Possible 1861 Washington Stamp 3c

Can anyone help with this?

I also have another on a postage. Looks like there may be an error with how it was printed? It's shifted

They are both 1861 stamps - yes. They are Scott #65 which is the most common stamp of the era. There is no error in the second stamp, it is just off center. Neither of them has any dollar value, but either will work to start a collection of 1861s.

Your cover has more value than just the stamp, please do not remove the stamp from the cover. The cover is a piece of postal history, a letter inside can add additional value.
Don

I do have quite a few with letters inside but this was the oldest I could find. There was no letter in this one.

stampcollector17,

Here are some things Postal Historians look at with covers, besides the stamp.
Postmarks - where, when (dates are very important), colors, style, machine, hand, cork, etc.
Postal markings - on the front or back
Address - Who was it sent to, where were they living
Return address - same
Printed corner cards - topical and historic
Cachet or decoration or imprints
Contents - letters (again who and what is the letter about), bill of sale, business samples, etc.

So all of those covers that you have could be way more important and valuable than just the stamp on them. Good luck.

The first one looks like a fairly common variety where the ends of the "E" in THREE makes it look like "THREB".

I've specialized in this stamp, and I may have paid a few bucks for the cover for the one that I have with the "THREB" variety. It's not worth more than that, but would probably sell for a few dollars.

Hope this is helpful, Ray

That's striking ! looks like a "B" to me.




Stamps are printed before perforation,
so the perforation has shifted not the print.

Sender had wonderful handwriting skills. You could survey 10000 people today before you found better. That was written quickly, no ink blobs nor runs.

The letter was sent during a very interesting time in U.S. history: the Civil War. If the year is to be believed (1863), Baltimore was in the thick of things. The Battle of Gettysburg was fought at the beginning of July, so there must have been a lot of talk about it in the city. Norfolk was under Union occupation and martial law. Too bad there are no contents. Would have been interesting to read.

Robert

Thank you everyone. I just moved so I'm very busy but I will post more postage that I have. Once I get settled in