**updated Images** 2 Cent Washington Red Stamp

Seeking help identifying this cancel and what appears to be orange ink or something like that. Thanks folks!

Are you sure it is not orange crayon/pencil?? I am not being facetious - it just looks that way in your scan, to my eyes.

I just realized I only half-answered your question. The black cancellation is a duplex cancel. They were common in the early part of the century. The cancel had two parts. The left part of it was quite similar to a cds - city, date, time, inside a circle. The right part was usually (my words, I don't know the technical term) a barred vertical oval with a letter or number in the middle. I believe they indicated the station in the city where the letter was cancelled. It looks like a 'J' on your's.

I'm 100 percent positive it's not a crayon or anything like that I performed an amateur transfer test thinking the same before. The wax of a crayon would still be able to transfer no matter the time from being applied to coming in contact with anything causing friction between the two. I know this due to the fact that I sketch, draw, paint etc weekly in my spare time and there's a lot of things I've learned from experience. I can definitely understand why you'd ask that because I had to ask myself. The color is very bold and rich, but yet can't be "rubbed" off at all. I'm starting to think it's either a fancy cancel or someone's signature using a high quality form of ink

There are lots of examples of postal workers marking up sheets at the PO with crayon or pencils (I assume it is part of some task like inventorying, or something like that). Your example has that appearance. Appearances can be deceiving, of course. I couldn't guess, otherwise.

It is a grease pencil, often used by postal workers to mark envelopes. They still use them today, here is an example of a black grease pencil

Don

Very interesting! Thanks for the information and feedback! Appreciate it!