Fourth Bureau 13¢ 1st Day Cover

I've had this cover for a while. This stamp (#622) was issued on Jan 11, 1926, the day this cover was posted. I do not generally collect 1st-day covers, and don't know much about them. Harrison lived most of his life in Indianapolis, so I assume that this cover is from some official or semi-official ceremony. Does this cover pre-date the mass-printing of 1st-day covers and does it have any extra value beyond being a clean-looking cover with a nice stamp on it?

. . .I'm going to post this anyway, but I realize that my Scott catalog lists 1st day covers. . .This one catalogs for $40. Mystery solved.

Looks like 1st day covers were not manufactured before about 1923, and for the 4th bureau there is some relative scarcity as the catalog prices look like they drop from about $100 to about $10 and after about 1940, 1st day covers are cheap with a few exceptions.

You covered it quite well.

As you have a Scott Specialized and found the FDC listings, in them you will also find the official city or cities used for FD issues Other FDC from different cities are unofficial city FDCs and can garner additional interest from FDC collectors. One other consideration with the early FDCs, and some later ones as welel, is there a specific rate of postage and services being paid or is this just a FD usage with some level of overpayment by design.

Out of curiosity, I used IrfanView and the "Edge detection" option and the cancel date is likely Jan 17.....

I would disagree that the date is Jan 17, I think it is just a smudged 11. It has the overall look of a FDC of the era, even down to the 10:30 AM timestamp seen on (the majority of?) other Indianapolis FDCs found on eBay.

The date is definitely wonky, but for a $40 cover it's not worth $25 to get it certified. It is otherwise a nice clean cover and I'd be happy with it as an FDC, unless/until I got a better copy.

Certainly not a commercial first class letter, with a 13 cent rate.

The addressee is a stamp collector. Here is an ad from "The Philatelic West" magazine 1923,



January 17th 1926 was a Sunday. Did the post office postmark mail on Sundays in 1926?

Maybe the letter was mailed a day late and it is a 12 instead of an 11, but that doesn't look right either. I think it is just a smudged or misaligned 11.

Yes, as needed.

I think it is a bad 11 impression as well an I agree with the other of your reasons as well ZebraMan.

Thanks for the helpful info. . .I think it is a a Dec 11 date, and there is no way I'm going to send a $40 item for a certificate.

Playing around a little more:

The unreadable/smudged digit has a lot in common with the digit "2" in the year date. So my guess would be Jan 12 (or 17 as second choice. 11 would be my unlikely choice).

The month/day is a different font than the city/year. Compare the "A" in both of them. A better compassion would be to find a January 1926, Indianapolis cancel and compare spacing/font on the date.

I'm inclined to say it is a FDC for a different reason:

I can understand why someone would use a 13 cent stamp to create a first day cover. I don't understand why someone would neatly affix 6 times the postage rate to mail a simple letter.

This cancel is known to have been used on FDC's.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/293158792891