OCTOBER, 2020 MONTHLY

BUT FIRST, A USEFUL TIP...

     There are many different ways to identify a watermark on either a stamp, an Envelope, or a Postal Card. There are 2 basic systems: some kind of fluid, and some kind of light. But given the size of envelopes and cards, fluids can be a messy job and frankly, I've always felt that LIGHTS were better.
     When I'm travelling, I use a flashlight. For the record, a 3-Battery MagLite. But when I'm in the office, my favorite light is the one you see in the right scan. It's called either a STAGE LIGHT, a FLOODLIGHT, or a SPOTLIGHT. I'd give you a Brand Name, but there's nothing printed on it, and it's probably obsolete. I bought it around 30 years ago to use as a room light, not to check for watermarks. But it turned out to be pretty good, as you can see in the left scan.
     These lights come in a variety of sizes & strengths. I'd send you a link, but I can't get it on this page. It's too long. However, if you go to your browser (I use Google Chrome), and type in "SPOTLIGHT WITH BARN DOORS", you'll find a wide variety of clip-ons, track lighting, and stand-alone lights.

THE CRAZIEST WORN/CRACKED DIE FREAK ENVELOPE YOU EVER SAW!
     I had a few reactions when I saw this envelope. I took a deep breath, I opened my eyes a bit wider, and I laughed a little. I never saw anything like this before.

     The underlying envelope is:
U414, UPSS #1907, Sz 8, Knife 42, Wmk. 20, UPSS CV $6.50

     This is George Washington, as we never saw him. For one thing, he has 2 "horns" on his head. For another, he appears to be smoking a cigarette. There's a period between the "W" and "O" of TWO. And, as you can see by the lettering, the die is badly worn.
      Tom Kaczmarek bought this, along with 6 more of its brethren, from Atlas Stamp Company (NYC) in 1981. All 7 copies have identical strikes.   There is a return address. These are overall very clean, with only some minor gum disturbance, as the flaps may have been VERY LIGHTLY/PARTIALLY stuck at some point, but were carefully separated. 2 of the envelopes have typed addresses (using an old-fashioned purple-ink ribbon).
     First 5 orders get the clean ones; last 2 orders get the typed addresses.

PRICE FOR THIS ENVELOPE IS $20.00 (CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THIS LISTING ON MY WEBSITE...plus a few more below.)


CANAL ZONE AIR LETTER SHEETS, PAPER VARIETIES
    In 1960 the Canal Zone Post Office approved its first (and only) Air Letter Sheet. Unlike those done by the USPS, these had no printed value. Stamps were supposed to be attached, so technically, these are not "Postal Stationery", and you won't find find them listed in either Scott or UPSS. The only reference to these I have ever found is in a checklist published by the Canal Zone Study Group. No picture, no prices.
     "Air Letter Sheets. The Canal Zone Post Office sold Air Letter Sheets (Aerogramme) printed at the Canal Zone Printing Plant. The Air Letter Sheets had no franking, the purchaser had to add appropriate postage). CZP 16:25, 1970 documents nine printing and quantities. Two printing errors are reported in CZP 14:5, 1970: 1) Red color omitted 2) Blue color inverted"
     Now "officially"/"unofficially", as you prefer, this is one issue. However, reference is made to multiple printings, and I see 2 obvious varieties. One is on a more blueish paper and one is on a more greenish paper (Right scan). The green paper variety feels a bit more coarse than the blue paper variety, and the red color on the green paper variety is a bit lighter than the red color on the blue paper variety.
    PRICE FOR BOTH VARIETIES IS $10.00 (CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THIS LISTING ON MY WEBSITE)
UX41 PRINTER'S RULE STRIP OF 4 - "You're gonna need a bigger album".

    One of the all-time greatest movies lines comes from the movie "Jaws". When Roy Scheider spots the Great White Shark for the first time he tells Robert Shaw (the sharkhunter) "You're gonna need a bigger boat". Which brings me to this item. In the May-June issue of Postal Stationery, Lewis Bussey does a super job in his article on "PERFORATIONS ON POSTAL CARDS". Well, SOMETIMES they're perforated, SOMETIMES Rouletted or Printer's rule. The point being, they were used in strips of 4 and perfed for easy separation, often used by Railroads to keep track of shipments.
     I'm sure that many of you have seen a card or 2... but intact strips are another matter. For one thing, they're big.... 13 inches big, which is why you'll need a bigger ALBUM. They won't fit a Scott binder. And they tend to damage easily.
     And talk about timing, around the time Lewis was writing that article, I ran into a small group of these, courtesy of my old customer, Bradley Horton, who had one of the largest holdings of the 1952 issues (UX39,40,41,42,UY14,and UY15) I had ever seen. But we'll get to THOSE issues later on in this posting.
     I'm able to offer you, while they last, singles, pairs, and strips of 4 of these issues. Condition is excellent. These strips are all unfolded, though there may be just a little bending and a few minor separations.
     Singles will be rouletted on 2 sides while they last, then on one side.
     Pairs will be straight on one side, and rouletted both on the other side and in the middle.

PRICE FOR A SINGLE CARD IS $4.00
PRICE FOR A PAIR IS $8.00
PRICE FOR A STRIP OF 4 IS $15.00
(CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THESE LISTINGS ON MY WEBSITE)
         By the way...the scan at the top of this section doesn't show the whole 4th card. The strip is just a bit too long for my scanner.

UX46-someting...A NEW UPSS VARIETY? When you have an issue like UX46 (Printing, 9.6 Billion Cards, it would be surprising if a bunch of EFOs didn't exist. The only question is WHERE to draw the line between a major error, a minor error, and a "just-plain-freak".
     The UPSS Postal Card Catalog lists 2 varieties, "S63e Damaged UR corner" and "S63i Damaged UL corner". The S63e is unpriced, with a notation that 3 UNUSED copies are known.
     The S63i is priced at $125 mint, with a notation that there is 1 unused and 2 used copies known. From the holdings of Bradley Horton, and originally produced by Frank Penar, I have 7 of these, all bearing the Corner Card of Frank J. Penar, as shown in the scan above. This is a constant variety, not just a 1-shot damaged impression; see the bottom scan.
     This error is very much like UX38 with the damaged lower right corner, though I suspect much scarcer; these are the only copies I've encountered in 40 years as a Stationery Specialist.
PRICE FOR THIS "EFO" IS $100.00 (CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THIS LISTING ON MY WEBSITE)

UY13 DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE - MAILER'S POSTMARK & BIG PLATE FLAW
     This is another of those items, the like of which I've never seen before. But that's not surprising; a lot of material sitting on my shelves was accumulated during the 50s and has been cluttering OTHER dealers' offices for a long time. Just wait until my next eBay auction (in a few weeks)!
     Mailer's Postmarks on Postal Cards are not unusual. On AIRMAIL Postal cards, they're much less common.... and on REPLY cards, I believe them to be downright scarce. And to add to the interest, the REPLY side of this card has a monstrous blob of "foreign matter" on the plate. It's NOT just ink, because I have about 20 of these, and they're identical. IF it were ink, the "blob" would have changed slightly over the course of 20 impressions.
     Steve Pavlina... either a collector or dealer, he was a bit before my time. He liked making up "cachets" and putting them on Postal Cards. But these were not for FDCs, at least, not what I have here. You'l be seeing some of them soon. I have an old, Mellone "First Cachets" Catalog in my bookcase, and Pavlina's name is not listed,so he wasn't an FDC cachet maker.
     Condition is nice. All unused, most unfolded, or at worst, sporting a slight bend at the juncture.

             PRICE FOR THIS "EFO" IS $12.50 (CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THIS LISTING ON MY WEBSITE)

RESTOCK & UPGRADE - PRIORITY AND EXPRESS MAIL ENVELOPES
     I've added a few newer issues and restocked this section. In most cases, the "re-stocking" is weak, being 2-3 of each. Because of their high face value and bulk, these issues were not grabbed up by dealers the way Envelopes and Postal Cards were. If I needed to stock 20 sets of the Comic Strips (UX221-40), I could find them in a day or 2. If I wanted to get 20 of the X-Plane (U658), it could take me a month. They're just not out there.

          (CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THESE LISTINGS ON MY WEBSITE)

NEW SECTION!! - U446-521 ENVELOPES BY UPSS# This was a nasty job, and took me much longer than I anticipated....and it's only about half over. I bought an old-time dealer stock which had been passed down thru the years, and with each "passing", more of the better material had been sold. What was left was of mixed quality, with 2 major problems.
     1. The old-timers often used "bands" they'd place around the envelopes, indicating Thorp (or Bartels!) numbers, size, watermarks, etc... and often the owners' names. To save thickness, they often used very thin manila-quality paper. This created a problem. The scan at the right is an envelope with a band mark from a cheap manila band. Well, you won't be getting anything like this from me. I check my material carefully, and weed out the junk. This is how I get many of my cut squares and full corners... from damaged envelopoes. This ruined U509 scanned at the right will make a great Full Corner.
     2. The early circular dies which are the "raw material" for many of the U446-521 were not made on the best quality paper to begin with.
     So that's the story of why this recent acquisition is taking so long to process .... but the GOOD part of the story is that soon, maybe a few months down the road, there will be a HUGE upgrade of my listings of Cut Squares and Full Corners. But first there may be a few eBay auctions. Part of this stock included the usual run of EFOs, and some UN-USUAL EFOs.

                                                (CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THESE LISTINGS ON MY WEBSITE)

END OF THE LINE FOR TODAY - 1952 RE-VALUED CARDS - SPECIAL OFFERS!
     In 1952, the domestic post card rate changed from 1c to 2c. UX27 would be replaced by UX38, UX28 would be replaced by UX43, and UY7 would be replaced by UY13. However, the P.O.D. found itself sitting on several hundred million of the various 1c cards... and rather than throw them out, it was decided to re-value them.
     The 1c card was heavily used both personally and commercially. Thus, among the cards on hand were both individual cards (sold to "regular people") and SHEETS (sold to businesses for printing). The individual cards were revalued by Pitney-Bowes "tickometers", creating the UX39, UX40, and UY14. The sheets were revalued by printing press (creating the UX41, UX42, and UY15).
     That's the easy part. The individual cards, particularly the UX39, exist in a great number of "major", "minor" and "favor" varieties. The MAJOR varieties are well-known and catalogued by the UPSS. See page 38, 2015 UPSS Postal Card Catalog. These are varieties which are deemed "legitimate", i.e., errors or varieties which could have happened naturally during the printing process. The MINOR varieties are also legitimate, but considered "flyspecs". These are mostly SHIFTED (up/down/right/left) overprints, variations in ink color, and worn/damaged die varieties. AND, occasionally, some TWISTING. I've seen quite a few UX40a with angled revalues.
     The scan at the left is of 2 USED UX39/S56-3 cards. The left card resembles the picture in the UPSS Catalog, more or less. The one at the right is clearly shifted UP.
     And then we have the FAVOR items. There has always been some controversy as to where to draw the line on these. There are DOUBLE overprints as well as TRIPLES, INVERTS, INVERTS at the lower left, as well as COMBINATIONS of those just mentioned. These are considered legit.
     But then, there are those "of which it is difficult to believe that they were not deliberately created as errors". MULTIPLE overprints. Clusters of overprints. Overprints on the back, in various positions.
I HAD INTENDED TO WORK THIS SECTION FOR THIS MAILING, BUT I UNDERESTIMATED THE VOLUME OF WORK.
     What I'm going to do, instead, is throw you a bunch of SPECIAL OFFERS. Since I now find myself sitting on large quantities of some items, and it's really not my goal in life to die with 3 rooms full of stationery, I'm going to blow a few out at unusually low prices. AS I used to say during the '80s, WHEN I GET LUCKY, YOU GET LUCKY!
     PLUS, FRANKLY, I WANT TO GET TO WORK ON MY NEXT EBAY AUCTION. IT'S GOING TO BE ONE OF MY BEST!!
SCOTT/UPSS #s                                           DESCRIPTION                                             REGULAR PRICE       SALE PRICE
   UX39/S56-2                   2c Revalue on UX27, At Left, Reading Vertically Down................ 10.00                      6.00
   UX39/S56-3                   2c Revalue on UX27, At Right, Reading Vertically Down..............    8.50                      5.00
   UX39/S56-3 Used          2c Revalue on UX27, At Right, Reading Vert. Down, Used...........     9.00                      6.00
   UX40a/S58-2 H2            2c Revalue on UX28, At Left, Reading Vert. Down, Head 2..........    6.50                      4.00
   UY14a/MR23-2              2c Revalue on UY7, At Left, Reading Vert. Down, UNFOLDED......   17.50                    11.00
   UY14a/MR23-2              2c Revalue on UY7, At Left, Reading Vert. Down, FOLDED...........   11.50                      7.50
   UY14d/MR23-1a            2c Revalue on UY7, At Right, Reading Vert. Down, UNFOLDED
                                         SURCHARGE VARIETY: MESSAGE NORMAL - REPLY MISSING.....   37.50                    27.00
   UY14d/MR23-1a            2c Revalue on UY7, At Right, Reading Vert. Down, FOLDED
                                         SURCHARGE VARIETY: MESSAGE NORMAL - REPLY MISSING.....   27.50                    17.50
UY15/MR25                   2c Revalue on UY7, At Left, Horiz, PRESS PRINTED, UNFOLDED.. 135.00                    90.00
   UY15/MR25                   2c Revalue on UY7, At Left, Horiz, PRESS PRINTED, FOLDED.......   95.00                    60.00
   UY15/MR25 Unused      2c Revalue on UY7, At Left, Horiz, PRESS PRINTED, UNUSED
                                                and UNFOLDED..........................................................................   35.00                    22.50
      CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THESE LISTINGS ON MY WEBSITE       The above listings are all marked "SALE"

WHAT'S IN THE FUTURE? The UPSS Postal Card Catalog lists UX25/S35A as "Carmine or Light Carmine on cream". It then lists UX25/S35B as "Red or Pale Red on Buff. Scott only lists a UX25 as "Red on Cream". Scott needs an upgrade...
     99% of the S35Bs which I've seen were the "Red" shade, as in the card at the right. And I've seen a LOT of them.
     For some sub-conscious reason, I never paid much attention to the "Pale Red" shade, as in the card at the left of the scan. Maybe, being the skeptic that I am, I figured the Pale Reds were nothing more than a bunch of "underinked" Reds. I just don't know why. I'm not like Marilu Henner; I can't remember what I was thinking 40 years ago.
     But now, thanks to the Bradley Horton stash -- which is now MY stash -- I clearly recognize 2 different colors here, much like on the UX37-S53/S53a. Just too many to be a transient underinking. And this Pale Red shade, just like the Red shade, has plate varieties.
     This will be one of 3 projects I'll be working on in the area of Postal Cards, along with the 1952 Revalued issues and the Unused Postal Buddy cards. I have no idea which area I'll work on first; they're all major projects.
     These, along with many more UPSS listings, will keep me busy.

     It won't be dull over the next few months, I promise.

               Best Regards,



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Steve Levine
P.O. Box 951
Linden Hill Station
Flushing, NY 11354
Phone: 718-939-5788
email:steve@stevelevinestamps.com
©2020 Empire State Philateics, Inc.

STEVE LEVINE

Postal Stationery
and Stamps

STEVE LEVINE

Postal Stationeryand Stamps

Postal Stationery
and Stamps