Cover of the Month -- November 2005
Perfection Cancel on Cover with Illegal Cutout
by Bob Swanson
Here is another interesting item from my collection. The
cover is cancelled by a very nice pair of Haverstraw,
New York, type I Perfections. The date is
August 11, 1903. The trouble starts with the
use of a cutout from another stamped envelope.
They just pasted it on, and the clerk in Haverstraw
dutifully cancelled it. Somewhere from Haverstraw along the way
to Marietta, Ohio, a clerk noted the illegal usage, and
endorsed the cover "Due 2 cents".
There is no evidence on the cover of a
postage due stamp, but I guess the recipient
had to pay 2 cents to receive the letter. The
back is interesting in its own way. The
receiving cancel is an American B-14 dated
August 12 at 7:30 P.M. Given that the originating
cancel is August 11 at 6:00 P.M., the letter made
good time.
An RPO collector could make something of
the route taken, I am sure. There is also an offset
of the Perfection machine impression
from the front of another letter in the stack,
undoubtedly picked up at Haverstraw. There is
a marking on the back of "10" (I think)
in the same red pencil as the checkmark on
the front. I'll go out on a limb and suggest
that this marking was made by whoever collected
that extra 2 cents.
Please email comments to author. Bob's email
address (in plain English) is:
rds <at> swansongrp < dot > com
Feedback always welcomed on our pages!
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