Two Questions About Washington-Franklins

With apologies if these questions have been asked and answered elsewhere ...

[1] Is it appropriate to refer to Scott nos. 523, 524, and 547 as "Washington-Franklins" or "3rd Bureau issue definitives" since they coincided with the other designs in that series during the last half of its period of issue and were replaced only by the 4th Bureau stamps of like value? And what about Scott nos. 479 & 480?

[2] Is there a standard explanation for why Scott nos. 341 and 342, priced at just $20 and $90 in the 2019 catalog, are so frightfully expensive (i.e. rare) on cover at $5000 and $6000 (2006 catalog)? I would have thought that plenty of covers were being preserved by collectors at this point in time.

Thanks,

Stan Grove

The term Washington-Franklin is derived from two heads used on the series and the three you name have Franklin.


"COVER" as in envelope. There is little call for the high values on an envelope which would hold enough mail matter and addition fees to support the minimum cost needed. Bank tags, registered tags moving cash, bonds and the like are quite common and for what ever reason are looked down upon as compared to a real envelope. Such registered or insured tags are called bank tags. Tag which do not involve a bank as sender or addressee are lest common and command more than bank tags. The ones out of Alaska can hit four figures. Lastly, as to complete envelops, "covers" there are only a couple recorded after all of these years. Collectors collected envelopes as you mention, but mostly just legal size and smaller not the oversized ones.

While I was writing this, PPG got his answer posted before I had finished. I agree with what he said, and here is what else I was going to say...

I found no 342 covers on Siegel Power Search or Stamp Auction Network. I only found two cover fronts on SAN and a half dozen bank tags. There don't appear to be many complete covers circulating in the marketplace. Either a big stash is being hoarded in someone's bank vault or not many exist. Back then hardly anyone collected covers and anyone wanting to fill that empty space in an album would have to get that relatively scarce stamp soaked off cover.

The full catalog value represents a complete cover in good condition. A $1 stamp in 1909 isn't likely to be found on a small clean cover. They were most often used on registered parcels (or parcel tags) that were large and bulky and got tossed around a lot. So they will have lots of creases, be torn open, and ultimately cut down to just a partial cover to be more presentable and easier to store.

It's not just the 342 that is scarce on cover. Most of the dollar values are 10x or more on cover. Look at 524, off cover it is $40, on cover $2500. I wish Scott gave prices for more of these older issues on bank tags. Scott prices 834 at $3 for a single off cover, $3500 on cover, and just $40 on a registered bank tag. I would like to know what the earlier dollar value stamps are worth on bank tags, and that would be a good indication about how they were normally used.



(pictures from Stamp Auction Network)

Like any company, Scott has limited money and manpower resources. If one wants to see a specialty area expanded, the quickest way is to act rather than talk .... and do their homework for them and assemble documented census and price data.
As an example, there was a small group of BOB listings which contained some errors as well as inconsistent sub-numbering of varieties. At Stampshow 2019, I left a packet of information with the Scott folks detailing my findings and recommendation. The corrections were soon made. Scott relies on many experts as reflected in Their list of contributors in each catalog.

Those aren't the hard ones. 423 $7,000.00 and 460 $12,000.00 are tougher covers.

I believe the Late Al Kugel had the, the and in THE, meaning the one, 460 cover. I am sure of Al and 99% sure it was the 460. He had some of the others as well at times.

For a while I was trying to collect The Dollar Values of the 20th Century. Tags and wrappers were not too difficult pre-1937. Post 1937 Envelopes were not a problem for me as I had the prexies and Liberties covers (My $5 Liberty was a pair on an envelope, the first found a bit before the second found was publicized) My Prexie envelope, one of them anyway had the $5, $2, $1 and change on it. The point being I had reason to figure out what and where these cavers were. Back then the 460 was a problem for me. I since have it on tags.

The common usage of 423 is from Alaska on tags. Several of the tags have Q10 or Q-9 on board as well and in addition tow one or two 423s.. Earlier dollars are found on wrappers with usually 75 cent Q11 Parcel post. They, the Alaska items pass into four figures with ease.

Now I agree with ZerbaMan about on tag listings but I do see it happening soon. Most of my documentation on the matter was destroyed by vandals.

What needs to be addressed is what I will call market dynamics. Prexie Collectors late in the 20th Century started the trend of "Solo Use" which caught on and even spread far beyond Prexies. Similarly the Classic Collectors started a trend in the 19th Century in which tags we considered red-headed step children of real postal history, envelopes. That took hold then a continued into the 20th century and onward to the 21st Century. It did not help that in the early to mid 20th Century, tags, especially registered high postage and fee value tag were every where. To say they were "common" is to greatly over state their ease being obtained. Thus the tag were seen as the source to supply of paper used stamps. Those same Classic Collectors also disliked large envelops and wrappers. If they did not remove the stamps for used copies, the envelop or wrappers were cut down to a smaller size.

Thus it is again the supply and demand tension at play and it matters not why demand is increased or decreased for an item in the moment.

Many thanks for the illuminating responses. I have been dabbling in W-F solo uses, am up to the 30c Franklin (Sc. 420) and wondering how much further I could hope to go. Guess I have an answer ...

Still, I am not averse to larger items, tags, or parcel wrapper cut-outs if anyone has them to offer (50c franking on up)!

thank you Parcel, Zebra and Becker for your informative posts.
I am not a serious collector of covers, but remembered I had some tags tucked away. One had some dollar stamps, Scott 571. I expect they are very numerous, and low value. Any thoughts about them. The perfins say TRAV, and the back of the tag says Travelers Insurance Company.