Page 153 features a very interesting cover.
On the first view, nothing out of order. But closer inspection shows, there is something fishy with this piece. Kudos goes to Trevor for bringing that to my attention. Have a closer look at the cancel. Two things show:
- The script character of the Alexandropol cancel is missing. There is an asterisk (star) character instead.
- There are traces of another cancel below. See script character “a”, asterisk, part of another date starting with “2” and more characters.
Now I am interested in explanations. It seems clear the cover is manipulated. The question is, when and why? Has an old stamp been reused?