Kansas Nebraska Overprints properly used

Okay, I'll admit I was tempted with this cover. Kansas City, Mo is not quite in Kansas but (1) the use of the 1 1/2 cent Harding is going to be hard to find, (2) the 5 cent airmail rate was properly applied, and (3) the plane flew over Kansas on its way to Vancouver. Still the cover was slightly over my budget (9.95 + 2.00 shipping) but it would have covered two listings. It is a nice cover and I may end up buying it, but not for this collection.

Well, the Kansas City cover definitely does not belong in my collection. I thought that, maybe, the KC post office would be included by the Post Office Department in Washington because of the larger sales in that city and the likelihood that people would carry the stamps over the river and use them in Kansas (lots of commuters probably lived in Kansas but worked in Kansas City, Mo.)

Then I found this.

"Every Post Office in Kansas and Nebraska received overprinted stamps except for those in Kansas City, Topeka, Wichita, Omaha, and Lincoln: in these larger cities, security at post offices was considered adequate; accordingly, the use of overprinted stamps was deemed necessary only in small, usually rural, post offices."

So, even though some of the overprinted stamps were used in these larger cities, they will not find a place in my collection.

I probably need to worry about fake overprints, too since another site claimed that about 60% of the used stamps are fakes. The problem here is that an EBAY seller is not going to want to examine their stamps for fake overprints. Hopefully the $10 limit will keep me somewhat protected. (I'm going to have to relax this limit if I want to get the higher valued stamps on cover so I will need to protect myself from fakes. Any ideas?)

Here is a nice 2c Kansas used in period. The EBAY seller wanted 12.50, or best offer and accepted my offer of $10. This kept me in budget.



Three down, 19 to go.

Okay, it was bound to happen. The $10 limit was broken. And on the most common variety! The 2 cent Washington overprinted Nebraska. Jim had this for $15. He has several others for the allowed $10 but I chose this one over all the rest. It was $15. Who among you would have turned this one down?



I did turn down a $75 cover with a 5 cent Roosevelt to Sweden. It was a nice foreign usage but far too expensive, for now. The 5 cent airmail rate in the US should make this stamp relatively easy to find.

Five down 17 to go.

Do you have tips on how to spot used fakes?  Mint stamps are easy to figure out by counting the gum breaker ridges on the back, but what do you do for used stamps?  I can probably spot typewriter fakes, but beyond that I wouldn't have much of an idea.

Ryan

In his book How to Detect Damaged, Altered, and Repaired Stamps, Paul W. Schmid offers a few things to look for in used stamps:

• Genuine overprints never appear impressed into the stamp

 

• Genuine Kansas and Nebraska overprints measure about 9.25 and 9.0 mm, respectively

 

• Details of overprint spacing, serifs, and alignment can be compared to genuine overprints

 

• Genuine overprints exist only on the 1929 shades of the perforated 10.5x11 set and in most values the differences in color are considerable when compared to other printings.

No luck tonight on EBAY. Lots of new covers listed but all failed my collection "entrance exam"
1. A 5c airmail cover from Salina, Ks to Denver dated 1931 with a Roosevelt stamp overprinted Nebr.
2. A cover with a South Spencer RPO cds to Omaha Neb with a 1 cent Kans. and a 2 cent Nebr.
3. A 1933 Grand Island Nebr with a 9 cent Jefferson overprinted Kans.
4. A 5c Kans Roosevelt mailed from Newark NJ to Kansas

There were also a couple of FDCs and a few 2 cent Nebraska covers , which I already have, that were well beyond the $10 limit. Its a shame that #3 used the wrong state stamp. A 9 cent cover would have been nice (although I wonder if the postage charge was correct.)

Thanks for the tag, Ryan. Indeed, I am a native Islander. I love Nebraska covers and postcards, so I am greatly enjoying this thread!

Okay, I finally get it. I see a lot of covers with these stamps addressed TO (and not FROM) Kansas and Nebraska. Mainly event covers like Air Shows (popular in the 1930s) and airport dedication covers. But the covers are from Cleveland, Newark NJ, Denver etc. The post offices just didn't sell these stamps in those places, did they?

Like I said, the light finally turned on. Collectors in Kansas and Nebraska prepared those covers. They sat down, addressed those cover to themselves, either at the shows or at home, got them to the postmaster hosting the event and had them mailed back to their homes. Just like when I prepared addressed First Day Covers as a kid. And they thought, "Let's use a stamp that means something to me. Perhaps one that is overprinted with my home state." Not realizing that they were creating a near impossibility and an incongruous use.

Anyway, these are all clearly Philatelic uses. I've excluded them because they weren't cancelled in their home states. Now I have a second reason to exclude them as well (No philatelic covers allowed.) Well, I'm going to modify that rule and accept Philatelic covers, but not FDCs, used within the proper states. After all, an Airport dedication cover from Nebraska could easily be properly franked with a Nebraska overprinted stamp. I'm not sure that this will net me any additional covers but at least I better understand what I'm finding in the marketplace. (And I feel better about the Kansas 1 1/2 cent Harding overprint cover and the Independence to Newton cover; the stamps were properly used even if they were Philatelic items.)

[All this being said, I still don't understand the Grand Island, Nebraska cover above that was mailed to Illinois. Why would someone use a Kansas overprint stamp on this cover?]

Well, no luck at buckacover for this topic but I definitely saw some others that makes the site worth a longer look. I'm finding the Kansas covers greatly outweigh the Nebraska ones (about 2:1). Not sure why this would be so. The production records should bear this out, since the Post Office decided to overprints about a year's worth of stamps for both states.

Yes, interestingly, the Scott Specialized catalog comes through with the answer to this. While I would not call these overprints commemorative stamps, the Scott publishers apparently did (or they simply put the information where it could be found). Page 533 of my 2012 edition (Sorry, Scott, I can't afford a new one every year) has this information (somewhat rounded off).

1 Cent: 13M Kans, 8M Neb; 1 1/2 Cent: 8M for each;
2 Cent: 87M Kan, 73 M Neb; 3 Cent: 2.5M (K), 2.1M (N);
4 Cent: 2.3M (K), 1.6M (N); 5 Cent: 2.7M (K), 1.8M (N);
6 Cent: 1.5M (K), 1M (N); 7 Cent: 1.3M (K), 0.85M (N);
8 Cent: 1.5M for each; 9 Cent: 1.1M (K), 0.5M (N);
10 Cent: 2.8M (K), 1.9M (N)

The production runs are all higher for Kansas but this doesn't tell the complete story. For example, why is the mint value for the 8 cent Kansas so high? Why is the mint value for the 10 cent Nebraska ($100) so much more than the 9 cent value ($40) or the 10 cent Kansas ($25)? Why isn't the 9 cent Nebraska the rarest stamp? The answers to these questions isn't easy and also includes save rates, centering, etc. but 1 thing I know - the market values are always right. Scott 666 is a relative rarity in mint condition because millions of collectors and dealers have demonstrated this in millions of transactions over the years. The Scott catalog values are just a reflection of these transactions.

I'll be honest. That 661 cover was more than $10. The seller wanted quite a bit more but did state that a Best Offer would be considered. When I see this I immediately think of saving 10-20%. Anyway, I made an offer a few bucks lower and the seller immediately agreed. That certainly shocked me. Was he online and waiting for my offer? Well, he was online. And he responded faster than some snipes I've posted at the end of an auction. It made me think I could have offered less. No general rule of thumb here, but I would be interested in hearing what others bid in these situations. How much is too much? How little is too little? I've had counter-offers in the past and some bargaining is fun but you do run the risk that someone else will enter the picture and agree to the "buy it now" price and, then, the item is gone.

Rogo raises an interesting point about fakers creating valuable covers. Used stamps from this series are common. Covers aren't. But covers from the early 1930's are easy to find. So, if I were a dishonest fellow, I could take a cheap cover, remove a cheap stamp or two and replace them with Kansas or Nebraska overprinted stamps of the same denomination and greatly increase the value of the cover. Of course, some care would be needed to match the cancellation on the cover, but the wavy lines are somewhat generic so this isn't too difficult. Not a great way to make a living but it could be profitable. Again, trusted dealers (Thanks, EBAY feedback) is all you can fall back on. The bottom line is that stamp collecting is supposed to be fun. So do it to have fun, and not to make a killing profit off an unsuspecting collector.

When posting a listing with the "Best Offer" option, the seller can establish a minimum price level for automatic acceptance. Offers falling at or above that threshhold are accepted without any further seller involvement. Offers below the seller-established threshhold amount are forwarded to the seller for his/her consideration.

I'm always amazed when my listings sell at the asking price, even though I've indicated I'll consider "Best Offers" -- in my mind "Best Offer" is an invitation to negotiate.

Well, here's another nice cover I picked up this morning. At 9.99 it made my price limit with something to spare. The 5 cent stamp paid the airmail rate so this is a nice usage for this cover to Germany. I don't know if the international rate was 10 cents or perhaps this was a double weight cover. The Fort Riley cancellation shows this was used only a few months after the stamp was issued.



Seven down, 15 to go