Your Favorite US Classic Purchase Of 2016

Amazing cover chip! ANY 90c on cover commands attention. I trust you did well at NY2016?


I had put up an essay in another thread that I thought might be my favorite purchase for 2016, but something just came in the mail that overshadows it for me:




For quite a while now I have been working on acquiring the original essays of the Philadelphia BankNote company which they created in conjunction with the competition for the contract of 1877. This item is a new discovery of a completely unknown intermediate design stage of the group designed by Augustine Helm. It has never been identified or described in print up to now. No one knew it existed. You are getting a preview, but I will explain it at another time. I am delighted to have gotten it.

Chip,

Nice one. Btw just saw your email... I'm already on it :)

Here's what I picked. It's a 190. It fills a nice spot and it is OG and graded 80J which I found pretty unusual.

Background on the cover to France:

From Steve Walske's collection of US/France mails (Steve also had one of the great collections of French stamps, which he sold a while ago).

It is actually a re-backed cover front.

New Orleans, December 14, 1864. Carried on the maiden voyage of the Inman Line's City of Cork, sailing from New York on Dec. 24 and arriving at Liverpool on Jan. 7, 1865. The total postage paid, $1.05, is seven times the 15c treaty rate, with 6c per rate credit, or 42c to France (2c British transit from Liverpool and 4c French inland per rate).

Number 41 in the census of 90c covers published in the USPCS Chronicle issue 140. http://chronicle.uspcs.org/pdf/Chro...40/17743.pdf

The exhibit: http://12c.cgpostal.com got a Gold medal (92 points + special award for material). I was happy.

Thanks chip for info. Very interesting

Nice 190 og!

Chip,
I am puzzled why your exhibit page does not clearly mention that the cover to France is a "re-backed cover front"? I thought repairs/restorations had to be noted.

It was. The page scanned there isn't the final. I'll swap it one of these days.

When exhibiting, you have to note any repairs or you can get penalized.

Repairs on two of the covers to Africa are also noted on the pages.

Ps. There are about half a dozen other pages that were also different in the frames. Will update them also one of these weeks.

I knew the exhibit rules, just wanted to ask gently. Thanks for the further explanation.

I find I've been buying fewer stamps this past year, and more covers. So please indulge me while I show off a couple of US stampless folded letters I was quite happy to pick up this past year.

1818 from Philadelphia to Newburgh NY (near West Point)



And this 1842 letter posted from New York to Niagara UC. It's a little rough but has a nice back story to it.

Not my most expensive or certainly rare purchase for 2016, but this one caught me for its beauty and the contrast between the red cancel and the green stamp. Also, it sparked my interest in this issue and prompted my ambitious (foolhardy?) decision to plate Plate 2 of the 1857 Ten cent issue (Sc#35).

Red cancels on those green stamps are always a winner.

Especially at this time of the year :)

This was the most fun find of the year for me as my dad (who started me in stamp collecting in around 1958) lives near Georgetown, DE. Though at 95 he no longer collects he's still very interested in stamps.

In addition I was curious why the town was referred to as 'George Town' on the cover instead of what I have always known it to be, 'Georgetown'. I'm pursuing that difference.

The cancellation itself seems rather odd with the month appearing to be upside down and the day reversed from the 28th to the 82th of August!

And, oh yes...it's a 25A too.

Caper, nice find, especially since it's "by the way" a 25A.....Ray

Chip, I have never exhibited internationally, so I must ask, for International competition are you able to make use of a "synopsis" as you do for WSP shows? It seems that it would be distracting to the sense and plan of the exhibit if the condition notes must appear with the item on the exhibit page. How is it done?