U586A 16c Olive Branch & Star Surcharge Omitted Entire Used Worth Anything?

I have a U586a 16c Olive branch and star surcharge omitted entire used would that be worth anything? I see values for mint but not used.

Well, of course.

But most of the "worth" would be based on the condition of the cover, the cancel, and many other attributes of the cover (who it is addressed to, the date, other stamps or markings, and so on).

As a U586a in mint condition sells for a little over $100, then a used copy would probably sell for between that amount and nothing.

Unless a postal stationery specialist was really into used errors, or something.

In which case, if that specialist and another that was equally into these things got into a bidding war with your cover, who knows what it would eventually sell for.

Jim

Here is a picture

I also have a cover with the surcharged shifted directly overlaying the 16c Olive branch and star. again used.

Cool cover from my home town!
Don

Thanks! I bought a skid of covers from a guy in that town 20 years ago. Mostly bill payments sent to the water department. I think it was 400lbs of covers. Took me a year to go through them.

So if this is used during the proper time period and very few or no others surface used, wouldn't that make it more desirable?

The latest edition of the UPSS 20th Century Stamped Envelope Catalog has just been released in eBook format.

Your envelope is the small size w/o window. Three watermarks are known for that issue (W47, W48A, W49A). Cat prices for the three in mint condition are $300, $120, and $200, respectively. In used, only the W47 is known, with a catalog value of $750.

What is the watermark in your surcharge omitted error? Have you got a W47 (star preceding "USA")? Or will you be calling out a new listing for the catalog?

So I took these pic. It looks like a star and maybe a modern looking eagle head before it?? I only found the one star on the front just over the "H" in the mailing address in Hendersonville. It follow the line of the fold on the back. I would of thought there would be more watermarks.

Congrats, you have a W48A. We need to get this into the catalog.

Here is a U579, watermark 48A. Note the USA preceding the star. Once you know what to look for, you can see the "A" in your scan.



Also, knowing how the watermarks "run" can help in determining what you have. The envelopes made on the VH-1 press (virtually all of them from 1965 to 2008) have a direction of travel of the "web" (a large roll of paper - the web - feeds the press in this machine). If you examine one of these envelopes from the front (as in our sample above), the left edge of the flap (red arrow) is the direction of travel of the web though the machine. W48A watermarks always align with the direction of travel. Now, they can take on 4 different orientations (forward, backwards, inverted and forwards, and inverted and backwards), but the basic alignment will be parallel to the left edge of the flap.

W49 and W49A will have a star below the "USA". W50 and W50A will have the star above the "USA". W47 will have the star preceding the "USA" (and will be the poorest "strike" of all these watermarks).

These other watermarks (i.e., all but W48A) will have the "USA" aligned perpendicular to the red arrow. They all can also be found in four orientations.

Thanks Thomas! You've made my day. From the value suggested at under $100-0 to now an unlisted variety, worth a lot more! It pays to ask and see all the opinions! This forum and the coin forum has been invaluable source of information. Last month I had a coin attributed to me from the coin site.

I had this authenticated by the APS several years ago. but no mention of the water mark on the certificate.

Love to see a scan of the cert you received.

here it is!

". . . but no mention of the water mark on the certificate."

The requester for that cert invoked the Scott catalog. Basically, Scott has little to do with envelope watermarks, excepting a couple of airmail issues.

You need to go to the UPSS catalogs for that level of detail.

In that catalog your envelope is a 3619a-48A.