Question About This Franklin Bank Note

No experience, so my questions may seen obtuse. I saw this stamp for sale as a Scott 182. However, the post mark is dated January 1, 1873. Which eliminates 182 as that I believe was 1879. It's also not a 156, because the earliest known use of that stamp was August of 1873. But it also looks like it has a secret mark, so I am a little confused.

I am also curious about the blue cancel - I can't seem to find it.

Thanks.

This isn't my area of expertise, but that date marking doesn't look like anything I've ever seen on a large bank note stamp. I wouldn't assume it is contemporaneous.

I saw that auction. It was from a trusted seller from which I frequently buy. I thought that it looked like a fake cancel, so I passed on it. Is it authentic?

Looks like an attempted revenue use - thus a revenue cancel and not a postal cancel.

Yes, it does look like a revenue cancel. If the date is true, it must be a 145. I can not tell from the picture if there is a secret mark or not. Now I wish I had bid on it. If I remember correctly, it did not sell for much.

It sold for $24.50. I thought it might be a fake cancel also. Wasn't aware that it could have been a revenue cancel(?). But I didn't want to get into a bidding war over a stamp I couldn't identify so I topped off at $20.

Not in an area of my expertise but it looks like an 1878 cancel to me; thus a 156 if it has a secret mark?

Might be "DETROIT" at the bottom of the dated cancel. With 2 cancels it is hard to read. It might be a circular rate postal use to mail an insurance document, a not infrequent form of mail at the time.

There appear to be two arced lines of company or business names at the top.

Without being able to read exactly who they were, there is no way to be sure that it was a revenue use and not used like a precancel on some kind of circular rate item. I have seen uses of that type over the years. Not very often, but they do exist. An insurance company is one example that I have seen.

One of the problems with it being a revenue use is that there was no one cent tax rate at the time, and the position of the cancel would seem to indicate a solo use.

By 1873 the only documentary tax still in effect was the two cent tax on checks.

A private company would have no reason or authority to cancel postage stamps on their mail.

Yet I have seen one cent bank notes used to mail insurance certificates with cancels of the company AND a postal cancel, just as this one well might have. Granted, most of the time the company cancel was near but not on the stamp, but not always.

Just because someone did it, does not mean they had the authority to to so. The overall point still being, it looks like a private corporate cancel, and not a postal cancel.

We need Eric Jackson to weigh in on this.

Dave