| Single Postal Cards |  Top |
| Item # |
|
US$ | ||
400654 "View EXACT ACTUAL Image"){kind=small} |
Scott #5 (Scott Classic #5b, Medium Paper), Facit #5d Printing 4 [1873 (1880 Printing) 1 cent Bicolor, Perforation 14 x 13.5] (Fine) on 2 cent POSTAL CARD Facit #bke 2b with 4 text lines (fourth text line measures 66 mm and there is not an extra corner orament in the left frame), in VF quality. The card was sent 6 July 1883 from ST. THOMAS to Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, with manuscript endorsement for mailing to be on the SS Reliance. The Used postal card itself is scarce, with a Facit value of SEK 1500. The 1 cent Printing 4 stamp used on any cover or card is also scarce with a Facit value of SEK 3500!!!! (Just for reference, the Used single off-cover stamp has a Facit value of SEK 700.) It is a very attractive and scarce card with a business message, but even more interesting is the correspondence itself and the history behind it. The sender of the card is a formal STAMP DEALER in DWI, "J. Rogers / Dealer in Postage Stamps". The reverse of the card has his PRINTED business information. This is the most formal in-DWI stamp dealer item I can recall having in 52 years. Rogers sent the card to another stamp dealer, R.W. Mercer in Cincinnati, with the message: "Your postcard to hand [received]. Circulars [price lists] however have not been received. I send you per bookpost [printed matter] my latest wholesale lists, and solicit your orders. If you send me your latest quotations for Dept stamps [U.S. Official Departmental Stamps] we may do some business." Rogers continues, with the most interesting text: "We are mutual sufferers of the "JC GLENNAN" fraud, do you expect to recover anything?" This mention of a philatelic fraud caught my attention, but I was unable to find any references to a stamp fraud of that name in that era, so I asked the question in my "Philatelic E-News" weekly emailed newsletter. I am extremely thankful to client "J.H." for researching this subject and finding the answer (and sending me the image which is reproduced here) in The Washington Post, on page 2 of the June 5, 1883 edition. J.C. Glennan was actually the ALIAS of an "about" 16 year old boy by the name of Marathon M. Ramsey, who was ARRESTED, in Washington DC, for having perpetrated a $5 fraud on R.W. Mercer, the recipient of this postal card! Ramsey was held in Washington DC "for the action of the Cincinnati authorities." I do not know anything beyond what is shown in this short article. 142 years later is hard to believe that the police took this $5 fraud seriously, arrested somebody, etc. While $5 meant a lot more then than it does now, I have had a U.S. DOJ prosecutor tell me that they will not open an investigation unless the losses total at least $100,000. I have also been told by both local and out-of-state police departments that they either do not have jurisdiction or do not have the resources to pursue charges for an interstate fraudulent check (not just a bounced check, but a fake check) in the amount of $1200. Times have changed! A wonderful item of DWI Postal History, of DWI Postal Stationery, of Stamp Dealer History, and of Social History in general. ACTUAL item. |
375.00 Reference |