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Month: June 2019

An Unusual 1867 Illegal Usage Of A 30-cent Ben Franklin As Revenue

An Unusual 1867 Illegal Usage Of A 30-cent Ben Franklin As Revenue

This one is a bit of a head-scratcher. It’s a Scott #71, 30-cent Ben Franklin, used illegally as a revenue on a receipt for purchase of $100 of stamps from the Wheeling, West Virginia post office, signed by the postmaster. The problem is that there would have been no reason to pay 30 cents tax on this transaction. The ink color and hand of the stamp’s cancel match that of the document, so it does not appear that this is…

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Privately Rouletted R27a

Privately Rouletted R27a

I picked this up at COMPEX this weekend. It purports to be a privately rouletted R27a. It’s on piece, unfortunately not large enough or with any printing to provide context. It appears that the upper left corner was severed by the diagonal cut exhibited by the underlying piece, and then reattached. It’s not the first 1st Issue private roulette I’ve seen. I have an R5a that also is privately rouletted: There is another rouletted R5a with a clean Philatelic Foundation…

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Some International Bills of Lading

Some International Bills of Lading

Per Mike Mahler’s essential book “A Catalog of United States Revenue-Stamped Documents of the Civil War Era by Type and Tax Rate” (1999, The American Revenue Association): Quote: Any bill of lading to a foreign port is a significant item… Of the seven EMUs listed, it is unfortunate that two are defective (the Maitland and 7/24/1863 Wattson items). At that time, he had recorded only 37 examples, of which 7 were early matching usages (mid-1863 or earlier). So when an…

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Nice Illegal Use Cover… With A Bonus.

Nice Illegal Use Cover… With A Bonus.

Recently, I’ve been actively bidding on various and sundry covers with illegal uses of revenue stamps as postage. It’s a bit of a minefield, as these covers are frequently contrived. Additionally, the competition is quite fierce; I’ve ended up being the underbidder, or my bids not even executing because they’re too short, quite a bit as of late. To those who lament the demise or malaise in philately, I say “phooey!” It all depends on the areas you collect. In…

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