I Found A Facinating Match Stamp, Lets See What The Members Can Tell About This Stamp.

Yesterday, I attended the Greater Houston Stamp Show and found a stamp dealer from Tennessee that had an impressive collection of M&M stamps. My time was cut short from examining the Medicine Stamp section due to a previous engagement of the collector I drove with. I found this little gem of a stamp that is on watermarked paper. I will wait to give you my findings on this stamp, I would like to see what other collectors opinions of this stamp are. Unfortunately, the stamp does have a thin on the top of the back of the stamp resulting in a few perfs pulled and there are only light areas of the normal purple cancellation found on this issue. This is the most presentable stamp of this issue I have found: Michael Aldrich lists 28 copies known with Fine being the best centering for this issue.

That's a nice copy of RO24d, with the printer logo capture.

If you paid under $800 for it, you got a good deal.

Jim

James, I paid under $650 for it. But look closer to see what makes it so special. Compare to others sold, Siegal's list.

You mean the line through "National Bank N"?

It also looks like it was not inked that well. The bottom left frame line, and here:



Jim

James, look at the partial inscription and compare color compared to the ones Seigle has records of, Joe.

Rare stamp. All watermarked paper stamps were printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. In the beginning, they used the plates that ABN and NBN had used, scratching lines through the old imprint and adding BEP next to it. That's what was done here.

The general assumption is that this stamp was printed in error, instead of the RO25d which was being printed at the time. I would also take the Aldrich number with a grain of salt, his methodology was somewhat questionable.

This picture is darker than the original stamp. The true color appears to be of the golden brown making two printings of the stamp was performed instead of only one as stated in the Boston Revenue Book. Revenuer you are correct about the line through the partial plate inscription being an indication of the plate not originating as a Bureau plate. It is easy to understand how this could simply just be a mistake with the slight difference being the small letters added to RO26.

nice find of a scarce item. I would also take the aldrich survey quantities with a grain of salt.

After 150 years I would not put too much into relatively minor shade variations. No one knows what might have happened to it during all that time. The writers of the Boston Book had a lot of info at the time; while they did make a few mistakes I suspect that this was not one of them.

the stamp is much too scarce for there to have been more than one printing.the error was caught by the firm who most likely wrote a letter or sent a wire to the bureau not to use that plate again, but used the stamps they got as they normally would have. I do not think they would have had a corrected printing sent to replace them and then discarded the older ones.

I agree, one printing seems most likely.

For those younger collectors on this board, this term means "sent a telegram."

You know, Morse code, hand delivered receipts, before the Internet, etc.

Jim

I do not see the scarcity of the item. There were 220,500 minted on watermarked paper. Other than having the inscription, It seems to be about a $20 stamp.

The current Scott value is $725. This is a fairly rare stamp.

How did you interpret this information as a "$20" stamp??

Jim

Only one lot was delivered, they were used on matches where they were usually destroyed upon opening and almost none were saved even if they were not torn open. The quantity printed is only half the equation, the other half is called the "survival rate". In this case the survival rate was very small. This might seem like a $20 stamp to you, but in 48 years of studying m&m's I have seen perhaps 5 or 6 examples. I have serious doubts as to the existence of 28 based on the methodology used to establish quantities. To put survival rate into perspective, the 4 cent Barham Pile Cure stamp had a total issue of 2500. Ordinarily that would certainly make it very scarce if not rare. Except the company went under almost immediately, and practically all of the examples were remaindered. Full sheets were available, and I believe there are still a few around. So it is readily available in VF-S condition for about $100-$150.