Notice Anything Unusual About The Vignette On This Stamp?

First image is a "normal" R119 second issue revenue stamp, second image is the variety, third is the certificate that doesn't mention the variety.

Jim

Is the picture in both stamps different?

Peter

Peter,

Yes. Compare the vignette (Washington's head).

Jim

Well, I know nothing about revenue stamps but the variety vignette doesn't look like good old George at all!

Someone did a pretty good job drawing him in. This cert is from a period when dealers were still running things and some questionable people and items were involved. Including the submitter, in this case.

Jim, so what is the variety, please explain.

I do not see a variety myself.

Stampmaster

I know nothing about revenue stamps, let alone the varieties, but the Washington's head looks very ndifferent in both. Is it a different printer?

Peter

Hi Stampmaster,

Back when these stamps were in use, a buck thirty was a significant amount of money to most people.

There was considerable interest by at least some of those that used revenue stamps to try to reuse a revenue stamp, whenever possible.

If they got away with it, they saved a lot of money, but then again they broke the law too.

In this case, someone tried to remove the initial pen cancellation (seen as the faded gray scribbles across Washington's forehead) and then to cover this up they drew in the president's head. As noted, whoever did it did a pretty good job.

Then another pen cancel, made up of a sideways "X," was applied.

So this stamp appears to have been used twice.

Just kind of surprising that this was not noticed (and/or noted) before. Or, if it was, nobody commented about it.

Jim

p.s. One of the weird revenue things that I collect is stamps that look like they have been used twice (or more). This is from that "collection."

Sorry, I know nothing of "J. & H. Stolow."

Is it possible to elaborate?

Jim

I don't know that it was used twice, my first thought was that someone drew the x because of the drawn in vignette, marking it as a fake. Since the initial manuscript cancel is still clearly visible, I believe that the vignette faded, and someone "replaced" it.

Stolow was an old time auction house with a "look carefully at everything" kind of reputation, at least when I knew of them 40 years ago. There were also some very evil rumors about how they got started back in the 30's which I heard from a few honest old time dealers when I was a boy.

Since the concerned parties are gone now, could you elaborate?

Sounds like a great idea for a tell-all book about the "darker" side of philately.

Jim

They still have family in the stamp industry, so I prefer not to do so, since I have no proof that the rumors are true. I trust the honesty of the person who first told me the story, but that has no outside validity.

It's ok, the guy is on the Internet:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stolow

Kind of similar to Nicholas F. Seebeck.

I grew up in NYC and back in the late 70's and perhaps even the very early 1980's J & H Stolow used to advertise on nighttime TV to buy stamp collections from the public. I tried to find one of the commercials on youtube but no luck.