Early Cover

I haven't posted anything for awhile so here is another nice cover. Its a recent purchase, anyone care to identify the cancellation?

Art



Darlington Court House, South Carolina.

Beautiful cover Art!

The Darlington Court House postmark is probably collectible in itself as it is a DPO that was in operation from 1801-1898.

Here's some biographical information on the addressee of that cover, T.B. Fraser (a/k/a Thomas Boone Fraser) of Sumter, SC:

I wonder why the 10 cent rate was paid. Lovely cover.

Neat cover.... although, don't shoot the messenger... but...

I don't think that stamp originated on that cover. First, Darlington to Sumter is like 30-40 miles or so, and the 10c rate was transcontinental... The cover looks a bit small for an overpayment of a triple rate.

Also, look at the cancel on the upper right corner of the stamp... Sorry, neat item but I don't think it's good.

It looks tied though? Look closely on the far upper right-hand corner.

I never concidered it to be bogus. I just natually assumed its the real deal. I'll take a closer look at both the stamp and the cover then give my opinion. Either way, it makes for an interesting discussion.

Art

I'm not seeing any tieing going on in the upper right hand corner, and I do not see any going on with the left edge of the stamp. Also, in addition to the very suspicious rate, I see that the stamp itself is basically a space filler when you look at the bottom edge. I also see that the top edge of the envelop is oddly clipped to make it look nicer - perhaps it was originally opened roughly?

Anything is possible, but from what I can see on my computer screen I agree that the stamp was likely added at some point to make it more desireable.

I'd be curious about what might show underneath the stamp. Might see some partial cancel ink that would be proof that another stamp was originally on this cover.

There is evidence of a possible tying of the stamp on 3, maybe 4 of the perf tabs on the left of the stamp. However, since it barely touches the stamp, those could be faked. The upper right markings on the stamp do look suspicious as having come from being tied to a different cover.