There have been had discussions about the violet and black “F.D.” provisional handstamps that were authorized in December 1917 before officially overprinted stamps became available. However, I hadn’t seen any discussions about manuscript “F.D.” markings, somewhat to be expected, as off document there would be no way to know if they were legitimate. Additionally, while I’ve seen quite a few examples of the “F.D.” handstamps, I’d never seen manuscript equivalents…

… until the item below was added to Eric Jackson’s inventory last week. I saw it and had to have it. Not cheap, by any means, but in the words of the great Denny Peoples, “Find another one!!”

It’s a confirmation memo for delivery of 100 barrels of “Prime Summer Yellow COTTON SEED OIL”, arranged on December 21, 1917 for delivery in January of 1918, hence “future delivery”.

It has 3 R237, 8 R228 and 12 R229, all with manuscript “F.D.” markings.

The dates align perfectly with the provisional usage period. This is the first provisional “F.D.” marking document of any kind (handstamped or manuscript) that I’ve seen other than the one Jim posted in the thread above, which was dated 1919, well after the provisional usage period.