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Month: November 2017

What is going on with this paper type?

What is going on with this paper type?

This one is very interesting. It is a late usage R1c on very thin translucent paper (which one would more frequently encounter on early printings not late printings) with a vertical mesh ala laid paper (see previous debates as to whether said laid paper exists on 1st issue revenues). Additionally, the surface of the back has odd impressions of circles and squiggles, almost like what you would see if someone doodled on the back with a pen without ink. I’ve…

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Unusual railroad cancel. Any thoughts?

Unusual railroad cancel. Any thoughts?

I saw this on eBay and it looked odd, so I figured I’d take a flyer on it. Scott R86c, the $3 Manifest, with a blue circular handstmp cancel, and then what upon receipt I initially thought was document offset… but now I don’t think so. There’s a large black ornately typeset boxed cancel (or what I believe is a cancel) that mirrors the company name used in the circular handstamp: Lehigh Valley Rail Road Co. The lightness of the…

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Oh, the humanity! Such a travesty…

Oh, the humanity! Such a travesty…

To quote Steve Buscemi from the movie Armageddon: “Wow, this is a goddamn Greek tragedy.” Not only did someone completely ravage documents cumulatively worth over a thousand dollars in today’s market, but they didn’t even care that they ripped through stamps in the process. What might have been some incredible exhibition pieces have been reduced to mere curiosities of nominal value. The combination usages with the Great Britain revenues, especially the one including the Nevada state revenue stamp would have…

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Sight draft with both U.S. and Canadian revenue stamps

Sight draft with both U.S. and Canadian revenue stamps

Just another piece of evidence to refute the claims that you can’t find anything good on eBay. This is an 1872 sight draft from Hamilton, Ontario to Boston, Mass., with a pair of Canada #FB51 and 2 singles of FB46 (Van Dam numbers) along with a single U.S. #R135. Documents with both U.S. and non-U.S. revenue stamps affixed are quite scarce, especially from the 1st-3rd issue era. Examples from the Spanish-American War era (1898-1901) are a bit more findable, but…

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