Here are recent revenue acquisitions over the past few months. Nothing major, but some interesting pieces within.
First some insurance policies; these large-format documents are fun to read.
A precancel multiple. All stamps are manuscript canceled, but full gum never hinged.
A few small-format documents. The first on a transparent, very delicate parchment with shield cancel, the second a very early EMU (early matching usage) of R8c.
Some improper/illegal usages.
Miscellaneous and sundry cancels.
And lastly, the items of particular interest to me...
This document was sold in an
ebay auction as a common consular usage (too bad it isn't the complete document). I was the only bidder at $9.50. It's not the early CSF1 design inscribed "American Consular Service", but rather the later more scarce CSF2 design inscribed "American Foreign Service." Scott catalog value is $210.00. Not a bad snag.
A provisional stock transfer overprint, not listed in Scott.
Even though this stamp has a cut cancel, it is one of the best centered examples I have ever seen of this particular stamp.
An example of the rare Whitney & Beckwith "Skull & Bones" handstamp cancel, granted a minor portion of the cancel and likely only recognizable by those familiar with the cancel.
Courtesy of Bruce Baryla — This 'Skull and Bones' handstamp was known to collectors of fancy handstamps by its appearance as a 'sender's mark' on covers mailed in 1857 by the 'Society of Twenty-Two,' a Yale University based fraternal group associated with the famous Skull and Bones Society.
This same handstamp was used years later as a stamp canceling device. As it turns out, the secretary of the 'Society of Twenty-Two' in 1857 was Robert A. Beckwith. He became a photographer and co-owner of the Whitney & Beckwith studio — and he repurposed the handstamp from his college days to cancel revenue stamps.
His exhibit page on the subject:
http://web.newsguy.com/bruceb/londo...%20Bones.htmHere is my other example containing a much more dramatic portion of the cancel:
The stamp is a bit munged, but it features a printed Andrew Daugherty playing card company cancel with the month offset. Offset slugs are findable on handstamp cancels, but much less common on typeset cancels.
A bottom sheet margin pair of RB1c. I have an affinity for singles and multiples of these and try to snag them whenever reasonable.
This one was a great cherrypick. A top sheet margin example of R66a that exhibits a doubled top frameline, which is listed but unpriced in Scott. This is the first example I have seen.
A fairly tough stamp that was missing from my collection, Scott R194, which catalogs $1,250. I had been holding out for an example with a nice handstamped cancel. This has a lovely "UNITED COPPER CO. NEW JERSEY" handstamp.
This last one was a surprise find in a dealer stock at COMPEX. I have had several examples of R88a with straight line handstamp Pacific Mail Steamship cancels, and have seen others, but without exception they have all been from the steamship AMERICA. This is the first example I have seen from a different ship, GREAT REPUBLIC. I have and have seen other examples from GREAT REPUBLIC on perforated 1st issue and 2nd-3rd issues, but they all feature the smaller font, as opposed to this larger font seen only on the 1st issue R88a.
Additionally, this stamp exhibits a doubled top frameline, woefully undervalued in Scott (over the last several decades, Scott has increased base values of stamps while leaving varieties untouched, resulting in catalog value premiums that are MUCH smaller than they were decades ago).
Posted 05/30/2016 12:53 am
