Bisected Newfie Cover #62

A very clean cover for its age. I believe it to be authentic, given the bonded paper, the double clear cancel and the number of bars...but who knows about bisects? I believe that the local rate would have been met by half, though

Hope this is not too much information or over sharing...

The 1999 Unitrade catalog lists the 2 cent bisected stamp on cover at $150.00 Candian dollars. The portrait, btw, is not John Cabot, as listed, but the son, Sebastian Cabot, who came with his father on the voyage. Nice piece!

In further reading, Robson Lowe, in THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BRITISH EMPIRE STAMPS (1973) says such bisects were unauthorized, but made by ardent philatelists with the connivance of postal authorities! I wonder if there are other examples of such ardor?

Very impressive cover Tommy..Keep um coming..

P&L Tessier was a famous business in Newfoundland, and reported to be the largest fishing and fishing exporters. There were two brothers, Peter and Lewis.

I have a few other covers between them. It might have been philatelic though further back in time bisects were ordinary to occur (like in pence stamps)...over time rdavid is probably right about ardent philatelists and postal clerks in that later time period, but in my view more of the turn of the century.

I also think Unitrade is now very relevant for cover pricing; Walsh's NSSC is better--in my subject opinion.

anyone else have a Canadian bisected cover to share?

I collect Worldwide bisect covers and have a small collection.

btw - the 2015 Unitrade catalogs your cover at $500 so it has gone up in price. It is nice and has what bisect collectors want. The stamp is tied to the cover on the bisected side with dated postmark. Nice half of the stamp, too. I believe that many bisects come from a "need to use" situation. Someone has a letter and a 2c stamp, so to save money, they use it for two letters instead of one. Not many people wasted money in those days and a penny was likely alot.

Your cover was in the same time period as the Port Hood Provisional covers where the 3c Numeral was cut into 1/3 of a stamp representing 1c and 2/3 of a stamp representing 2c for use on cover so it wasn't unknown at the time, especially in the Provinces.

I just posted two of my Nova Scotia bisects on another site. Here is my fav of the two. I also have a bisected Canada 2c Numeral cover from the same time period as your cover and a few other Canada.

jimjung,

Many thanks for your post and information. I only collect Newfoundland but you NS cover is stupendous!

If you have any Newfoundland covers, I would be a buyer...

your opinion is correct Tommy.

Robert