Need Help With A 1 C Franklin

#1 - when stamps are left on a portion of an envelope or wrapper, the stamp is said to be "on piece." For the stamps with cancels, isolate the ones where the cancellation is complete, particularly if it has a slogan of some type. You may wish to organize these later. For the unused on piece and the used stamps, check the envelop pieces for colors that will run if they get wet; not just the envelope paper, but any writing on them that may bleed. Set these aside for special treatment. Once you have a pile of stamps on piece that are safe to soak, soak 'em. You might want to get some pointers on how to do that from other threads on this site.

#2 is more like #1 than you might think. Because the stamps are stuck together as a mass, they are damaged as collectibles. Trying to pry them apart is going to make the damage worse by leaving thin spots, if you are lucky, or much worse if this is as bad as I imagine. When you are convinced there are no rarities or stamps that are earlier than 1900-1920, then go ahead and soak the "brick" too. But get other opinions on that before you take the plunge. For really old stamps there may be a few tricks involving sweat boxes, freezing, non-water solvents, and so on to help coax them apart. Each case is different, so you kind of have to feel your way into that. Not worth it for cheap stamps, but well worth it for "better" material.

"Essayk" is (as usual!) correct to say that there is no doubt about the correct ID of this stamp. It is clearly the re-engraved #206.

I admire how essayk can put things to type. I know a lot of this stuff but it's hard for me to get it out, at least correctly like that. Thank you essayk, your an asset to hobby as is Mr. Wiess.

Now please excuse me while I go wipe the brown off my nose. lol