Postmaster Provisional On Cover....but....

Just got this in the mail today. Did not pay much for it and thought I might be able to create a display page with the off-cover copy I have. Know these are not super rare but for the price I took a gamble. Once I get the display piece together I will post a pic.

I'm on my tablet on my deck on a sunny evening so I can't see the details but it does not look native to the cover and there is nothing tying it to the cover that I can see.


*Edit* just as I finished typing the sun goes behind a cloud. I now see a line on the cover that makes it look like someone tried to lift the stamp off the cover and ended up tearing it in half ?

Thanks Stallzer. There is some ink tying the stamp to the cover so I think its legit. I would agree that someone tried to get the stamp off without soaking (it was not me) and ripped the darn think in half! What a shame.

That would be a philatelic felony.

Checkout the bottom of page 1, continuing to the top of page 2 for a biography of the addressee, Reverend Wakefield Gale (1797-1881) and his wife, Mary Louisa (Bigelow) Gale (1806-1861) ... a family with 11 children:

http://www.pem.org/library/finding_...lePapers.pdf

Looks legit to me. It's a "tragedy" but a genuine one.

Thanks wt1...your research always amazes me :)
billw.. agreed and thank you.

A really nice and strong NY paid postmark.

It is hard to see in the photo, but if you are referring to the smudge at the bottom under the letter E of FIVE as tieing it to the cover I am not sure that I would put much reliance on that. It does not seem to be the same ink or pen that cancelled the stamp and could easily be just a smudge from all of the years the cover has been handled. The stamp would be original, but I am not seeing anything to really confirm that it is. Overall, I would guess that you were able to get it for a very low price because even if the stamp were original it has been destroyed by someone along the way which is a big detraction from the overall presentation of the cover. Still, it is a very nice strike of the New York mark and that makes it an excellent reference piece.

Maybe there is enough of the design left to ID it proper?

A PDF from the USPCS website.
http://d2jf3tgwe889fp.cloudfront.ne...okmarked.pdf