Fancy Cancel "Indian Head?" Not Found In Skinner/Eno Book Or On Stampsmarter, Need Help

have this cover from Clayville to Germany 1885

the left cancellation looks like a indian of female head, but so far unable to find in US cancellations book from skinner and eno

on stamp smarter clayville only gives a violet star as far as I can see

any help would be greatly appreciated

The cover does not have enough postage, so stamps are missing or have been replaced with incorrect ones. Note the two stamps seem un-tied.

also the stamps have different cancels. That would mean that the clerk would have canceled one stamp, put down the device, and then picked-up a different device to cancel the second stamp. At least one stamp did not originate.

thank you both, stupid mee, I was so dazzeled by the cancell I did not look further

Dutch, nothing stupid here. I thought it was just a short paid cover that somehow avoided being assessed postage due. SPQR and John both continue to teach us to apply critical thinking to what we're seeing.

For the cancel ... one of the challenges of poor and average strikes of "fancy cancels" is the question of interpretation. Rotate it a quarter or half a turn, have a few beers and see what it looks like? Is this just a diced-up cork (note most of the inner white lines are straight), which when weakly struck, gives the impression of a head? Can the viewer convince anyone else? I am not sure. Tools like Retroreveal can be useful by removing some bias of the underlying stamp graphics playing tricks on the viewer.

For the fancy cancel literature, the various "fancy cancel" books are an overview and not all-inclusive. Ed Willard's 2 volume work "The United States Two Cent Red Brown of 1883-1887" does not show anything like your cancel among more than 1000 images either.

The stamps are placed over the blue crayon handwriting as well.

I agree that poorly struck cancels such as the one on this stamp are like clouds in the sky when you lie in a field looking up at them and you can see all kinds of shapes in them.

If you paid more for this cover than the retail value of the two stamps alone in poor quality condition you should consider it the price of a beginning of an education. Learn as much as you can before you buy, and then take a hard look at every cover first and ask yourself if it is real or if it is a forgery using some old materials. This is especially true for any cover that is priced at more than 10 Euro or 10 dollars, though the forgers sometimes even do lower priced covers. The forgers prey on people who let themselves get excited about finding a rarity or a bargain and do not think clearly and critically and apply their knowledge before buying their trash. Put this cover and any other fakes you buy into a special album and look at them every time before you go shopping for more covers to remind yourself of the lesson. The best forgers can fool even the best experts, so there is never a guarantee that you will not be fooled again, but you can minimize your paying good money for trash by educating yourself as much as possible and being in control of your emotions when considering a purchase.

hi kimo,

fortunately it was in a mixed lot and I didn't even see it before it came to my house....so in my mind I paid nothing...however I did get too excited

I would check everything in the lot with a new appreciation for foolery.