Bill, this is one of two varieties of the 3c Washington, the workhorse of the 1870s and early 80s. It is, despite being a century and a quarter old, a common stamp, and still common on cover. Scott values the stamp at 40c and the stamp on cover at 70c, this from my 2003 Scott. I doubt prices have risen appreciably. And I doubt you could expect to see that return on the copies that you have, absent something that otherwise distinguishes it. And that's the rub. With a common cancel from a common locale to another common locale, it's a common stamp worth very little. Now, if you have it sent from a fort in a territory to another soldier in another fort, its value skyrockets. Make that soldier identifiable, and the sky's the limit. Make it one of five paying the triple weight to Europe, and its value increases also. But as a single on a commone cover, it's not very valuable. if you want to scan the cover, perhaps one of our cancel guys, like Arno, might weigh in on specifics.
David
David's right on, 2009 Cv. $.90, my guess 2011 w/b maybe $1.00.
Your #184 could quite possibly be a #207, the re-engraved version. As a seller of postal history covers I can tell you I have seen my share of the 3c Washington’s under a magnifying glass and without something to make it stand out in the crowd you would be lucky to get $1. The same goes for the period of 1850 thru 1866. There you had the 10’s, 25’s, 26’s and 65’s.
I have boxes of covers from the 1850’s thru 1880’s that I think are nice looking covers but without something of interest on the cover or a letter inside they are only worth a few cents at auction. The early air mail’s are the same way. As a seller of covers I can tell you that you can almost throw your Scott Catalogue away when it comes to putting a value on a postal history cover. There are other factors that set the value for postal covers.
When you think about holding a cover that is almost 150 years old and the history behind it, if only that cover could talk, it almost makes you want to frame it. Yet sell it at auction and you might get 70 cents for it.
I don’t mean to be a nay-sayer, look on the bright side, for only a few cents you can buy a small piece of history, not everyone can do that.
Don
How do you deturmine the value of a cover-example 1882 Flanked with a Scott # 184 Stamp.
re: Scott #184 or #207
Bill, this is one of two varieties of the 3c Washington, the workhorse of the 1870s and early 80s. It is, despite being a century and a quarter old, a common stamp, and still common on cover. Scott values the stamp at 40c and the stamp on cover at 70c, this from my 2003 Scott. I doubt prices have risen appreciably. And I doubt you could expect to see that return on the copies that you have, absent something that otherwise distinguishes it. And that's the rub. With a common cancel from a common locale to another common locale, it's a common stamp worth very little. Now, if you have it sent from a fort in a territory to another soldier in another fort, its value skyrockets. Make that soldier identifiable, and the sky's the limit. Make it one of five paying the triple weight to Europe, and its value increases also. But as a single on a commone cover, it's not very valuable. if you want to scan the cover, perhaps one of our cancel guys, like Arno, might weigh in on specifics.
David
re: Scott #184 or #207
David's right on, 2009 Cv. $.90, my guess 2011 w/b maybe $1.00.
re: Scott #184 or #207
Your #184 could quite possibly be a #207, the re-engraved version. As a seller of postal history covers I can tell you I have seen my share of the 3c Washington’s under a magnifying glass and without something to make it stand out in the crowd you would be lucky to get $1. The same goes for the period of 1850 thru 1866. There you had the 10’s, 25’s, 26’s and 65’s.
I have boxes of covers from the 1850’s thru 1880’s that I think are nice looking covers but without something of interest on the cover or a letter inside they are only worth a few cents at auction. The early air mail’s are the same way. As a seller of covers I can tell you that you can almost throw your Scott Catalogue away when it comes to putting a value on a postal history cover. There are other factors that set the value for postal covers.
When you think about holding a cover that is almost 150 years old and the history behind it, if only that cover could talk, it almost makes you want to frame it. Yet sell it at auction and you might get 70 cents for it.
I don’t mean to be a nay-sayer, look on the bright side, for only a few cents you can buy a small piece of history, not everyone can do that.
Don