Month: November 2018

Tau, Samoa Doane Cancel

There is a striking cover for auction at Schuyler Rumsey (Nov 2018) shown below.  A cover franked with a 5-cents Lincoln stamp sent from Tau, American Samoa to Apia, Western Samoa. The five cents franking correctly plays the UPU letter rate from the U.S. Possession to a foreign country, albeit only an island away.  The stamp is tied by the only town Doane canceling device issued to American Samoa (type three Doane cancel with a number “1”). According to the records kept by Gary Anderson, the Doane cancel was used for only 3.5 years, from Jan 26th, 1906 to June 23rd, 1909.

As far as I know, this is the only 5-cent Lincoln stamp with the Tau Doane cancel.  This envelope is also the only non-postcard use I have seen.

The description of this fantastic cover indicates only three known items with this postmark. No doubt, this postmark is uncommon, however, as the owner of two of these Tau Doane postmarked postcards I decided to conduct a more accurate census.  Below is a spreadsheet and gallery with Tau, American Samoa Doane cancels record thus far.

A few observations:

  • Of the items cataloged thus far, all have June 23, 1909 postmarks.
  • All five postcards have the same handwriting, thus sent by the same person.
  • Some, but not all, of the postcards used booklet pane stamps.
  • Four of the postcards were sent to W. G. Robb Esq. in Rock Falls, Illinois.

I’m certain there are many more Tau Doane postcards and perhaps covers, please send me a message and scans with details if you discover or own one.

Posted by Geoff in U.S. Possessions, 1 comment

New international destinations

I picked up a few new international destinations and have added them to the world map.  If the map does not load for you, please send me a message including details on which platform and browser you are using.

Two 5c Lincoln stamps pay twice the UPU letter rate to the Gold Coast of West Africa (modern-day Ghana).

 

Posted by Geoff in Covers, Destinations, 0 comments

Another $2 and $5 piece found, updated censuses

About two months after cataloging and writing about a new $2 and $5 piece in the censuses, another piece surfaced on eBay.

A small piece from a blue package franked with $1, $2, and $5 Second bureau stamps as well as two Washington-Franklin 15-cents stamps probably Scott 340.  A third 15-cent stamp is missing from the bottom right corner.  Three New York registry hand stamps tie all of the stamps to the piece.

312-15 and 313-14

This piece adds to both censuses and is designated 312-15 (for the $2 Madison stamp) and 313-14 (for the $5 Marshall stamp), the 15th and 14th items in each count.

Here are all three similar pieces.

Posted by Geoff in Covers, News, 0 comments