Show Your US 1851-57 Imperforate Stamps

Two stamps with light blue Gettysburg PA cancels. The first is claret, position 45R5L, with rust marks in and around the O of POSTAGE. The second is yellowish rose red, plate 5L, unplated:

StampCrow -- Interesting straight-line date cancel without any trace of another marking on the stamp -- have never seen anything like that before. Not sure how that would have happened -- but a curiosity for sure.

ClassicCoins -- nice examples of the blue Gettysburg CDS


Further yesterday's posts on the NY cancels with the integral "bars" -- here are examples of the 1 bar, 2 bar, 3 bar, and 4 bar NY CDS cancellations:

1 bar is Scott #11A -- position 46L3

2 bar is Scott #11A -- position 71R1L

3 bar is Scott #11A -- position 53R1L

4 bar is Scott #11A -- position 46R1L

Regards // ioagoa

I never thought about it before, but I am now that I see all 4 all lined up - do the # of bars in the NYC cancels have any significance??

Not that I'm immediately aware of. It's an embedded killer.

The single bar slug, which may be related to these, however, does appear to have had its use confined to circular mail. I believe the serrated slug was also for printed matter.

I've put together a page of NY CDS cancels. Haven't made labels yet. I believe the six at the top of the page are in chronological order.

Here is another straightline.

I think that the IOWA HILL in this case, actually was likely a Wells Fargo cancellation, and not a post office one. Also the FREE would be Wells Fargo - or a similar private express company.

There are numerous covers from Iowa Hill, sent FREE, that have the Wells Fargo Iowa Hill oval, and also FREE. There is another cover marked free since it was sent by a Wells Fargo Employee at Iowa Hill. This FREE matches the Wells Fargo FREE quite well.

I'm fairly convinced that the IOWA HILL + FREE are both private express markings, and that this was sent by an employee of the company (maybe Wells Fargo). I have definitely seen another IOWA HILL straightline but I can't locate it right now.

The 3c postage was required by the US government, as while they allowed private express companies to do business in areas that they could not cover (yet), the government still demanded standard postage in addition to express fees.
So the FREE is for the express fees, which were waived here.

On a personal note - I first noticed this cover in the early 1990s when I was collecting 1c stamps. I never managed to obtain this cover for my 1c collection, in spite of the fact that I really wanted it. Good Western usages, with imperforate 1c stamps can be difficult to find. A few years ago, it showed up in an auction as one of Gordon Eubank's culls. I was happy to finally get it, after over 20 years of hoping to. Its a neat item.

edit: since this is a stamp thread I should point out that this is a strip of 3 Ty IV #9 1c stamps.

edit2: oh yea, and its on a cover with an embossed telegraph frank

stampcrow - that's a very nice selection of NYC cancels !

The Ocean Mail one, which I referred to earlier, is at the bottom left of your page. Note the embedded killer.

tx great cover and glad it found you!



I really like that cancel.

Seems like there's one with that small circle grid killer outside the CDS, correct?

Txstamp - are you certain the iowa hill stamp and those stamps were originally on that envelop. Not my area, but I don't see anything tying the stamp to the envelop and a slide shading variation below stamps with a change in oxidation that doesn't exist on the 3 other borders.
...

Yea, I'm aware of that. While its an unusual cover, I've always felt it made sense overall, and fit in with some other similar 3c uses. Many Western covers are overall in pretty nasty condition, and I don't doubt this has been restored at some point.

edit: when I started studying Western postal history I had to recalibrate the way I looked at covers for both condition and authenticity. So many covers are in such bad shape or have been restored, that constructing a story to explain the use is very important.

I found that cover on lot 158 siegel sale 1144. Not sure if that was you :)

Yes, that was me.

This cover is very well traveled through many well known collections over time, most recently Gordon's. That doesn't make it 100% legit, but provenance helps.

When collecting Western postal history or transatlantic mail, as I do now, background research & study is everything. Even still, one has to be prepared to make a few mistakes. Many famous collections have had a few covers that are "debatable" - in the end its usually hard to truly prove that a particular cover is truly bad.

For a complete change of pace, would anyone offer comment on this stamp which seems to be a good example of its' type. Is it an early copy and are there any recuts or revisions in this issue? TIA for any comments on the image.

StampCrow and Txstamp --

Great posts today -- and very nice material shown. Thank you!!

Stampcrow -- on the chronology of the embedded killer NY CDS cancels -- and against the backdrop of all my stamps being "off cover" which makes everything I am about to say anecdotal at best (i.e., versus hard fact confirmed by dated covers) -- I can tell you that based on the color and impression, I believe the chronology, at least of the 4 stamps I posted, is as follows:

4 bar -- position 46R1L -- 1851 EOB -- 10/29/1851

2 bar -- position 71R1L -- 1851 EOB -- 12/27/1851

3 bar -- position 53R1L -- 1851 EOB -- 2/24/1852

1 bar -- position 46L3 -- 1857 brownish claret -- 12/4/1856

So it looks like we agree as to the chronology as to the 4 bar and the 1 bar -- but differ with regard to the 2 bar and the 3 bar. Not that it means anything as we are both dealing with off cover stamps here -- plus there was very likely overlap in chronology at the various NY post offices -- and even more likely, overlap by different clerks within the same post office location. One more thing I noticed -- is that my 1 bar slug from 1856 matches the style of your 1 bar slug on the very last stamp in your display (i.e., your perforated stamp with the SEP 4 CDS) -- again, it is only the style of the 1 bar slug that matches, not the font of the lettering in the CDS.

For what it is worth, I also scanned through all of my OB plates today looking for any and all examples that I could find of the NY embedded killer cancels (roughly 700+ stamps) -- and all I found were roughly a dozen examples of the "4-bar" -- all of which were dated in either Sep or Oct 1851 -- again anecdotal evidence as to possible chronology -- but still a "random sample" of over 700 OB's.

Regards //ioagoa

Yep, that came later, circa 1860. They are called duplex cancels, where the same device has both a CDS and killer attached.