ID Requests

Can anyone help me out with these, please?

The 1 1/2 c Prexie appears to say "__AYVIEW" PA, but there is no such Town that I can find and the only "AYVIEW" anywhere in the precancel catalog is MO ... so am I missing something or is this a fake or post-cancel or ? It just looks so real!

The 1c is a p.11 from Bethlehem, PA, but I can't find a Type that it matches -- it's not 87 (Bureau), 209 (tiny print), 482 (sharply serifed) or 513 (huge thick lines); and the other Types in the TnT Catalog are all between narrow-spaced lines. But again, it looks so real!

Thanks.

My guess is that the first (Bethlehem, PA) precancel is PSS-513. Dimensions are supposed to be "Condensed 3 mm caps between 1 mm bars 10 to 11 mm apart" however it is qualified by notes that "these rubber handstamps are subject to variation due to application pressure and age. Dimensions stated are approximate and some variation is to be expected."

Since it looks like the last stroke of the missing letter is straight up and down, the only letters in that font are probably H, M, and N. We can probably rule out I, and we can see it wouldn't be W.)

It turns out that there was a big state hospital called Mayview in PA, near the town of Bridgeville. Perhaps it had its own pre-cancel?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayvie...ate_Hospital

I think the general concept is right: Mayview, PA. And yes, Mayview State Hospital did have its own post office from 1922-1964 and, according to this quote from a recent article on the now-closed Hospital:




I could not find an illustrated example of a postmark from that location, but did find that they used a Pitney Bowes Postage Meter naming the location Mayview, PA:



More to the matter at hand, the dates the post office was in operation would lend itself to the concept that a precancel may have been used at Mayview, PA. The real question is why it's not listed in the Precancel Catalog. Maybe it's unlisted because it's scarce? Or maybe it wasn't used very often? It's hard to imagine that it has been around this long without having been recorded before.

Maybe some precancel specialists can chime in with further information.

My guesses: Bethlehem surely is PSS-513, Mayview is a postcancel - the fact that there is no second impression in the blank space to the right of the letters is surely a sign that this is a wide-box postcancel.

Thank you so much, guys.

I agree the Mayview is going to be a post-cancel - I didn't think about the missing "M" (at least) at the right side. Makes sense that this would rule out a precancel (but it's disappointing especially with the interesting history of Mayview that you dug up for me).

Here's a scan of my 1c together with a definite Bethlehem PSS-513. The dissimilarity made me dismiss it this morning, but the two match when measured right against each other and if we assume the 1c is really really lightly printed, it makes sense with the letters being so faded and small that the lines would thin out too. I'm convinced, so thanks again.