Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

Hi All,

Looking for some opinions on the genuineness of the below scanned stamp. Your advice welcome.

Kindest regards


Thomas

Yep cancel looks 100% fine. A lot of those were done for collectors!

Thanks Glen!,

I picked this up in an old collection, I thought it was good............the values not bad for these either.


Kindest regards


Thomas

Thomas,

This looks to be a P11 stamp not P12.5. ie it's SG63. These were done by the Davis postoffice "on favour", ie for collectors. The genuine bi-sect is always a P12.5 and the cancel is blue. Genuine bi-sects were postally used up to 22May. The "on favour" copies were often backdated, and are always black. Value is about $10-$15.

Cheers
Robin.

_________________
Always looking..

Robin is 100% correct. This was backdated for collectors by PM John Davis.

On 1 April 1895, the fire at the Davis Post Office destroyed all but several 1 shillilng stamps from the early printing. These are perf 12.5 and rose-carmine in color. Davis cut them diagonally from corner to corner. They represented payment of postage, and NOT 6d. (We have examples of a single bisected stamp paying for the 1 penny newspaper rate, the 2.5 penny overseas rate and the reduced 2 penny Australasian rate.)

We have recorded 7 valid cancellations ( 13 April, 24 April, 25 April, 16 May, 19 May and 22 May). All valid usages are cancelled in blue, as Davis' black stamp pad apparently was destroyed in the fire. (The 13 April cover was held for the 24 April sailing aboard the RMS Mariposa, arriving 9 May in San Francisco.)

When the new rose, perf 11 stamps arrived aboard the RMS Monowai on 22 May, Davis bisected a few and used them on cover. (Not sure why, as he now had a nice supply of stamps.) They are correctly cancelled in blue. (I have both a commercial and philatellic cover cancelled in blue on 22 May. One has the original perf 12.5 stamp and the other has the new perf 11 stamp. The former cover is commercial, the latter is philatellic.)

On 22 May, Davis created all sorts of bisected oddities. He put 2 or even more bisects on a cover. He cut the 1-shilling stamps into 3/4 and used them on cover. etc, etc. These are all cancelled in blue, and are only curiosities.

Any bisect dated in black, or after 22 May 1895 was done for favor for collectors.

See my 1-frame exhibit: Samoa's 1-Shilling Bisect http://www.aape.org/exhibits.asp (Way down at the bottom)

_________________
Fellowship of Samoa Specialists is not just for specialists: http://www.samoaexpress.org/
Marty

Great answer Marty.

This kind of detailed info is the reason I set up this board.

For many areas of stamp info, posts here are the only reliable source of accessible info on the web.

As the board is so big and so heavily used, we now have a google spider allocated to us 24/7 the "lives" on this board, indexing every word, the moment it is typed.

As a perfect example, type into google

Samoa Bisect Stamps

And already, only 7 hours since this topic was first posted, we are one page 1 of google matches -


http://www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLL_enAU305&q=samoa+bisect+stamps

And WE will stay there, as the ebay etc lots all die off in a month or so.

So for 1000s of discussions we are link 1 or 2

type in

GB 1d Red Plate 77

And see what you get -- and that term has been used 1000s of times on stamp websites.

We ask questions in the areas we don't know, and supply answers in those areas we have some knowledge.

_________________
Fellowship of Samoa Specialists is not just for specialists: http://www.samoaexpress.org/
Marty

Hello Marty,

That is the most impressive assembly of Samoa bi-sects I have ever seen, it's outstanding and a credit to you. I have a meagre collection of ten or so bi-sects in my Samoa collection, and in contrast your array is something to aspire to !!!

In odenweller's book he seems to indicate after the fire (1 Apr) the PO started postmarking again on 18th April, ie this is the earliest date post fire. I have a very clear socked-on-the-nose copy of an SG42 1d green with a blue cancel of 5 April 1895. All stocks were meant to be destroyed, but I suppose it is possible that some locals held some stamps on there own as previously purchased.

Are you able to shed any light on this ?

PS Let me know if you have way to many bisects, I have a nice home for them !! ha ha

Cheers
Robin.

_________________
Always looking..

Hello Robin,

As a regular holidaying visitor to Samoa I started a collection some years ago and do have a couple of the 1/- bisects.

I recommend subscribing to the www.samoaexpress.org which I find most interesting indeed.

Although I have a limited collection, including some earlies, I only buy recent ones that have appeal as I try to find more affordable, to me at least, earlies and then only used.

So far I have not found anyone else, in my area who collects Samoa and very little offered at local stamp days.

Cheers, Kev.

Hi Kev,

Nice to meet you. I don't know exactly why I started collecting Samoa (out of all the areas I collect this is my most passionate). I guess because everyone else was collecting Aussie Roos and KGV, I thought I'd look at something a little different.

Samoa is interesting causes of it's varied postal history, from Express to John Davis to German Samoa, GRIs then as Western Samoa. I have built a pretty decent collection in Mint and Used and on-cover, but nothing that I think is worthy of any exhibition. Maybe in a few years to come !!

I do have several hundred duplicates thought, so if your after anything in particular let me know, I might be able to help. Everything from Express reprints to Samoa palms, and onwards to reasonably modern (I'm not much into anything after 1952).

Rather than clutter up the boards, just email me at xlnt7[at]autospeed.com if your interested further.

Cheers
Robin.

_________________
Always looking..

Got a nice perf 12½d with blue cancel in stock today -

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=26937&p=1959153#p1959153

That looks like a very nice bisect. Looks genuinely used.

The April 29 sailing was made by the SS Taveuni. It was a westbound sailing to NSW.

There are perhaps 2 or 3 recorded full covers for this sailing.

_________________
Fellowship of Samoa Specialists is not just for specialists: http://www.samoaexpress.org/
Marty

Marty seeing your exhibit pages are already there as scans, why not start a thread using them headed -

The Samoa 1/- Bisect Stamp Issue

or similar?

Be a great resource.

Also not exactly on topic, but since Kev mentioned that the spectacular Jack Hughes collection is up for auction, it is with a sad heart to mention that Jack passed away last week. He was 97.

Jack was the person who really got me into studying Samoan stamps and postal history. He was one of the founders of the Fellowship of Samoa Specialists. He will be missed by all of us.

_________________
Fellowship of Samoa Specialists is not just for specialists: http://www.samoaexpress.org/
Marty

A halved shilling used on cover is not all that rare, but is sliced diagonally. Is this forged use. I suppose a specialist familiar with the cancel might know
Michael

Are you querying the vertical cut or the cancel?

I wouldn't call that diagonal, I'd say its a wobbly vertical. Diagonal should be from opposing corners, UL to LR, or LL to UR.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

If the bisect is glued over an old but very similar cancel and you shine a strong light (like a LED torch) through the front to the rear you should see a double CDS or other lines that do not match what's on the stamp.

I'm not saying that its a fake, just one test to eliminate that possibility.

_________________
Greg - Looking for Goulburn Australia Cancels and Grangemouth Scotland Cancels and Covers
Member of the S.T.A.M.P Club for Slightly Twisted And Mad Philatelists - Motto: "Bring back the lick!"

Looks a perfectly fine backdated cancel to me.

_________________
.
Click HERE to see superb, RARE and unusual stamps, at FIXED low nett prices, high rez photos, and NO buyer fees etc!

John Davis, the postmaster, did these up for collectors. It is backdated to show a valid usage. Davis would cut up the stamps (perf 11 - the original usage would have been perf 12.5 stamps) and paste them to a large sheet of paper and then cancel them all. He would cut them into 1" squares and sell them to collectors.

So, stamp is genuine (but only not the bisect we want to see.)
Cancel is genuine (but backdated)
Bisect is genuine (but not diagonal, as on all genuinely postally used bisects)

Your example was produced by the pm, but never postally used.

_________________
Fellowship of Samoa Specialists is not just for specialists: http://www.samoaexpress.org/
Marty