Magical Mystery Postcard #2

Magical Mystery Postcard #2 is not a mystery, in & of itself.

The mystery is: what did someone do to this postcard, and why?

At first, I thought that the cds & stamp were added.

Because of an unfortunate encounter with a person I would rather not have met, I once came into possession of a forged U$D 20 bill.

The method of forgery (WHY did I let the police keep it!) involved cutting the corners off one U$D 20 bill and applying them to several U$D 5 bills so as to make, when properly folded and curled and dropped onto a store counter in a hurry, what appeared to be a U$D 20 bill ... more than once.

To make it more bizarre, the criminal bisected the bill - the hard way - so that the one U$D 20 bill yielded *eight* one-sided U$D 20 corner pieces.

At the time, I wondered about the time & skill that went into making that coupla bucks, and thought: If only this crook were gainfully employed!

Coming forward 40 years, when I saw that long cut/scratch circumscribing the cds corner of this postcard, I figgered someone had done the same sort of thing: bisecting some other postcard the hard way, lifting the stamp/cds cornerpiece from that postcard, and applying it to this one.

But #1: Why bother? What value could one possibly confer? Is the card that much more valuable with a decent cds/stamp? Not likely. Is the stamp that much more valuable when moved from one conveyance (cover, card) to this postcard?

But #2: That may not be what happened! Viewed from the side (scan, omitted), it is clear that nothing was applied to this card; the thickness of the card is uniform, and the scratch is not visible when looking edge-on. Moreover, if you take a closer look (scan, below), some of the cds *crosses* the cut, and the cut even crosses *over* the stamp.

Color me stamped stumped stamp-stumped.

Q/ What did someone do to this postcard, and why?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Sorry ikeypikey, but, I do not have a concrete answer for you. However, I can say that I have come across other cards that had the corners rounded off compared to other cards with the same view that were not rounded off. Why? Beats me.

On another note, I like the cancel of the Toronto & Owen Sound RPO .

Chimo

Bujutsu

Q/ Since you are familiar with the cds (eg, what datum goes where) what date do you read in the cds?

Oct ? 1912?

Peter

I make it out to be either October 1, 1912 (706/OC 1/12) ... or possibly October 14, 1912 (706/OC 14/12). If the latter, it looks like the last digit in the day is raised up from the line where it should be.

In any case, we can confirm that it is dial O-391, Hammer 4 with indicia "706" in use from (ERD) 04/28/1905 through (LRD) 07/15/1949:

Am I missing something here? It looks - clearly - to me like a cut square from one post card has been pasted to a similar card. That would only be done to create a relationship with the location on the face - where the actual location name has been partially erased / corrected?

Have you examined the corner really closely? It should be possible to ascertain whether the paper either side of the 'cut' is the same, or whether it is two separate pieces joined together.

wt1: Thank you! 'October 1 or 14, 1912' is nothing like '2/17/11', which brings us as far as:

- the cds/stamp were surgically added to the postcard;

- the postcard sat unposted/unprocessed for >19 months.




That was my clear first impression, too. The distinct difference in foxing on either side of the cut, especially obvious near the upper edge of the card, is a pretty stark visual clue that these were two different pieces of paper, aged apart.

Q/ But how/why would the modifying actor (one hesitates to say 'forger') cut the card/corner with such an outrageously difficult-to-replicate non-curve?

Q/ And how do we account for the fact that the circle of the cds crosses (exists on both sides of) the cut? (see scans, below)

Q/ Ditto, that the word 'ONLY' could be so precisely cut on two different cards, and realigned so perfectly?

Q/ Ditto, that the cut crosses the LL corner of the *stamp*!

Q/ Who's on first?




Don't think that I didn't try, lad, albeit with my Mark One EyeBall. Check out the edge-on 2400 dpi scans, farther below. The arrows point to where the cut reaches the edge of the card. I cannot see what I would have expected to see.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey