A Tricky Narcotic Strip Stamp

An initial look at this 19 cent imperf. narcotic strip stamp on watermarked paper suggests that it is RJA69a, which catalogs for $16.



But a closer look at the top margin reveals that it is actually a mis-cut rouletted stamp, RJA69b.



The rouletting didn't fully penetrate the stamp paper.

RJA69b catalogs for $190.

It goes to show, that a close look at your stamps sometimes pays off.

Jim

Jim - Thanks for the illustration. The late narcotics from the 1960's have very white paper and the rouletting is simply a slit in the paper. A number of companies who ordered rouletted stamps them separated with some sort of cutting machine. This is obviously the case with the Merck cancelled stamp in your illustration.

This serves to put all of us on alert with the narcotic stamps used in the 1960's. We need to be extra careful on the identification of those which are rouletted and which are imperf.

Thanks Ron.

A minor clarification:

These tiny, smudged cancellations, which are typically applied in almost the same ink color as the stamp, are very challenging to identify.

In the case of the stamp shown above, it is actually cancelled by B W & Co., with the "B" portion being barely inked.

See detail images below.

Jim

M. & Co. (Merck and Company, Incorporated) looks like this:



B. W. & Co. (Burroughs Wellcome and Company) looks like this:



Note that this example is a particularly clear cancel; usually they're waaay more smudged.