Wading through a stockbook of 1st issue revenue stamps this morning, and I stumbled across this 10-cent Bill of Lading (R32c) with a muddy indeterminate red cancel.

I nearly just passed it by, but the ink voids in the cancel looked unusual, so I thought I’d run it through retroreveal.

Lo and behold, it revealed a very interesting cancel, one I’ve not seen before, from the firm of Tong Soong & Co., San Francisco. The interesting voids that had caught my eye were Chinese characters in the center of the cancel. Again, something I’d not seen before.

Moral of the story is that sometimes a second and closer look is worth it.