Interesting Philadelphia Cover

I promised somebody that I would show some of my Philadelphia covers. I ran across this one tonight. Anybody that has an interest in the 3c 1851 beyond plating will be wowed by the old dealer price tag. This cover comes from a spectacular collection built decades ago. I was fortunate enough to acquire a large part of it.

Usually you see the blue Philly cancel on the stamp but for a time in 1851, a gridiron killer was used to cancel the stamp.

Very cool!

I love Philadelphia,

Thank you Winston, that is beautiful!

Winston, is the first one Experimental Orange Brown?

The second cover having the blue cancels and the bluish paper really makes the stamp jump out at you. Brilliant!

Pieces of paper over 160 years old..., there's nothing like the OB 3 cent stamps.

Yes, the first stamp is EOB.

Gorgeous!

Awesome! I meant to comment on "the old dealer price tag". Wow!

Any idea how long ago that might have been?

The color is just incredible. Many of us would love to see more.

rlm, it would have been after 1929, (Chase book published) but before "Experimental Orange Brown" was included as a color. I don't know when EOB became an agreed upon color.
Hoping Winston will follow up on this thread. These covers are gorgeous.

Superb stamp and cover, Sinclair! The experimental orange brown is a distinct color that is tough to find nice copies of. With a plate 1L EKU of Oct 6, 1851, your Oct 23 usage from this workhorse of a plate is very early indeed!

I love the bright color of the early blue Philadelphia CDS, as opposed to the dark blue postmarks from other cities around this time. As you probably know, the US Philatelic Classics Society has a feature on the evolution of the Philadelphia CDS, including changes in ink color and lettering styles:

http://www.uspcs.org/stamps-covers/...t-10-and-11/

I helped Charles put this page together, and here are two more Philly blue postmarks tying #10/10A (both unplated) to early covers from the Lockwood estate, including one shown on the USPCS page: