What's So Unusual About This Lot Of Narcotic Overprinted Stamps?

Answer: all but one of the overprints are genuine.

Which one is fake?

Jim

https://www.ebay.com/itm/USA-REVENU....m2749.l2649

The 2 cent. Also the 10 cent.

The 5 and 50¢ are from 1st District, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia); the 3, 4, 8¢ appear to be perfin PD Co (Parke Davis perfins) from 2nd. District, NY (lower Manhattan). I am very skeptical of the 1, 2, and 10¢.

I have seen that one cent type before, but I can't remember whether it was used or not.

The one cent stamp is attributed to Los Angeles, California.

Source: "Chronicle of New Issues & Varieties," Philip Ward, Jr., Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News, Volume 33, Number 27, July 5, 1919, pages 234 & 235.

Jim

I remain skeptical of Philip Ward's report of the Los Angeles narcotic provisional. Yes, we have seen large multiples of this handstamp. Yes, they are poorly applied. But they are all mint with gum that I have seen. Were these favors supplied to District Collectors of Internal Revenue? Or were they being supplied by local stamp collectors?

We also have a somewhat similar situation with the handstamp attributed to Baltimore. Only the 3¢ denomination and not a single sighting with a user cancel! One would expect that the venerable pharmaceutical firm of Sharp & Dohme to be the user of them, but alas, that firm's cancels are only seen on the BEP provisional issue (Scott RJA33-41).

As I have reported earlier in another thread, stamp collectors in the early 1920's who could not obtain the narcotic stamps for their albums enlisted the aid of their Senator to obtain examples from Internal Revenue. The response from Internal Revenue was an unequivocal NO!

I would like something more than stamp collector reports of mint stamps to establish what was used where. I have seen stamp collector correspondence in the Morton Dean Joyce files of individuals offering to trade what they see locally for what others are "finding" locally. In my most cynical moments, I have interpreted this as I would be happy to trade you the ones that I am making in my basement for the ones that you are making in your basement.

Well, I did mention "attributed."

In my book I propose the source of the internal revenue office but I also mention that no identifiable cancelled examples have yet been seen. So, yes, the overprint may be fake.

Ward was merely reporting what Percy Mann had shown him.

Mr. Mann was also apparently the first to find the Philadelphia overprinted stamps, in March, 1919.



Apparently Mr. Mann obtained more than a few of the stamps, as he was attempting to sell them in May, 1919, a mere 60 days after they were issued, for a considerable mark up (as dealers are known to do).



Now, if Mr. Mann had reported more and more narcotic overprint varieties, then it sure seems that not all of them should be genuine, unless he was a particularly well-connected and enthusiastic stamp dealer/collector, who was also quite lucky.

But, so far at least, he only "found" the Philadelphia and the Los Angeles overprints.

Ultimately, one can look at it positively in that Mann was an honest dealer/collector that specialized in these stamps at the time, and was able to track down stamps that most other collectors were either unable to acquire or simply didn't know about; or he was a bit of a rogue and fabricated the Los Angeles overprints (and possibly several others) for financial gain.

He was definitely at least a part-time stamp dealer.



Despite the lack of confirming cancelled examples of the L. A. overprint, I lean towards them being genuine, rather than not.

What would be the point of their creation, if they weren't being sold for a profit, at the time?

I haven't found any later advertisements from Mann for the L. A. overprinted stamps, and he only ran the ad for the Philadelphia copies once, in a 1919 philatelic newspaper.

Can you show the alleged Baltimore 3 cent overprint variety? Not sure if I've seen it yet.

Jim