Time to showcase the goodies I picked up at Chicagopex last weekend. Not all of these were purchased, as we had a lively trading session Friday night. A wide variety of items, from cancels to illegal usages to plate varieties.
Let's start off with some documents...
These first three were a last-second purchase on Sunday; dealer Denny Peoples had purchased a bulk lot over the weekend and I picked out these three because they have local interest for me, all are Champaign, IL usages. The first appears to have a minor double transfer at bottom (see bottom of S, I, and N).
An Adams Express Co. document taxed as a receipt, not the earlier express tax...
... whereas this one is paying an Express tax, a nice EMU (early matching usage).
A 1-cent Telegraph (R4c) paying a one-cent rate, which are not exactly common.
An R51c used on document. A slightly better stamp, cataloguing $60.00.
Some court documents that provide attribution for some well-known cancels.
A pair of documents that showcase extreme sulphurization; being stored in close proximity to sulphur coal is likely the culprit.
Part of another coal company document...
Some miscellaneous and sundry documents...
More miscellany.
An underpaid tax (should be 2 cents) on a receipt for a set of grave stones.
A numerical processing handstamp.
A nice plate number single with a socked on the nose cancel...
... and another plate number single.
Some CDVs, including a nice mixed perf and imperf usage. The last one is interesting, not so much philatelically but rather the subjects of the photo and the poem on the reverse.
Some railroad documents...
An unusual lightning rod insurance policy.
A couple of maritime-related documents. The first a receipt for newspaper adveritising of a steamer, and the second with both steamboat and railroad ties.
A very unusual cancellation method... with... white out?
A wonderful large-format circular handstamp from Goodyear's India Rubber Manufacturing Co., a which later became what we know as Good Year Tire Co.
A great railroad steel die handstamp cancel, unlisted in Tolman. A very late usage for a steel die; most were ribbon handstamps by this point.
Now on to cancels...
A mangled example of a very scarce playing card co. printed cancel (findable in black or blue, but very scarce in red).
Unusual design, perhaps a roller cancel of some sort?
Possibly the initials of all of the signatories? Without context, we'll likely never know.
Abysmal quality control. Printed cancel completely mis-positioned.
A meticulous manuscript approximation of a single-line handstamp cancel.
Presumably a "TO BE GAUGED" single-line handstamp, with the last word misspelled.
Unusual ship chandler cancel.
Printed medicine co. cancel.
Another medicine cancel.
Canadian handstamp cancel (any Canadian cancels are very scarce).
Not a cancel, but rather a provisional Future Delivery overprint. Not listed in Scott, but well known in the revenue collecting community.
And lastly a railroad handstamp cancel on the 4-cent Playing Cards, a tough combination. Sadly badly thinned, but aesthetically pleasing nonetheless.
Now on to plate varieties, inking anomalies, etc.
Horrible quality control on this one; barely recognizable.
A double transfer, muddy print though.
Double transfer at lower left in CE of CERTIFICATE.
Doubling of frame lines at top and bottom.
Vertical 2-cent Bank Check pair with plate scratch crossing both stamps.
One of the several variants of the T15 major double transfer...
... and one on document.
Cut cancel, but a ncie example of the double transfer across the top.
Very similar to the T15a major double transfer, but more dramatic and in additional places. There are other DTs on R15c that are more bold, but this one has greater spacing between the primary elements and the doubled ones than I've seen before.
R120 foreign entry. I have several other examples, but this is the only reported example on document.
R18e double impression. It's not as clean of an impression as the other double impressions I have, but the green is known for muddy impressions. Doing some research, I can find only 5 sales of R18e over the last 25 years at auction, but those 5 sales comprise a total of 2 different stamps: this one which has been sold at auction 3 times, and one other stamp with straight edge at top that has been sold twice. Very scarce.
Now some illegal/improper usages. Unlike in other countries, uses of U.S. postage stamps for revenue purposes and the reverse were not legal.
First, one that while not a revenue illegal usage, struck my fancy. I assume the Philippines overprinted stamps were not legal for domestic use.
A modern improper commercial (nonphilatelic) usage on post card. Nonphilatelic modern usages are very uncommon.
A bevy of battleships used as postage on cover, most used in period.
A later usage. Note that it took 2 weeks to be re-sent after postage was paid.
This one is used long out of period, but it has great markings and most 1st issue revenues that are used as postage in period have crappy aesthetics (beat up, indistinguishable cork killer cancels, etc.).
A 2-cent Trans-Missippi used as revenue on check.
I wish the original document for this one was still intact.
This one is very unusual. Several revenue specialists and dealers were unable to figure out the usage. It's too odd and haphazard to be contrived; everyone who looked at it believes it to be legitimate, but it doesn't match the tax rate tables. The postage stamps were affixed AFTER the revenue stamps, so it's not a matter of the improper usage being discovered and then paid. Additionally, the revenue stamps total 4 cents, whereas the postage stamps total 6 cents paid. The mathematical tabulation on the reverse is exactly double the document amount on the front. Some speculated that there may have been a secondary document attached and the 10 cent total was improperly paying the tax on both transactions. Another supposition was that it might be for a penal bond (one amount if paid before a certain date, and a penalty kicked in after that date). Any ideas?
Improper use of a block of 4 of the 2.5-cent Proprietary battleship paying the 10-cent tax on a marriage certificate. I thought the document itself looked familiar, and it happens to be the exact same type of marriage certificate and in same county as another illegal usage I have, of a 10-cent Trans-Missippi, with the ceremony conducted the same day and certificate dated 6 days earlier (shown below). The proximity and similarity of improper usages actually help corroborate one another as authentic.
Illegal usage of 4 Washington-Franklins as revenue stamps on an American Express Co. ledger page. Eric Jackson had a small hoard of about a dozen of them, and many still remain if anyone is interested.
Another illegal usage of a Washington-Franklin as revenue, this one lovely due to its aesthetics. The user meticulously inscribed "Used as USIR for lack of Rev. Stamp" on the stamp in red.
This one is aesthetically beautiful IMO, as well as being doubly scarce. It not only is an improper use of a proprietary stamp as a documentary, but also has German revenue stamps affixed to the back. Combination usage of U.S. and non-U.S. revenues from this era are very scarce.
And lastly, some additions to my sewing machine perforation collection...
A lovely example of R115a. Nice margins and perfectly sound.
A pair of R112b, also sound. Multiples are not particularly common.
And finally one, that while a bit beat up, is definitely legit. RB3a. While the sewing machine perfs are only visible on the bottom side, they perf out correctly, and if someone were going to manufacture one, they would not have just made perfs along one side. Additionally, the position of the vignette compared to the frame is virtually identical to that of the other example I own (shown below). Much more scarce than the $650 catalog value would imply.
Posted 11/27/2016 2:29 pm
