One For The Fly Specker.

Here are some more revenue stamps that came out of the same lot that I found the R164 with the embossed and manuscript cancel in. After sorting through close to 800 stamps in the lot. My best swag estimates that 10% of the lot was revenue stamps and a lot of them are perfins. Which really isn't all that un-common but what is un-common was the care with which they were removed from the original documents they were affixed to. All of them are in remarkably good condition which has made identification relatively easy.

It has been my experience that revenue stamps are treated by most collectors with great bit if neglect and distain. But there are those who revere them and go through great efforts to save them from making it to the land fill. This had been the case with whom ever originally owned them especially to the care given to the perfins.

Early in my collecting years not much thought was given to making any real effort to collect them and I can honestly say that was because I was taught to seek out the trendy fashionable commemoratives, air mails, definitives and all of the popular fodder of the day and honestly I didn't understand why because the 19th century U.S. revenue stamps are in my opinion some of the most colorful and beautiful stamps every created.

After some careful consideration to the best place to share another fly specking discovery. Here it is an R502. The word series is clearly mis-spelled.


Here is a better image with 2 more stamps from the same series that have the same cancellation date. The 3 stamps in the photo are from the same lot and I can only presume that they came from the same document. We will never know because they were removed long ago prior to becoming my property.


Here is a close up of the date.



Jeremy