Why Did I Buy This Defective Narcotic Tax Stamp?

Very few collectors knowingly buy seriously damaged stamps, but in this case it was reasonable to do so (in my opinion).

Why?

1) The stamp, RJA28A, is a rare stamp. The Scott Specialized Catalog gives it a value of $1,500, with the amount being in italics. This means that the stamp doesn't sell very often so assigning it a value is difficult.

2) The stamp came with a recent Philatelic Foundation certificate, stating that the stamp was genuine. The stamp has since had a little piece of perforated paper stuck on the left side, to give it a little bit better appearance.

3) It was offered by the seller for around $500 but I made an offer that was considerably less than that, and the offer was accepted.

4) I didn't already have a copy of this item, and I'm currently collecting this area.

5) But the main reason is that I've collected images of most of the previously sold RJA28A's, and the census of these stamps is shown below. I might have missed one or two copies here or there, but there are currently only ten known copies of this stamp!

Ten!

And they are ALL defective, in one way or another.

And all but two of them have straight edges, either natural or the guy that used the stamps cut them from the pane with scissors or something.

Given all of this, perhaps the Scott catalog value should be a bit more realistic, and include a note that all known copies are faulty, and are valued as such.

But I think that there might be some considerable changes to be made in this section in the years ahead...

Anyway, what would you have done?

Jim

Nice grouping Jim. The number of 1c(RJA28) and 4c(RJA28A) are huge compared to the numbers available for the rest of the same overprint types. Think I have seen 2 of the 5c (RJA29) 1 of the 25c (RJA29A) and 2 of the $1 (RJA29B) value. Always wondered how to distinguish the $1 value used as a provisional (RJA29B) and used a a cancel (RJA21)

Yes that is very challenging.

It basically comes down to interpreting hard-to-read smudges, to be honest.

This is the "PWR Co/Narcotic" handstamp used as a provisional:


This is the "PWR Co" handstamp used as "just" a cancel:


This is the "PWR Co/Narcotic" also used as "just" a cancel. Note that the stamp was first handstamped "narcotic" by the IRS before PWR touched it:


Hope that this helps.

Jim

The four cent PWR is only known damaged. I also have a five cent like the one above; I could never understand why they bothered to put the Philadelphia handstamp on it as well.

I believe that someone at the firm used their provisional cancel/overprint on already-overprinted narcotic stamps, either intentionally or by mistake.

Or maybe someone was just too lazy to find the "Pwr"-only cancel device.

The same cancel/overprint is known on the Bureau overprinted stamps, which came out a bit later than the IRS handstamped ones.

Jim

Then why bother with the ms cancel? I think it much more likely that some PWR provisionals were used with the Phila handstamp added after for some reason.

It is my understanding that the stamps were obtained from Internal Revenue district offices by the manufacturers, with and without handstamped and printed overprints.

Then they were cancelled. And then they were dated, but not necessarily by the same person at the same time.

Those that have narcotic overprints along with PWR's cancel, with or without PWR's 'narcotic' text, were overprinted first.

Those with just PWR's cancel and overprint, such as the initial stamp here, were clearly obtained without any overprint.

I have examples of PWR canceled stamps, with the date being applied clearly by a different device.

Also, the PWR company had locations in Philadelphia, New York, and St. Louis.

Below is an example of a St. Louis overprinted stamp that is canceled by yet another device.

So a reasonable conclusion is that this circular cancel, that is also found on Bureau-overprinted stamps, was probably also used in their St. Louis facility.

Right now I've found a total of 14 different cancel types from PWR.

Jim

Thought I would add the immage for the 25c value of the P-W-R Co., RJA 29A