1898 Cover To St. Petersburg Russia

I see no reason to think that the cover is philatelic in nature. There is a Fred C Rollman born in 1858 listed in the New York Public Library's Photography Collection. Mailed photographs could account for the triple rate if it is the same person.
There are at least 5 collectors in this thread who would bid this cover up to the levels being discussed here, and there are certainly others out there. I don't know what you have been putting up on ebay, but apparently none were covers equal to this one.

Add me to that list!

I looked up Fred C. Rollmann and found that he had at least one mention in Meekel's Weekly Stamp News (1916) contributing a newspaper clipping of some sort.

Then, there's this cover that was sent by him to Bohemia back in 1895 that is identified here:



So it does confirm that he was at least casually involved in stamps and covers back in the day and is also known to have sent covers to international destinations.

But this cover is properly rated, and is not philatelic in any sense as used today. And the cover to Russia is in a known rate as well, and cannot be arbitrarily called philatelic simply because the person sending it has some philatelic relationship. Collectors and dealers do post legitimate mail.

This has been an educational experience for both my father & I and we thank everyone for sharing your knowledge and expertise!

We did some searching today and came across some information re. the recipient, Peter Fomin. There was a company in St. Petersburg during that time by the name of "Meltzer & Fomin" - producing Art Noveau furniture. A strong lead for us to look into.

Merry Christmas!
Harry

This cover might have remained in someone's files for years before a collector saw it with the files purchased later intact.
Again, the fact that the cover wound up in the hands of a collector who liked covers at some point does not mean it is philatelic. There is no reason to doubt that the rate is a legitimate one regardless of which stamps were used to pay it. Three cent Columbians would have been very common in 1898.

As more of an FDC/FFC collector, I don't necessarily "have a dog in this fight." But the debate does interest me. The cover "is what it is." Seems to me that as long as it is accurately described, that is all that matters. Is it in period? Was it flown (did it transit the mail system)? If so, what difference does the sender's motive have? I understand that clearly "philatelic" covers are less desirable than "non-philatelic" covers to postal history collectors. But if it is not clear that it was philatelic, just accurately describe it and move on. Why carry on about whether or not it was philatelic, if no one really knows? At this point, what difference does it make?