Did this letter come from a town in New York? I think the name is beside the stamp but im not sure what it is.
Me as well ,but there was no Ford town there in the 1860s, there was around the 1900s. Im thinking now it is Floyd New York, Before they had there own postal cancel. With the manuscript postal cancel on the stamp. There was a post master Richard M. Williams, in new york state at that time, Maybe that's were the W came into play.
Hi Richard, The other way to try to determine whether the envelope originated from the state of New York is to try to decipher the cancellation. The scan is indeterminate and the fade out from right to left makes identification only possible with magnification, if at all.
I find magnification to be the best way to determine grill type. It isn't easy to tell a grill pattern from a scan. Scott catalog gives good information on differences between the types. Counting the points horizontally and vertically under magnification and then using a millimeter scale should give you a good identification.
I posted Grills Grills Grills, It has helped me over the years, But I still make mistakes on Grills. I have a cover at the APS presently, I determined it was a D grill But looks to have the points up like the C Grill. I will post the out come in a few months. This one is the common F Grill.
Hi Richard, I work with Photoshop and made some optimization to your picture.... Hoping it could help find out where this cover comes from...... Let me know if this is helpful...
Thank you Gill. It does look like Ford but in the 1860s there was no town called Ford. The W was Orange county's postmasters last name at the time which indicates there was no postal cancel for that town at the time the letter was sent. You brought something else to my attention as well this cover was used twice there was writing on the left end that is also under the stamp partially, a paid 3 New York, swirl in the center, Another name erased out in the upper right. Its ever more interesting now. LOL
Hi Richard, I didn't pay attention the pencil mark on your original scan, but it comes through quite plainly on the enhancement. Some dealer was able to decipher the cancellation to Orange, NJ.. I believe that the letter never had anything to do with New York, but rather went from Orange to East Orange and that the writing in the upper left hand corner is some kind of shorthand for "forward"
Hi guys, I know nothing about your mail system, but I always find it fascinating to see any old envelopes where the address only had the town name, no need for streets as everyone knew everyone else.
I'm pretty sure that is because in the old days, the mail wasn't delivered to your house. A person had to periodically visit the Post Office to see if they had any mail (most cities only had one Post Office). I guess it could be an issue if two people, with the same name, were expecting mail.
I love covers like this, but they always leave one with questions...! I think the Orange to East Orange is correct. Its a strange one, nothing on reverse? Does it show evidence of a previous stamp anywhere? I was thinking the return address was on LEFT side vertical, because it looks to me kinda like the writing goes over the stamp. The faded comments on RIGHT look likes a date (May) and comment "answered ...." Could the word next to the stamp be "Home" ? I really need to get some imaging software...... ! NICE COVER!
