Can You Detect Any Signs Of This 9x1 Being Used

Curious what you think.

Very old Marker Monkey ?

Peter

looks unused to me - I think Alonzo would have considered it to be unused

Appears unused, but it would have to be looked at closely to be sure.

May be unused, but should be placed under a good UV lamp to determine if there is a removed cancel. The typical cancel on this stamp is either a blue manuscript cancel or a red New York Paid 5 cancel.

wouldn't the little purple scribble make it a used stamp!!! or am I missing the 'joke'???

Hi eligies,



Don

It is NOT in its original state with the marks on the face...Therefore I would consider it used...Just my opinion.

Robert

I disagree. In this specific case, the magenta marking is a pre-sale control, not a cancel, so its presence does not make the stamp used IMO.

It's similar to the way that full gum precancels and perfins are frequently treated differently by the marketplace than examples that have gone through the mail.

revenuecollector,,,Let me maybe put it another way.

"Therefore I would consider it not mint"..Not in it's original form that was printed by the post office..Maybe..?

Robert.

But that's not what the original question was in the thread title. The question was whether it has been used. It may seem like semantics, but the context is different to me.

For this stamp, this is the condition the stamps were in when sold over the post office counter. This is a postmaster provisional issue where the NYC postmaster had the stamps privately printed. Each of the stamps was then initialed by a post office employee, most frequently the postmaster's brother-in-law Alonzo Castle Monson, as a control mark.

Note to management: Please change the title of this forum to "US Classic Stamps Unused and Used".

The term "mint never hinged" is narrowly defined by the Scott US Specialized Catalog to refer to gum "free from any disturbance". All other descriptions refer to gum as "original gum" or "no gum". Whether a stamp is "unused" or "used" is a separate issue. Some collectors and dealers conflate the term "mint" with "unused".

Clark,
This forum category encompasses pre-1940 US postage stamps as issued, so I changed it to that.
Don

Don, like eligies I did not get the "joke". Thanks for posting the article about the signature - I figured it was the monkey at wok


Peter

Hi Peter,
The Postmaster Provisionals were an early 'test bed' for adhesive stamps. And in my opinion, were the first precancelled stamps. So it is always a lively discussion when folks talk about mint/unused/used for precancels.

Don