Can Certain Stamps Have Been Released Before Their 'Official' Release Date?

This appears to be the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, WI, a state prison, in which Jeffrey Dahmer was there at the time of these mailings..

There will be some differences among federal prisons, state prisons, and local jails as how mail is handled and marked (front, back, or not ... or even on the letter itself). As an example, whether mail to/from attorneys, courts, and family members is examined or handled differently than random "fan mail", so to speak. This is the importance of having the fullest information possible when analysing an item.

@John Becker

Jeffrey Dahmer is indeed the prisoner who my project is about.

While I will not debate with you regarding the markings on prison related mail. Likewise, there is not confirmation that the mail matter you show actually was delivered to the inmate. Lastly given who the supposed recipient was, the portion of the letter you show in your OP seems to have a rather odd subject matter considering the circumstances.

As to the original question, the cover you see has been altered in some why. The stamp was not in post office on the date shown by the postmark. Additional if you search the American Bank Note Company's records the stamp itself may not have even been printed yet by them as of that date.

So the real question is "I am researching mail to/from Jeffrey Dahmer while he was in the Columbia Correctional Institution (a state prison) in Portage WI and want to know about the postal aspects of the cover shown here sent to him from Chicago which seems to have a stamp on it which had not been issued yet?" I.e., best to ask directly rather than beat about the bush as it also saves the responders a lot of time guessing and writing responses which may not be directly relevant.

The stamp looks added at a later date to me, though it would help to have a more sharp photo.

the distance between the circular date stamp and the wavy lines seems too small.

And, the wavy lines that trail off the stamp look odd, though it is hard to see them clearly. It looks like the bend downwards sharply, not following the curves.

The stamp was announced in the Oct 29,1992 edition of the Postal Bulletin. The usual "Post Offices
with authorized philatelic centers will receive the automatic distributions.." was given so noone had the stamps yet. It is impossible that the stamps were out over 7 months prior to the PB announcement (they probably hadn't even been printed by mid-1992).

My guess is someone rermoved a stamp from the cover and replaced it afterwards with a Rooster stamp.

@John Becker No, that wasn't the question I was asking at all... And there really wasn't any need for you to be rude and patronising when you had been helpful before. I've been researching Dahmer's case for many years now and am more than aware of the prison markings on a Columbia Correctional Institution envelope (if and when they are present). My question was about the release date of the stamp and the stamp alone.

The context of it being a letter to Jeffrey Dahmer was only mentioned to you later for general context

I suspect that you could carefully lift the Rooster stamp and discover that there were was part of a machine cancel underneath.

I would also be surprised if the prison unit would have been selling the Rooster stamp. I suspect that they would sell only the common first class definitive stamps.

Edited as I missed the fact the letter was inbound to person of interest, not outbound.

I see no substantitive difference between my question and your question - specfically about the use of the stamp. But the slight differences of wording do not matter.

One needs to tell/show everything one knows about an item to get the best answers. When one withholds information to put an item in its full context or dribbles information out in multiple posts, it can be taken as being coy and tends to reduce our openness and response rate. I know I'm a bit frustrated that I've spent more time on this thread than I should have knowing now what I know - or do I know? I'm done here. Good luck.

@Parcelpostguy I figured the fact that this was an envelope sent to Jeffrey Dahmer was irrelevant because the question was solely to do with the timeframe of the stamp. I think I would've been equally as perplexed had the recipient been Frank Sinatra or my mother!

I'm aware this isn't a sub dedicated to such grisly subjects, but just quickly in response to your comments:

There is reason to believe that the letter itself was delivered to Dahmer - considering that, at the time of his death alone, he had over 500 letters in his cell (not taking into account the bagfulls which were taken away by his father and stepmother during their visits). In recent years a large number of these letters have made their way from his late fathers possession into wider public domain. The subject matter certainly isn't how everyone would talk to that particular recipient, that's for sure! Part of my project is looking at the many people who wrote to him in prison - and why others were (and are) attracted to him (or why, in this case, they might potentially go as far as feigning a relationship with him).

But I digress... Thank you for clarifying the date side of things :) I'll check the ABNC records as you suggested!

@drkohler

That's very informative. Thank you so much for your insight!




This certainly seems plausible. I looked earlier, and you can easily purchase an old cancelled stamp (with the same exact '92 rooster design) for just a few cents on one website. Am guessing that the postal mark now becomes equally suspect.

@alub




Thank you for your response :) Someone else on here mentioned the wave of the lines too. I fear that anymore photos I attach will just be as insultingly low-res due to the only source available.

EDITED: Since writing this comment, I have checked some more verified letters and saw that there seems to be no 'correct' distance between the circular date stamp and the wavy lines. Some of them are spaced out, others are much closer.

Examples of close stamps on other letters:





That's not to undermine any other potential points raised here, but I just wanted to be fair in the analysis.

Well after viewing the images of the suspect cover I clearly see that the cancel appears blurred/disturbed. The stamp itself looks like it is attached to piece by remnant visable at bottom edge? and is sitting on top of cover as there appears to be clearance/ gap or shadow visable. The cancellation lines also look suspect. But for some unknow reason the image of the other covers you show later and taken from a farther distance, show a very clear datestamp, and you can read all characters. In my opinion I tend to agree with others that the image/cover is quite possibly altered.

That does not mean they were physically delivered to the inmate, but likely accumulated by the prison for presentation to the family of the inmate during their regular occurring visits. Likewise direct passing of material from an inmate to a person during a visit is not normally allowed unless it is to an attorney of record for the inmate.

@parcelpostguy




Okay, sure. You're obviously the Dahmer expert here :)