U311 cut square, UPSS Die 88 Jonesborough, Indiana CDS, round 4x5 grid or waffle

Item Specifics

Country

United States

Catalog Number

U311

Stamp Type

Postal Stationery

Condition

Used

Stamp Format

Single

Topic

People - Politicians

Year of Issue

1890

Item Description

38x39mm. This cut square is Scott U311 with DARKER GREEN indicium on white paper. The United Postal Stationery Society (UPSS) identifies this indicium as Die 88. This copy does not include enough of the watermark to identify it. There is a light crease in the lower left-hand corner and a tear in the president’s hair where the embossing is the most pronounced.

This item has never been mounted in a collection. It was among 11-12,000 cut squares collected from Union City, Indiana, businesses. Although a few cut squares may have been collected across the state line in Union City, Ohio, I have found no evidence of that. Most of the readable postmarks are from 1891 to 1893, with the majority from 1892. However, there were also postmarks from the 1880s.

Although mail was coming to Union City from all over the country, much of it seemed to be coming from small cities and towns in Indiana and Ohio and to a lesser degree from smaller communities in other nearby states. In other words, most of the fancy and geometric cancels probably originated within 150 to 200 miles of Union City.

This cancel includes a partial circular date stamp displaying a partial town name, ____BOROUGH, and IND. (Indiana). Several small Indiana communities with post offices had names ending in “borough,” but the largest and nearest was Jonesborough in Grant County. In addition, Jonesborough was located in the newly discovered Trenton (natural) Gas Field, where communities experienced tremendous industrial growth as a result of the discovery. The rail distance between Jonesborough and Union City via its next door neighbor Gas City was about 50 miles on the P. C. C. & St. L. (Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis) Railway.

The obliterator design is a round 4 by 5 grid, or waffle, pattern. This is one of four examples of this design from the Union City accumulation, all on U311/Die 88 cut squares. The dates in the CDSs are either missing or unclear. Two of the other examples include only enough of the CDS to show the town name as ____ ROUGH. The fourth copy shows only the tops of the ____ OUGH letters.

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APS member since 1998

Seller Information

Seller

keesindy (4648)

Registered Since

04/11/2016

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Item Location

Indiana, United States

Ships To

United States

Returns Accepted

Yes

Returns Policy

All items may be returned unless otherwise stated in the listing. Of course, I cannot be responsible if uninsured items are damaged during shipping. If you are dissatisfied with a purchase, contact me within 7 days of your receipt of the item to make arrangements for returning it. If I have made an error in my listing or the item is not as described, you will receive a full reimbursement plus the pre-agreed-upon cost to return the item.