Dear Sir,

Enclosed is a color photocopy of a plate number single of Scott #642 which I found in a collection of precancelled stamps.

The plate number is on the stamp, not the selvedge.  The whole stamp design was moved to the left with the left perforation cutting into the design.

Thought this might be of interest to other members.

Sincerely,
Lee Bastien

Durland Editor Comments

Dear Sir,

The plate number is inside the perfs – an interesting item.  Apparently the outer perf wheels on the perforator came loose and wandered too far to the side.

Sincerely,
Wallace Cleland

Washington-Franklins

Dear Sir,

As a previous owner of the covers,  I want to provide information about the “WAR STAMP” overprints shown in Figure 156 of the May, 2009 edition of The United States Specialist, p. 223.  The overprints shown on the top two covers were produced by Charles S. Thompson, who is the addressee of the top cover, and who was curator of the Southwest Museum shown in the corner of the middle cover.

He applied the postage necessary for mailing and then added an overprinted stamp to the cover – as shown in the top two covers.  He did this to ensure that the cover had sufficient postage to allow it to reach its destination in case the postal authorities rejected the overprinted stamp.  It is reported that he only overprinted 1000 stamps using three sizes of sans-serif type.  The origin of the third cover, with serif overprint and no normal postage, is unknown.

I acquired the covers over a period of at least 15 or 20 years.  They were sold as lot 959 in Schuyler Rumsey Public Auction No. 19, Dec. 3-5, 2004.  I have seen fewer than five others.  Collateral material such as articles about the subject were included with the lot.

Sincerely,
George P. Wagner

USPS Watermark

Dear Sir,

I read with great interest Larry Weiss and Gerald Nylander’s report on a new discovery of USPS Double Line Watermarks (Vol. 80, No. 8).  As an avid U.S. Flat Plate booklet pane collector the article made me immediately, and excitedly, check the watermarks in my collection on the issues that Mr. Weiss and Mr. Nylander mention.  Sure enough, I found examples of forward stepping watermarks as well as the backward stepping variety.

Nice work gentlemen, my hat is off to you and your excellent research.

Sincerely,
R. Gordon Schmidt