Special Delivery Stamps On Covers, Any Value?

so the covers aren't really valuable, but I came across these 2.

I think the 1902 may be worth a bit!
Have a look...





And 1921..





Cheers

The 1902 cover is most likely a Scott E5 which has a catalogue vale of $25.00 US dollars on cover. However, the stamp has a faulty upper right corner and would probably be worth only a couple of dollars. The other cover is probably a Scott E11 which has a catalogue value of $4.00 US dollars.

To a philatelist any stamped cover, especially the older ones have value beyond just the stamp, if only historical.

Peter

The first is not a bad cover. Not exhibition quality because of the stamp corner fault, but still worth having. Nice clear cancels.

The second cover is cut down quite a bit and maybe lost one or two postal markings. It can be taken as a large piece showing proper usage with a 2c stamp. It's basically worth slightly more than what the two used stamps are worth. Again, nicely struck cancels.

I have a hard time caring about that corner tear, which was probably there when the sender applied the stamp. Now, I'm not obsessed by postal history, but surely that tear is also a historical record of something (at least something personal), although trivial. On that line, the cancel is a little heavier than I would like on an individual stamp, but does it really matter on this cover? I suppose the lesson is that unless the stamp/usage is very rare, another cover of better quality is available somewhere for one's collection if the postal/personal history of the current cover has no meaning to the owner.

I don't have that problem with individual stamps. That stamp by itself with the tear and relatively heavy cancel would be replaced immediately without remorse.

Condition almost always is the deciding factor on covers as it is for stamps. And collectors as a group are condition-oriented, no?

Many of the rare Confederate covers you see pictures of are repaired, ranging from backing the envelope so splits won't tear it apart, to having parts of the envelope so skillfully replaced it's very hard to tell without a magnifier and watermark fluid. They typically have high quality stamps, though not necessarily expensive ones. The usage/postal history part is often the important thing, but with faulty stamps, the value often drops at least a little, sometimes a lot. If these had sound envelopes, the price would be greater also.

I agree with hy-brasil, condition of the cover as well as the stamp is a deciding factor, unless the stamp and cover are very rare!

I can't add much to what has already been said other than to note the 1902 cover is also wrinkled and soiled which reduces its value further, and it is from two larger cities - Cincinnati to St. Paul so there is no added value as there would be if it were to or from someplace more interesting or if it went by an interesting method of carriage. On the 1921 cover, I notice that the stamp on this one is not very good in that it is quite off center and as was mentioned this is not really a cover anymore since it has been cut down so much on two sides and so it really more of a "stamp on piece" Both would be nice to have in a special delivery collection as reference items rather than as display specimens and as such their commercial value would be minimal.