I always wondered by Scott skipped the RA numbers and went from R to RB, RC, RD, etc. I recently discovered this page in my father's c. 1955 National Album, filed way in the back. RA was used, in 1954 anyway, as a place holder.
One must think beyond the U.S. Scott did not exactly skip the RA numbers. The U.S. didn't happen to have any.
Here is the description from the front pages of the 1940 Scott worldwide catalog ... introducing a worldwide renumbering system. Note the RA numbers in Group III:
The R numbers are broken down in more detail in the U.S. Specialized catalog, here from the 1942 edition:
Eric Jackson has a very similar page (but without the RA), scroll until you get to it (on page ten I think). http://www.ericjackson.com/images/INV-247304.pdf Perhaps the answer is nothing more interesting than someone just changing their mind about numbering? Or maybe the stamp issue itself was altered after your page was printed? Dunno, but I'm curious now, too.
I have that 1940 standard catalog, I should have looked at it. But I still find it interesting that RA was already assigned to Postal Tax issues but also used as a placeholder for the 1954 Series Documentary issues.
So here are the two layouts of the 1954 Documentary pages. First set uses the RA, the second set is the normal layout as seen in the Eric Jackson pages. I believe this second layout was started in 1952 or 1953. I'd have to check.
My unused large denominations have the receipt tab, which I dislike very much, so they had to be mounted on a blank page.
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Posted 03/16/2022 12:57 pm
