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| Scott Number | 10X1 |
|---|---|
| Date | April 15, 18xx |
| From City | Providence |
| From State | RI |
| To City | Hubbardston |
| To State | MA |
| Addressee | William Bennett Jr. |
| Cert Author | |
| Cert # | |
| Fake | NG |
| No. of Stamps | 2 |
| Plate Position | 7,8 |
| Initials | |
| Others |
Notes
Slater census number 207 to William Bennett
At sometime about 1900 there was offered for sale to R. R. Bogert a Providence cover bearing a pair of Providence 5c stamps. Several points about the thing caused Bogert to reject it. He did, however, have it photographed for record. One of the points of rejection was that it did not have the regular Providence pen mark cancellation. In February, 1920, W. B. Hale offered for sale to F. P. Brown of Boston, a Providence cover bearing a pair of Providence 5c stamps. Brown immediately submitted it to A. B. Slater for expert examination. Slater's report was substantially as follows:
The cover is the face of what apparently was a buff paper envelope about 3 inches by 5 ½ inches, bearing a pair of Providence stamps with the Providence postmark and figures 10, addressed to William Bennett, Jr., Hubbeardston, Mass. This cover was stuck onto an opaque white card, ostensibly to protect it from being creased but was a hindrance to the examination of transmitted light. To have required a ten cent rate from Providence to Hubbardston would have required a heavy letter whereas this cover bore no indications of such but has the general appearance of the usual 5c rate cover, the edges showing evidently the full size of the original envelope. This cover was, in all probability, used postally from Providence to Hubbardston and the Providence postmark is undoubtedly genuine but in black. The stamps are genuine Providence stamps, being No. 7 and 8 in the sheet, but the use of stamps in those days was not so perfunctory an operation but that the fact that the stamps are applied upside down causes suspicion that it was purposely done to give the impression of having been done very off-hand in the rush of business. It is not like the work of either Barton of Gardiner, who were the only ones who had the care of that matter at the Providence post office, and invariably put the pen cancellation near the center of each stamp. The remarkably long extension of one leg of this one, reaching over onto the cover savors very strongly of having been so done for the benefit of stamp collectors. The rate mark, the figure 10, are similar to those used at Providence, but he repetition and the manner of overlapping from cover to each stamp is very interesting as being just what a well posted party might do to make the cover pleasing to collectors. At the Providence post office the rate marks were applied by the man who weighed the mail and as the stamps were a purely local affair these marks were kept away from them, but six or seven instances being known where they even touched the stamp actually used on cover. It is also of interest to note that black ink, for the post marks and rate marks was not adopted till several years after the Providence stamps were discontinued. The use of stamps was to show the prepayment of the postage, but government regulations also required that all prepaid mail should be marked PAID, and the fact that this word does not appear on this cover is to a degree fair circumstantial evidence that these stamps were not postally used on this cover. By removing the cover from the card and subjecting it to strong light transmitted through it from the back (don't use gas of oil light as the heat may injure your cover), there appears a large black figure 5 under the right hand stamp, identical with the rate mark used at Providence in 1850, and this unquestionably indicated that the cover was used at the 5c rate without stamps and was not prepaid.
The right hand stamp was then raised and turned back (see below) with disturbing the other stamp and was photographed as shown by the accompanying cut No. 208. This disclosed the figure 5 referred to and also the fact that under the stamp the surface of the envelope was somewhat soiled, nearly as much as where the stamp did not cover, whereas it would normally be expected that if the stamp were affixed to the envelope when they were new and the cover afterwards soiled by handling, it would remain clean under the stamps. The gum is brown, thick and caked under the stamp as the cut shows, but the post office gum was thin and white. This is not material evidence, however, as dark mucilage may have been used in addition to the OG. This dark gum, though, is like that found on the so called Hagan reminders, which were never on sale at the post office. The stamps were not used postally, the penmark is fraudulent, as also are the rate figures 10. There was also published an illustrated statement about it in Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News of May 1st, 1920. Sometime after this Hale appeared in Providence and offered the cover for sale to Mr. E. T. Gross at a very fat figure. Mr. Gross knew all about it and finally bout it, No. 207, for a pittance and presented it to Slater as a donation to the Providence collection. Within a few months afterwards, Dr. C. Chase bought an old collection in which he found a photo of a Providence cover with a pair of Providence 5's and sent it to Slater, October 6, 1921, with his compliments for the Providence collection. It proved to be a copy of the photo made over 20 years before by R. R. Bogert showing the same cover but before the postmark had been added, No. 206. This same Wm. B. Hale for a number of years was a pest to the Boston and New York stamp dealers, and has more than once been in the clutches of federal officers for fraud in connection with cleaning used stamps, etc.
(Slater, pp70-72)
At sometime about 1900 there was offered for sale to R. R. Bogert a Providence cover bearing a pair of Providence 5c stamps. Several points about the thing caused Bogert to reject it. He did, however, have it photographed for record. One of the points of rejection was that it did not have the regular Providence pen mark cancellation. In February, 1920, W. B. Hale offered for sale to F. P. Brown of Boston, a Providence cover bearing a pair of Providence 5c stamps. Brown immediately submitted it to A. B. Slater for expert examination. Slater's report was substantially as follows:
The cover is the face of what apparently was a buff paper envelope about 3 inches by 5 ½ inches, bearing a pair of Providence stamps with the Providence postmark and figures 10, addressed to William Bennett, Jr., Hubbeardston, Mass. This cover was stuck onto an opaque white card, ostensibly to protect it from being creased but was a hindrance to the examination of transmitted light. To have required a ten cent rate from Providence to Hubbardston would have required a heavy letter whereas this cover bore no indications of such but has the general appearance of the usual 5c rate cover, the edges showing evidently the full size of the original envelope. This cover was, in all probability, used postally from Providence to Hubbardston and the Providence postmark is undoubtedly genuine but in black. The stamps are genuine Providence stamps, being No. 7 and 8 in the sheet, but the use of stamps in those days was not so perfunctory an operation but that the fact that the stamps are applied upside down causes suspicion that it was purposely done to give the impression of having been done very off-hand in the rush of business. It is not like the work of either Barton of Gardiner, who were the only ones who had the care of that matter at the Providence post office, and invariably put the pen cancellation near the center of each stamp. The remarkably long extension of one leg of this one, reaching over onto the cover savors very strongly of having been so done for the benefit of stamp collectors. The rate mark, the figure 10, are similar to those used at Providence, but he repetition and the manner of overlapping from cover to each stamp is very interesting as being just what a well posted party might do to make the cover pleasing to collectors. At the Providence post office the rate marks were applied by the man who weighed the mail and as the stamps were a purely local affair these marks were kept away from them, but six or seven instances being known where they even touched the stamp actually used on cover. It is also of interest to note that black ink, for the post marks and rate marks was not adopted till several years after the Providence stamps were discontinued. The use of stamps was to show the prepayment of the postage, but government regulations also required that all prepaid mail should be marked PAID, and the fact that this word does not appear on this cover is to a degree fair circumstantial evidence that these stamps were not postally used on this cover. By removing the cover from the card and subjecting it to strong light transmitted through it from the back (don't use gas of oil light as the heat may injure your cover), there appears a large black figure 5 under the right hand stamp, identical with the rate mark used at Providence in 1850, and this unquestionably indicated that the cover was used at the 5c rate without stamps and was not prepaid.
The right hand stamp was then raised and turned back (see below) with disturbing the other stamp and was photographed as shown by the accompanying cut No. 208. This disclosed the figure 5 referred to and also the fact that under the stamp the surface of the envelope was somewhat soiled, nearly as much as where the stamp did not cover, whereas it would normally be expected that if the stamp were affixed to the envelope when they were new and the cover afterwards soiled by handling, it would remain clean under the stamps. The gum is brown, thick and caked under the stamp as the cut shows, but the post office gum was thin and white. This is not material evidence, however, as dark mucilage may have been used in addition to the OG. This dark gum, though, is like that found on the so called Hagan reminders, which were never on sale at the post office. The stamps were not used postally, the penmark is fraudulent, as also are the rate figures 10. There was also published an illustrated statement about it in Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News of May 1st, 1920. Sometime after this Hale appeared in Providence and offered the cover for sale to Mr. E. T. Gross at a very fat figure. Mr. Gross knew all about it and finally bout it, No. 207, for a pittance and presented it to Slater as a donation to the Providence collection. Within a few months afterwards, Dr. C. Chase bought an old collection in which he found a photo of a Providence cover with a pair of Providence 5's and sent it to Slater, October 6, 1921, with his compliments for the Providence collection. It proved to be a copy of the photo made over 20 years before by R. R. Bogert showing the same cover but before the postmark had been added, No. 206. This same Wm. B. Hale for a number of years was a pest to the Boston and New York stamp dealers, and has more than once been in the clutches of federal officers for fraud in connection with cleaning used stamps, etc.
(Slater, pp70-72)
