Steve Levine
P.O. Box 951
Linden Hill Station
Flushing, NY 11354
Phone: 718-939-5788
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Steve Levine |
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FEBRUARY, 2016
HOW TO ORDER:
1. DINOSAUR STYLE
If ordering
Dinosaur Style (thru the mail), you can print out this sheet, then circle the price
of what you want and mail it in with your payment. PLEASE circle with a fine
colored marker; any color will do.
2. ONLINE
Sorry, this is not a full-function interactive
website with a shopping cart and card processing ability. It's Dinosaur-style;
it only has listings. Still, we can improvise!
You can
send me an e-mail and type out what you want and the price.
OR, you can cut & paste the item with its description and price.
IF the item
exists in several conditions or forms (such as f-vf or vf for stamps, or as Cut
Squares or Full Corners) please indicate which you want.
OR you can cut & paste large portions of the list and
HIGHLIGHT
whatever you want.
Green (the
00-80-00 shade for the techs out there) works well, as does
Red (the
FF-00-00 shade).
I accept VISA, Master Card, and American
Express. I also accept PAY PAL, at
my e-mail address of
"slwarking@erols.com".
3. PHONE
IF your order is relatively simple or if you have a few questions, you can phone
me at 718-939-5788.
For me, "business hours" are flexible. I'm usually in, and if I'm
not, you get the answering machine. Leave your #; I'll get back to you.
TERMS
OF PURCHASE: Items from this list
may be combined with items from my other lists for a
MINIMUM ORDER
of $15. ALL ORDERS will be shipped via Insured
or Registered mail, for your protection. Please add $2 for postage and insurance
to all orders. Smaller orders will carry private insurance and will have NO
USPS markings. There's no "handling" fee; just actual
postage expenses. This is for U.S. orders only. Overseas shipments,
please e-mail me in advance for shipping information.
New York State Residents, please add the appropriate Sales tax. VISA, Master
Card and American Express are accepted: please include all information which appears
in raised print,
PLUS
the 3 digit security code which
appears on the back. PayPal accepted.
SATISFACTION IS GUARANTEED ON
ALL ORDERS
Of all the various forms of the 1992 "Elvis ballot", the
printing on the back of UX153 is the scarcest. Compare with the
NAJUBRIA Card (73,580 cards, $6.00) or the LUPOSTA cards (3,000 cards,
$10.00). The Elvis ballot remains UNPRICED by UPSS. Maybe
that's because it's not a USPS-issued overprint, but a LOCALLY-issued
overprint. Or maybe it's because nobody has a clue as to what it's
worth. And now, let's complicate matters a bit...
The Operation Desert Shield envelope was NOT an official envelope of the
USPS.
It was privately printed by the
Fayetteville, NC Post Office for the use of people who were
corresponding with military personnel stationed in the Desert Storm
theater in the Middle East during 1990-1.
It's NOT a piece of Postal Stationery, since it requires a stamp to be
added, but it's more a piee of Military Postal History, somewhat in the
same category as the V-Mail issued during WW2.
This envelope is MINT, and in excellent condition.
Price for an Envelope is $7.50.
UX56/S75a DAMAGED "M" in WOMEN
During the late 1980s my friend, John DeStafanis, an auctioneer, found a
brick (250) of this variety. This was the only such group found so
far. They were first listed in the 1990 UPSS Postal Card Catalog
at $40.00. John & I worked out a consignment situation and I
listed these in my monthly mailing sometime around 1990.
The years have passed, and no additional finds were made; thus the
Catalog has increased a bit to $50.00.
I
wouldn't call this one "visually striking"; if you weren't looking for
it, you might not spot it. Once you see it, however, you can't
blow the call. Clearly, there's a piece of foreign matter on the
plate which is preventing most of the M from touching the card.
These cards are MINT and in exellent condition.
I sold these cards for $40.00 in 1990 and I'm selling them for $40.00 now.
CONFEDERATE STATES FACSIMILES BOOKLET
During the 1930s H.E. Macintosh,
d.b.a. Tatham Stamp Company of Springfield, MA, printed facsimiles of 14
Confederate stamps using drawings made by August Dietz in 1919. In
1941 he put together booklets containing the 14 Facsimiles, with
descriptions of each, and much information about their printing and
usage. These 8-page booklets also contain info about Civil War
Patriotic covers, including the fact that as of 1941, more than 11,000
different varieties of Patriotic Envelopes were known.
These booklets once flooded the Philatelic Market (Tatham went out of
business in 1950) but these days, are difficult to find. The only
thing I could find on the Internet was a bookstore asking $28.00.
Price for one of these 75-year-old booklets is $15.00.
There are enough plate varietes of UX11 to choke a horse; however, most
of them are found on the WORDS and DESIGN part of the card. Not
too many are found on the picture.
The
best known of the PICTURE Plate Varieties is the "Picture Hanger".
It's easy to spot and is listed (S12e) in the UPSS Postal Card Catalog
at $400.00.
Of equal scarcity, and
almost as easy to spot is the "Punctured Portrait" variety, scanned at
the right. It's GROUPED, along with a dozen other plate varieties,
as S12x, priced at only $60.00, and described (on page 10 of the UPSS PC
Cat.) as one of "Two notable plate varieties".
WHY is this "notable plate variety" priced so much lower than the
Picture Hanger variety? I don't know. Sometimes a variety
just develops a life of its own.
These
cards are MINT and in excellent condition.
You can own one of these underpriced Punctured
Portrait varieties for just $50.00.
An interesting set of 8 Covers, created betwen 1957 and 1959. I'd like to tell you who created them... but that's not so easy.
They were cancelled in Shrub Oak, which was the home of Herman Herst for
many years. But his name appears nowhere on these.
The name that appears is Oesterling, and the address Bridgeton, N.J..
But I find no record of a cachet maker or dealer in this area.
The Covers are for: Lincoln's Birthday, Valentine's Day, Washington's
Birthday, St. Patrick's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Halloween, and
Thanksgiving. Cancels are on the appropriate dates, mostly
machine. Overall very clean, with only an occasional minor crease.
These cachets have a definite "50's" look to them, and were probably
done at that time.
Price for a set of 8 covers is $15.00.
TWO UX39 CARDS with FAVOR SURCHARGES
Footnote on page 12 of the UPSS Postal Card Catalog, under the
listing for S17 (aka Scott #UX14):
"(c) This card, produced by contractor Albert
Daggett, is poorly printed. Plate damage, causing missing or
deformed letters or ornaments, is fairly common. The many
inking flaws found on S17 can be traced to the cheap, fast-drying
ink and high speed presses (See Postal Stationery: MarApr 1963, pg
8). This card is found with damaged and recut plate positions too
numerous to list, including mini-dents in portrait frame top.
However, these varieties are very interesting and collectable."
This card can't really be called a
Plate "Variety"; it's actually a DAMAGED plate. The scan at
the right shows 4 cards, with the damaged area highlighted.
It's not the most visually striking freak I've ever seen. It
is, however, a constant variety (I have about a dozen in stock and
they all look the same).
AND, it
doesn't cost an arm-and-a-leg. These plate varieties/flaws
(S17x)catalog $45 versus $40 for the regular card.
These cards are MINT and in excellent condition.
Price for one of these plate flaws is $37.50.
NOTE: In March, 2013 I offered a bunch
of MINT FACE UX14s with Plate Flaws. You might want to take a
look at those listings.
CLICK HERE!
UX24 "FAVOR" SURCHARGE
In 1920 the P.O.D. kept its promise by
reducing the postage rates which it had raised during WW1. As
there were many 3c Envelopes and 2c Cards on hand, it was decided to
re-value them by overprinting. This overprinting was conducted in
many different cities (roughly 46), producing the City Types of UX32,
UX33, and UY9, as well as the press-printed Cards UX3, UX35 and UY10...
along with a few rarities (UX31 and 36).
This was the first major re-valuing of Postal Stationery, and the
methods were primitive. Many legitimate errors were produced,
including double surcharges, triple surcharges, shifts, inverts, and
combinations of the above.
And, of course,
there were favor items... certain cards which were not supposed to be
overprinted, but were. This is one of them. The UPSS Postal
Card Catalog references these items on page xxxi of the Foreward
section.
The UX24, with Chicago Overprint,
was once listed in Scott. Also listed was a UX6. These were
delisted some time ago. The UX6 is actually quite scarce; the UX24
is merely very difficult.
Despite its status
as a "favor" item, the UX24 Surcharge has always been a popular item and
has increased in price steadily over the years. I remember selling
these in the ballpark of $50 during the mid-1980s. There are
currrently 2 of these offered on Ebay. One is at $200, and the
other is at $120. I think the $200 is a little high, and the $120
is maybe a smidge too low...
The cards I
have are MINT, and in excellent condition.
MY
Price for one of these very difficult cards is $100.00.
A few small, but interesting EFO items. Scott doesn't assign
numbers to these items, just brief descriptions and moderate prices.
1. 1460, 6c Olympics, with
Cylinder Flaw (Broken Red Ring) in a block of 9. 2016 Scott
Catalog Value $10.00.
2. 2400, 25c
Sleigh & Village Scene, with Cylinder Flaw (Missing Curlique on Sleigh
Runner) in a block of 9. 2016 Scott Catalog Value $15.00.
1. Price for a 1460 block of 9 with Cylinder Flaw is $7.50.
2. Price for a 2400 block of 9 with Missing Curlique is $12.00.
That's all for now. This month, I'm
experimenting with connecting this Monthly Mailing to my regular
website, SteveLevineStamps-Plus.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THIS MONTH'S
LISTINGS ON THE SHOPPING CART.
There was a joke of sorts in
Hollywood some years ago; "Steve Allen has written over 10,000
songs. Name two of them." Nobody ever could. But
most people could name one; "This Could be the Start of Something
big." Let's hope so.
Best Regards,
 Steve
LevineP.O. Box 951 Linden Hill Station Flushing, NY 11354 Phone: 718-939-5788 email:steve@stevelevinestamps.com ©2016 Empire State Philateics, Inc. |