Buda, Il. Can You Determine Year?

I purchased this really ratty cover just to give to my daughter (she loves the name, Buda, for some reason.)

In any case, it has quite a clear Month and Day. Any way of determining the year? There is nothing on the back. Thanks.

Very high chance of 1870.
Stamps not yet available in 1869, stamps largely replaced by the large banknotes by early/mid 1870.

Buda,for Budapest now in Hungary.

Agree with John Becker, as I virtually always do. It's almost certainly 1870 and can't be earlier. You can't rule out 1871 without doing a full postmark study but you don't see many 3 cent 1869s used after 1870.

Thanks to all. Always good information on this forum.

Pardon my ignorance, which can be encyclopedic, but my 2012 Scott's Specialized has the earliest documented use of this stamp as March 27, 1869. The same date is noted on Stamp Smarter website...

http://www.stampsmarter.com/1847usa...ar/1869.html

...Do you folks know something about this stamp that Scott's, Stamp Smarter and I don't? Where have you seen it documented that is wasn't available before 1870?

The cover above is postmarked FEBRUARY, thus not 1869 use.

Ah, that is true, thanks (should have seen that). But where did John Becker get the idea the stamp was not available until 1870?

Jamesw, You read too much into my post. The stamps were not available in February 1869, thus the cover must 1870 or later. Of course the stamps were available later in 1869, which I fully understood from the first post.

Sorry John, I'm not trying to be difficult. I guess I just misunderstood what you wrote. Obviously I should have notice the Feb postmark and known better. No harm.

Hi everyone, and thanks for the spirited discussion. Not to split hairs too much, but both Scotts and Stampsmarter refer to March 27, 1869 as the earliest known date of usage. I am just curious why I can't locate the date the stamps were actually printed and distributed? It was probably very close to that date, but does anyone know for sure?

I checked Brookman, Volume 2, and it only references the Scott's date, and the small snippet here:


So, of course, February 25, 1869 is not possible, but I wonder if earlier in March is out there somewhere?