Any Idea What This Cancel Is?

I'm not asking what city, just what it is. I tried rotating 90, 180 and 270 degrees and it didn't help me.

Note: This is not meant to be racist, insulting, or derogaitory to any particular group or persons.

I am taking a guess that the image as turned, kind of looks like it could be any of the following- a jack-o-lanterm, skull, demon, face mask similar to that worn by some tribe or indigenous people during a ceremony.

Edit: It also could be fancy lettering or a whisical fancy of someones imagination.

Edward L. Willard has the following tracing in his "The United States Two Cent Red Brown of 1883-1887", volume Two, page 78:



He describes it: "Figure 645 is a negative old English capital S, and is from Stoneham, Massachusetts."

JB - I rotated the stamp image upside down, and it looks like you may be right. Never would have guessed an "S" (looks vaguely plant-like) and don't know how you ever found the match.

Well done, John! I couldn't find that in my reference library.

eyeonwall, it appears you have a more complete example of the internal design than the Willard tracing.

I don't own it, it was on ebay.

The maker must have been unfamiliar with printing type...should have carved a backwards "S".