Do Genuinely Reused Stamps Exist?

Given the concern that the government had from the civil war issue to the banknotes in reusing stamps (grills, etc.), are there any actual examples of a stamp that was postally used more than once from this era?

I believe that it would be difficult to prove that a stamp from that period was actually re-used, unless one has proof of a pieced-together stamp on cover, or some similar evidence.

Also, I believe that at that time postmasters were fined if it was shown that an uncancelled, stamped piece of mail left their post office.

If they exist on cover, it shouldn't be hard to identify if you are looking for one. You'd just need evidence of a removed cancel on a stsmp with another cancellation. A UV light might be helpful to see.

There are many examples of the hard times including the reuse of common materials for envelopes such as ledger paper and even wall paper like this one

If things were tight enough to make envelopes out of old wall paper, it is easy to imagine that stamps would be reused.
Don

The rule-of-thumb is "late use" can be up to a year after issue, and anything older is considered "re-use."

I have a stamp lifted from a Farmville, Va folded letter dated 1857. This is an important cover that came from the Dr. Chase collection. Farmville is also historcially significant since that was the last stand of Gen. Lee in 1865 before he eventually surrendered at Appomattox CH.

The stamp in question is the double transfer "line through cents" variety of Plate 1-L. The color of the stamp is 1852 brownish carmine. When compared with other stamps of this period its apparent that that all is not well with this stamp. For one, the color is a bit off in places, and secondly the impression is shallow and appears worn or weathered.

The early cancellation inks were very suceptable to removal by contemporaries. I attended a lecture last month at the Collectors Club in which the presentor had an exhibit page with a 10-cent 1857 that was clearly tied, but also had an inexplicable feint blue pen cancel. The PF ruled it "stamp added," which so disturbed the presentor that he paid a forensic firm $1000 to prove it otherwise (and then he got a clean cert). The stamp had clearly been re-used.

I pointed out in a lecture last summer at Columbus 2018 that the article "The Three Cent Gray Paper" by Richard J. Niezabitowski actually made this point. In it the author described several stamps as being "sharp early printings" that somehow survived to be used over a year later. It never occurred to the author that the stamps had been chemically washed, and the residue of the ink turned the paper gray.

Paper mills at this time purchased large lots of used paper and re-pulped it. There's a fabulous story about a "stamp hunter" who saved some rare "Persian rug" revenues from the paper recycle bundle.

At any rate, newspaper in particular had to be chemically treated to remove printing ink, otherwise the pulp (and resulting paper) turned grey. The story is in my book, Rag Paper Manufacturing in the U.S., 1801-1900.

It should also be noted there are several instances where the Government became concerned about chemical washing of postage stamps. Why do you think the 1867-1871 stamps were grilled?

I could go on, but you get the point.

Is re-use something that could be detected using UV?

This is a page from my Boston "paper history" exhibit. Jordan March is/was a major retailer in Boston, once boasting an entire city block. The firm started in 1852, and this cover is among their earliest correspondence.

What you may have noticed is the stamp is re-used. Evidently money was tight in those days, and so they soaked a stamp off another letter and rinsed the cancel off. However, with no gum on the back they needed to get creative. A drab of sealing wax does the job, and off it goes (no need for UV light in this case).

GregAlex writes, "Is re-use something that could be detected using UV?"

Yes it can, but with the exception of the exhibitor noted previously, forensic techniques (such as UV) is a bit overkill. For the most part, re-use is detectable either by the naked eye or by experience. If the paper appears unusually grayish, or the stamp seems out of place, it's a good indicator of re-use.

It was an uncommon practice. Perhaps one in a hundred covers have a re-used stamp. It wasn't until the P.O. reduced the 1st class rate in 1883 that this problem went away.

However, the question itself misses the point. True, re-use has been something of an anathema to philately, but it need not be. No seller (in his right mind) would admit its existence since such covers or stamps would sell at a deep discount. However, recognizing that such activity existed is a step in the right direction. One should embrace the postal history of the practice. Identifying a cover with a re-used stamp says a lot about the sender and can be an interesting side-line to an exhibit (such as my Jordan, March Co. cover above).

Here's another one, the method still used today.

Parts of two used stamps that missed being hit by a cancel were reassembled into one and reused here. BPA certificate.

Nice one!

Awesome stuff. Thanks guys!