Interesting First Day Cover

Hi folks,

Was just wondering what you all thought about this. I have never come across anything like this before (still relatively new to the game) and wanted a bit of insight. Many thanks!



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Interesting on a few levels.
It is a printed First Day Cover. We have of course no idea who posted it but is the address a stamp shop? Per Google it is now a bistro.
Presumably the sender knew it would be surcharged and presumably the addressee did not mind paying the extra 5d.
It was clearly a cover he/she wanted to have.
It is likely that there is some Scottish political/nationalist aspect.
I myself have a "defaced" cover commemorating the Seperation of Charles and Diana. It was sent to me on the very date that John Major, the British Prime Minister announced it in the House of Commons.
Seemingly the Sender was in London the week before and was reliably informed that it would take place. And went to Gibbons and bought a set of the Royal Wedding stamps and cut thru them with scissors (not as obviously as in the original post) and put them on an envelope and carried it in his pocket until Majors announcement and dropped the envelope in a post box in Belfast.
It went thru the mail as normal. Nobody noticed the "de-facing" and it was delivered to me without surcharge. I suspect it was noticed but whoever noticed did not care.
I have been offered and declined £40 for it.
I have other covers that are in some way "propagandist".
Whether it is fun, a legitimate point or offensive is of course a matter of opinion.
My own experience is that everything gets thru but it required/requires a lot of people to look the other way.
And of course it requires a degree of planning.

That's really interesting, I had no idea. It appears there is something inside: I presume it is a part of the first day cover and not a letter saying who was involved. I didn't want to open it up as I thought it may affect the value. Is this the case?
I'll keep an eye out for these in future. The history behind them seems fascinating! Thanks for the insight Fitz.

It is very probably just a stiffener (sheet of thin cardboard) inside the envelope. First day and special events cover collectors do this to keep the cover from getting bent or otherwise damaged in the mailing process.

Hard to imagine why.

I think that the OP cover is worth more for having been 'caught' and properly processed, but perhaps that's me.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I agree. An attempt to be squirrelly and getting caught turned a philatelic cover into postal history.

I find this cover fascinating for a couple of reasons. The first is that because the stamp was cut into three pieces, and even though all three were present, the post office still deemed this to have been insufficient postage. I know that in the United States, at least with paper currency, if you have both halves off a cut or torn banknote, it is still legal tender, and can be redeemed at a bank, and, likewise with stamps, I have, on occasion put both parts of a torn stamp (not deliberate) on a letter, and the letter has gone through without a problem, and in this case, obviously proper payment has been made because a legitimate stamp, legitimately paid for, has been presented, so I wonder what bylaw of the Royal Mail system has been broken here. The other is that the cutting of the stamp seems to have so outraged the authorities, that they have fined the recipient (I suppose it's the recipient who pays the postage due) fivepence, or in other words, DOUBLE the amount of the supposedly deficient postage of twopence halfpenny. Again, I wonder what bylaw has been broken that would warrant such a doubling of the fine. I wonder if the penciled words "defaced" and "tax" offer a clue. One thought springs to mind that has to do with insulting the monarch, especially a brand new one. Any thoughts on this, forum members?

Opinion.
Simply a prank cover, (perhaps postal clerk pencilled "De Faced Tax = Defaced stamp) Hijinx from a Philatelist (loosely termed here)
Possibly intended to get the extra auxilliary markings.
Double deficiency paid as a matter of course.
Not aware of GB postage rates but certainly, the impost in Australia at the time.

waddsbadds - the following rule or bylaw set out in 2001 would have been the same in 1953.

10.4 Neither a Postage Stamp nor Mark may be used to demonstrate payment of Postage or to demonstrate that the Sender has entered into an arrangement with Royal Mail for Postage to be paid on a Letter if it is damaged or imperfect, has been defaced, or if it has anything written or printed over it. An adhesive postage stamp which is perforated with initials by means of a punch 10
may be used for those purposes, provided that the perforation holes are smaller than the holes dividing one stamp from another on a sheet of stamps.

https://www.royalmail.com/sites/def...300412v4.pdf

To add to Information by 22crows, there will always be those folks out there who would/will use cut, unmarked pieces of several different stamps as genuine postage.

In Germany, when they made the larger, mark value Germania stamps, they were almost always cancelled with two postmarks, thus preventing the re-usage of stamp pieces.

Cutting stamps and putting them together differently was popular in the US in the 20's and 30's; covers with the frame of one forth bureau value and the vignette of another are certainly around.