Punch Hole In France 1931 5fr Mont St. Michel

I am looking to see if anyone knows if this punch hole is a philatelic feature or just damage/vandalism. The stamp is S.G. 473a 5fr. chocolate from 1931. I think the cancel is from Haut Rhin (possibly St. Louis) but can any one tell me if France did any revenue punch cancels or something similar? Thanks!



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Never seen that big of a hole on French stamps . Do note that pin holes in the center of older stamps have collectiablity .I have a seperate folder of pin holes .

Think I am the only one who keeps stamps from the first stamp bourse .

Perhaps because it is impossible to tell a 'first stamp bourse' pin hole from a hole made yesterday with a push pin?
Don

I believe that Scott assigns the Suffix of "FP" to catalog numbers for First Pin and "PP" for Push Pin. The FP premium is of course many multiples of the PP. Intermediate bourse pin values have proven to be problematic and controversial and so have yet to be incorporated. IB1, IB2, IB3 and so forth might be coming in the future.

Concerning the stamp.

Without a the orginal cover or paper it was on, it is impossible to tell why the punch hole is in the stamp. There is no context.

It could simply be an adminstrative clerk that was ordered told file the cover/papers. He punched a few holes in the cover and filed it.

The postmark is 1930. as I do not have a Scott I do not know what is mentioned in it, but 1930 is not 1931.

Interesting reading on this hole and perfins: May relate to your stamp hole.
www.americanstampdealer.com/SubMenu/Watch_the_Holes.aspx, add https:// of course.
Fascinating what is done with stamps.

99% of stamp dealers and stamp collectors don't know what they are . They are a fun side collection of no value ,often found in older collections . I wouldn't buy one but fun to find it ,beside it decreases the value of a stamp if you make your own .

For those who never hear about this ,here is a historical explanation .

When people started collecting stamps in the 1870's, stamp accumulating in Britain was to run a needle and thread thru and collect on a string . At the same time in France dealers started appearing at flea markets selling stamps the main place was the Paris Bourse were stamps were pinned thru the center on display boards

Thanks for the replies. Good catch Johan about the date. My s.g. Cat has the stamp from 1930 with broken spire and a redrawn type in 31 with it fixed. The postmark is right over the spire so difficult to tell but the clouds looked like the redrawn one. Looks like I was wrong and this is the rarer original type. I realize it is difficult/impossible to know why the stamp has a hole, but thanks for the speculation.

Very simple.
The cancel is Haut Rhin which is in Alsace.
Stamps of a high denomination were punched in accordance with the revenue stamp usage at the time in Alsace.These were affixed on the "Colis postal" (Package) receipt.
Yes they are not common.
Your stamp is a Type I.


From 1927 stamps used in Alsace -Lorraine for parcel post were perforated and placed on the receipts.The stamps were perforated before being placed on the coupon.Sometimes examples can be found with the hole punched after the stamp was stuck on the coupon.The punch hole is
round in the vast majority,but can be found triangular or just a roughly punched hole.
Only dénominations of 3F and above were punched.
There are examples known of lower values being punched and stamps not punched at all.

'
We don't see it much in America, but in many other countries it was routine office procedure to two-hole punch correspondence (and just about any other piece of paper) for storage in two-post binders.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/node/8379855011

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Yes, so how can one prove revenue usage when not on a parcel tag or large piece?

Thank you perf12! There is always someone on here who has the necessary expertise. I got the stamp in a cheap mixed 'F' countries lot and this makes it a bit more special!