaids. Some taxpaid revenues even had to be nailed to the container and then shellacked.

Another nice jumbo-margined example that arrived today.

Nice and clean looking!

Canada Stamp,
I try to collect mine with hand stamped cancels. The printed cancels are really tough for me to find on the first through third series. The printed cancels get more common later on in the proprietory stamps and issues closer to the turn of the century. I would love to see some early machine or printed cancels on the 1st - 3rd series. Of the perforated type(c) I am missing #31 and 97-102 in the first series. Most are hand cancelled, but I do have manuscript cancels for some until I can find a hand cancel I can afford. I am missing more of the imperf and part perf's.
Pat

revenuecollector,
Your R17 is a real beaut. Speaking of r21's I have three and they all have faults. This has been a tough one for me to find a nice affordable copy. I have never seen an R21 with anything other than a manuscript cancel. How about you? Do you have one to make me drool?
Pat

Cancels, eh?.... who in their right mind would ever specialize in cancels? :)

I have 8 examples of R21c, ranging from craptacular and/or misperfed, to superb. I have examples both with handstamp and printed cancels.

If you want to see my collection at a glance, you can use the following link which displays all 2,000+ revenues I have imaged, sorted by Scott number. Clicking on the thumbnails will open up a page on each one giving more information and a higher-resolution version. Everything on this page is currently in my collection:

http://www.revenue-collector.com/allrevenues.shtml

Be forewarned: depending on your computer and Internet connection, it may take a while to load.

This also does not include a backlog of literally thousands of stamps and cancels I've never gotten around to adding to the site...

Nicest R31 I have seen. I have a local dealer trying to sell me one. He wants $600.00. I have no way to hide that from my wife.

What does the R31 look like? At that price it's likely quite faulty. Most are faulty, but some more visibly than others. I sold my first one when I upgraded to this one. It had a nice Charles Osgood oval cancel in blue, but it had multiple faults and some staining. I think I got about $450 for it.

I have a thing for stencil cancels, so my current example was a win. The APS cert says that it has a small thin, but when the dealer I bought it from dipped the stamp, neither of us could see a thin. It was a tidy sum, but when I showed it to Richard Friedberg right after I picked it up, he said it was a bargain; he would have priced it about $1,000 higher than what I paid. Of course, both he and Eric charge full retail and then some for their inventory.

Thread with both examples:

https://goscf.com/t/20371

It could be a whole lot worse. It is off centered with short perfs in one corner. He actually does not live too far from me. I just saw him last weekend at a show and I bought a boatload of covers from him. I have his number and can call him this weekend and see if he can scan it for me.
He has been trying to sell me a very old musty stockbook full of revs. There is some decent stuff in there but they all smell so bad I am hesitating. He said he bought them from someone that had stored them in a damp basement for many many years. Any good ideas on getting rid of the smell? It must be 1000's of revs and quite a few part perfs and imperfs that I am lacking. He offered them at a really good price because they smelled so musty.
This guy is mainly a cover dealer and I have no idea how he got an R31.

I don't yet collect revenues. But these pictures are sure getting me interested. That last picture is just beautiful.
@revenuecollector Is there a Sc# for that last one, and what is the street value of such a nice example?