United States: Postage Due Stamps

Thanks for your post, Robert (WERT ).

I just looked it up, and there is a place called South Athol, Massachusetts, which would seem to be the location for your postmark.

As for mint or not, I would offer the opinion that these look cancelled to order, at least to me.  But I have no special expertise in making that comment.

Well, Robert (WERT ), I think I understand your question, but have you never heard of cancelled-to-order (CTO) stamps?

It means mint stamps, in full sheets with gum intact, that are cancelled for the purpose of selling them.  CTO stamps do not go through the mail and are not considered postally used.  If you are unfamiliar with this practice, you can start by looking here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancelled-to-order

This was a very common practice with stamps from eastern Europe during the 1960s-1970s, for example, and it has been done in many other countries, too.

It looks to me as if your sheet of US postage due stamps has been cancelled to order.... just my opinion.  Let's see what others may say.

These stamps cannot be called MINT as they have been cancelled .

It looks from JeffS examples that WERT ‘s part sheet must have served a similar purpose. Ie probably been used as a receipt for payment of a post office bill.
It would have been nice to have an original invoice document to confirm, but I believe they have been used .

. So from the perspective of postal history,they are collectable,they have been legitimately used for fiscal or revenue purpose, just not stuck on a postal item.
I prefer fiscal used rather than CTO as the reason for these. I do not believe they were done for sale to collectors

[Moderator Note: This and the following 10 posts were initially located in a different thread. They have been moved to keep postage due-related information in a common thread.]

I think I am the worst when it comes to identifying a color especially if the night before hadn't slept much at all!  Are those stamps what is called deep brown in color?! 

I'm admittedly really bad with color shades, especially red shades. Ignoring that my monitor is not color calibrated, both your stamps look like claret shades to me, not brown shades. The special printing color of deep brown would be closer to the dog in your avatar, than the 2 stamp pics you posted.

Below is a genuine J8 special printing (not mine) to give you a rough idea of what the deep brown shade should look like:

Agree with vikingeck on this one - there is some brown coming out of the last scan while the 2 first posted make me think of "claret wine" !...certainly not "brown" like the 1879's

.....will not go into Scott's bright claret and deep claret.

René

From my own small collection of early US postage due stamps. In my judgement ( I could be wrong on the J15) from left to right they are 1879 J1 brown or pale brown; 1884-89 J15 red brown and 1891-93 J22 bright claret. To my eyes the original post are from the 1891-93 bright claret set and for sure not from the 1879 deep brown special printing. 

It was only a question Not asking for any confirmation mate... It's all good I am already convinced.... It was too early in the morning here....... sorry I couldn't reply any earlier I was deep asleep...

In all honesty Rene and I really mean that! I like it when its very obvious members are trying to be more than helpful that itself is worth more than anything!