U315 or W316 cut square UPSS Die 88, thin, diagonal laid paper, ellipse & star

Item Specifics

Country

United States

Catalog Number

U315

Stamp Type

Postal Stationery

Condition

Used

Stamp Format

Single

Topic

People - Politicians

Year of Issue

1890

Item Description

29x36mm. This cut square was among thousands of stamps and cut squares collected from businesses at Union City, Indiana, in the early 1890s. Most of the readable postmarks in this hoard are from 1891 to 1893. Most of the 11-12,000 cut squares have the two-cent green Washington indicium that the United Postal Stationery Society (UPSS) identifies as Die 88. This copy has no watermark. The line near the right edge looks like a crease, but is probably some other type of paper damage. The embossing process also appears to have created a paper tear in the president’s hair.

The manila paper of this cut square is thin and has diagonal laid lines. It seems to be one of a kind in the Union City hoard. The absence of a watermark and the trimmed edges make identification difficult, but it is probably from either a Scott U315 envelope or a Scott W316 wrapper. The paper color of this copy is lighter than the Scott U315 copies from the hoard, but does match a few copies of the U300 1c blue Franklin manila cut squares that are more common in the hoard. When viewed in front of a bright light, this cut square is more translucent and displays a much less intense reddish brown paper color than the U315 examples (diagonal laid paper) and a pair of W316 examples with horizontal laid paper. The UPSS catalog does list a U315 “thin, glazed paper” variety, but this cut square has a matte finish. I believe this is either a U315 on thin paper or a W316 with diagonal laid lines. Neither possibility is listed in the UPSS catalog.

This is one of three cut squares from the Union City hoard with this basic design. One of those includes an Ovid, Michigan circular date stamp (CDS) with an unclear year that is probably 1892. Ovid is located nearly 200 miles north of Union City in central Michigan and had an 1890 population of 1,423. The other post office reportedly using this design was De Graff, Ohio. It is located about 50 miles east-northeast of Union City and had an 1890 population of 1,076. Other communities undoubtedly used this design as well. The Ovid copy with the CDS is the only copy of the three where I know the post office of origin.

Most wrapper cancels in the Union City hoard were single- or double-oval types and they were from larger cities. If this cut square is from a wrapper, this cancellation is an outlier, but then small community post offices such as Ovid and De Graff may have had only one device available for canceling all mail.

The stamps in the hoard had been soaked from the envelopes around the time of their collection. The stamps and cut squares were then sorted and tied tightly with string and sewing thread into bundles of 100 each. That process protected most of the items from damage and aging for over a century. I inherited and began unpacking the bundles in 2000. None of these sale items from the hoard has ever been in a collection.

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Seller Information

Seller

keesindy (4669)

Registered Since

04/11/2016

Feedback

100%

Store

Stamps from Keesindy

Item Location

Indiana, United States

Ships To

United States

Shipping Instructions

About 3½ years ago, I stopped selling and shipping outside the US due to new postal rules and rapidly rising costs. The USPS is raising postal rates again in January 2019. Today, December 25, 2018, due to the continuing rise in the cost of postage and associated fees, I am reluctantly raising my general shipping fee for the first time in many years. My sales here at HipStamp involve no additional charge for the purchase of multiple stamps. Shipping is via USPS unless otherwise specified. Be sure to contact me before making your purchases if you have questions.

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.