Excited To Pick Up This Beer Stamp

I spotted this Beer Stamp offered as an REA39 recently on ebay opening at $9.95 and decided I would place a bid on it. Not in bad shape as far as beer stamps go. A small pinhole but otherwise quite sound. Surprisingly no one else bid on it.

Well, right away the first problem with it is that REA39 is a 25-cent Series of 1878 stamp. As seen, this is a 12-1/2 stamp. Therefore if anything it should have been listed as an REA37. Also, I believe it's blue paper and not dark blue paper so probably an REA37e. (Image has been lightened to enhance the surcharge and cancel but I'm pretty confident it's not dark blue.)



Now...................as they say in sports, upon further review.

Notice the diagonal purple surcharge.



Here's an optimize image of the surcharge.



So, it turns out that in reality it's an REA44.
But wait, there's more.

According to the census in Thomas Priester's United States Beer Stamps there is only 1 recorded example of this surcharge on this particular value on dark blue paper and none recorded on blue paper.

nice find.

great score!

Always nice to find something previously unknown. Few collectors ever do.

Nice find!

Well done and thanks for sharing it!

Thanks all. As the saying goes sometimes your the bug and sometimes your the windshield.

Turned out this time I'm the windshield.

A few times on the bad end of a deal, so nice to get a good one once in a while.

I usually have heard it as "Some days you are Godzilla and some days you are Tokyo".