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.
A lovely small envelope franked with a 1st Bureau 1-cent stamp and a pair of 2nd Bureau 2-cents Washington Flag stamps to make up the UPU letter rate for a 1/2 ounce. Sent from the U.S. Possession, American Samoa in 1906 to London, England. By 1906 newer versions of the 1¢ and 2¢ stamps had been issued, the 2nd Bureau 1¢ and 2¢ shield stamps were available in 1903 in the States’ as well as American Samoa.
I’ve maintained a census of the 2nd Bureau $2 and $5 stamps for several years now. As far as I know, there are only 13 pieces or covers with the five dollar Marshall stamp (Scott 313), and many of the items were created by contemporary philatelists. Shown below is the only solo franked $5 cover in the census, item 313-12.
Five dollar Marshall stamp on cover.
Sent from Klotzville, Lousiana on the 17th of January, 1909 to a P.O. box in New Orleans. The $5 franking hugely overpaid the 2-cent first-class domestic letter rate to a man named N. W. Taussig. Mr. Noah William Taussig and his brother, Issac, were prominent businessmen in New York and New Orleans sugar industries where Noah was the board chairmen of the American Molasses Company. Noah most likely created and sent this cover from a sugar factory in Klotzville to himself. The handwriting on the cover matches his 1922 passport application (available on ancestry.com).
Constance and Noah Taussig’s passport photo (circa 1922).
Mr. Taussig’s name may be familiar to airmail collectors as the creator of the “Taussig” first flight cover that is on display at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Taussig created the cover that bears President Woodrow Wilson’s autograph and was carried on the historic May 18, 1918, flight from Washington, D.C. to New York City. The prized cover was sold to Mr. Taussig for $1000 at auction to benefit the American Red Cross.
Inaugural airmail flight envelope created and later purchased by N. Taussig.
June 14, 1918, newspaper clipping of autographed cover purchase.
These are the only two philatelic “Taussig” covers known to me. Know of any others?
The title page of my exhibit shows the earliest recorded use of the 6-cents Garfield stamp. In 2017 a cover was discovered and sold that was sent 15 days earlier.
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