Unlisted Narcotic Provisional Rja28 Certified Genuine By PF

Back in 2015 I submitted the following item to the Philatelic Foundation.



To my dismay the PF returned a certificate stating that the black overprint was fraudulent.

Well, as they say in football, after further review.............

Thanks to Jim Drummond's diligent work on researching Narcotic Tax Stamps, he discovered that there were at least three other stamps with the same black overprint.

So based on that new evidence, I resubmitted the item and (after three months!) I received a clean certificate stating that it is in fact genuine.



So, obviously I'm very excited with this discovery.

And now, in the shameless plug department, anybody who even so much has a passing interest in narcotic stamps, his reference is of the utmost importance. Very indepth on the overprint varieties as well as background information on the drug companies that used these stamps.

Very exciting and thrilling. Great stamping going on here. Well done.

Having the Foundation declaring it to be genuine makes it much more valuable now.

I'm glad that I might have played a part in their revised decision.

Hopefully Scott will include it in a future edition of their Specialized catalog, along with a new catalog number.



Jim

So the PWR was used as a cancel. I have a 5 cent PWR with the Philadelphia handstamp overprint. I consider mine an RJA13. I am not sure why this one was listed as an RJA28 variety.

A refund is in order. For which event did you get money back from the PF?

Do you mean one that looks like this?

Jim






Probably because it's the only place that it would fit? It should be a new number altogether, in my opinion.

To date I have recorded the use of the press printed narcotic overprint provisional on three dates. My March 5 example has a manuscript P-W-R cancel and my March 7 example has been cancelled with the RJA28 hand stamp as a cancellation. I have also recorded this with a March 8 date, also with the RJA28 hand stamp used as a cancellation. The example that begins this thread seems also to be a March 8, but I will let Tom clarify that point.

What complicates the RJA28 - RJA29B catalog listings and gives them catalog status is that the P-W-R two line hand stamp is that the hand stamp contains the word NARCOTIC and thus these are provisionals in the sense that they convert a documentary stamp to a narcotic tax stamp.

The example shown by Jim Drummond, a copy of which I too include in my one frame exhibit of this early period is that the local district collector of Internal Revenue has applied its Narcotic hand stamp. In this example the P-W-R hand stamp functions only as a cancellation. we specialists will want to own all of these to show what various usages were in play to pay the narcotic tax during this first month of the new tax. A similar use of both the district hand stamp and the two line P-W-R hand stamp also exists on the 50¢ documentary stamp.

In the past the Scott catalog has shied away from listing all these variations. We shall see.

Yes it is. If that is an RJA13, then the press printed narcotic should have it's own number since it is not a handstamp, but it is not a variety of RJA28. Any more then the later P-W-R cancels with the handstamps are. It's closer to a variety of the RJA9 series, actually.

Bart,

The RJA9 and following were created by district collectors. The following listings RJA26 - 29B are all company created provisionals and I am of the opinion that the newly certified press printed provisional belongs within the company created provisionals. The catalog has gotten too crowded in this area and a renumbering would make sense, but that move usually creates chaos. We will have to wait and see how they treat the new item.

Unless you can get yours listed as well, they will call it an RJA28a, handstamp plus printed narcotic overprint.

Bart,

I will do my best to lobby against a listing of both an RJA28a and an RJA28A.

shermae,

The PF did not bill me for the revised cert.

Actually, wouldn't it be the other way around?

With the original certificate, Tom and Ron's stamps went from being RJA28, with a catalog value of $1,250, but with a "counterfeit" printed overprint, to a "genuine" printed overprint and with a PWR cancellation.

In my book, I assigned a catalog value of $10,000 to this stamp, which is probably realistic given their rarity, but we won't know for sure until someone decides to sell one.

So, if Tom didn't have to pay additionally for the revised certificate, he got a heck of a great deal (in my opinion).

Jim

Great to learn the story behind the change in opinion from the PF. Does anyone have examples of the 5c and/or 25c P-W-R-Co, handstamp RJA 29 and RJA 29A? I have only seen the example from the PF website.

Five cent, three known copies:



25 cent, one known copy:



Jim

Thank you Jim, for posting the three examples of RJA 29, as I have never seen this stamp in forty years.