Strange Wax Paper Cover with Two 1¢ Benjamin Franklin Stamps

This is not easy to describe, because I'm not sure if it's cellophane or wax paper. It really seems like a cross between the two. If I had to guess, I'd say it's old wax paper, but my husband tells me it's cellophane.

In any event, it's 5.75" x 3.75" in size and is almost transparent but with a smokey color to it.

There are two 1¢ green stamps affixed t it, one right-side up and the other upside down. There are two postmarks. The first is Lexington with no state name visible because of its placement over the stamp. The other appears to be Boston, Massachusetts.

Both are dated August 31, 1908.



The cancellation is an ovate barred cancellation which has the numeral 1 in the middle.

There is no "TO" address, and I suspect that it was written on whatever was inside the envelope.

I don't imagine a value can be placed on this because it's not really any subcategory I can think of, unless there is a "Strange Covers" category.

But I would love thoughts on it.

 

My grandmother, born in 1899, told me when I was a child that an upside-down stamp meant "I love you."

Not sure if that was something from that time, or if she used it as a way to make a granddaughter on the opposite coast feel loved.

 

Right that this is strange and unique with one stamp inverted and the other is not. Could be a code to someone before.

 

Hello, I am new to stampexchange.com. The envelope looks like an early Glassine type envelope. (invented/improved in the early 19th century)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03094227.2004.9638639#.VK9ONdKUcxE
The cancellation marks look identical to me. On enlarging the image I measured the distance between the X (on the president's face) and O, LEXINGTON they appear to be the same on both cancellations.I also read the time on both to be 10:30
Regards, James

 

Thats very interesting and unusual that there are too different zones on it. I love learning about this!

 

Looks like a Glassine envelope to me

 

The first thing I thought when I saw the photo and started reading about it was "how strange, the ink from the postmark stayed, but there's no "to" or "from" written on the outside". Then you wrote that the address was probably on the inside of the envelope, so that solved that.
The mystery to me now is, why send something in such a transparent envelope? I would love to know the story behind it. I like a good mystery!
1908?! Wow!

 

I have seen this before ,It caught my eye at an antique store in Louisville Kentucky, the only difference was it contained a photograph of some kind of commemorative event .

 

Hello, Maybe it contained a postcard of their new 1903 Model A Ford?



James

 

How clever to have upside down stamps as a signal for love, I wonder what else they had in the old times as a message within a message