James E. Lee's $5 • Free To Clients Special Winter Edition Volume XXII No. 4 Winter 2020 Whole No. 96 PPhilatelyhilately

Free Frank of Zachary Taylor as President free franked as President (“Z. Taylor”), Washington, D.C., May 1849. With manuscript “Free” at upper right and red “FREE” over red circular cancellation. Ad- dressed to Lt. Robert Lane, Sutton, New Hampshire, with partial seal of Vice-President Fillmore on the back, light toning. Taylor is the third rarest presidential autograph. (PH96-01) $1,500.00

294P2-299P2 – Roosevelt small die proofs Complete set of the 1901 Pan-American issue small die proofs still affixed to the original gray card backing. A very scarce set in premium condition. (EP96-01) $3,500.00

247P4, 248P4, 256P4, 262P4 & 263P4 – First Bureau card proof set The only five values of the First Bureau issue that became available as card proofs, XF set, Ex-Westheimer (EP96-02) $2,000.00

P.O. Box 3876 • Oak Brook, IL 60522-3876

Phone: (847) 910-6048 Email: [email protected] www.JamesLee.com James E. Lee’s • Whole No. 96 • 1 The First Word Welcome to 2021! It is time to bury 2020 and remove it from helped Jon build his incredibly complete collection. Having the calendar. May everything be better for you in the coming taken it as far as he wanted to go Jon turned to me for advice year. on selling it. I had not seen the collection in probably five In This Issue years. Jon sent it to me, and I spent a day reviewing it. The This is loaded with new material. Leading off this issue, next day we agreed on a price and I had the collection. It will three pages of covers from one of the two five-cent Taylor col- remain on the shelf for a while as I will take the time to study lections purchased in September and October. There are also and learn from it. two pages of five-cent Taylor proofs, several of which I had If you have a specialized U.S. essay & proof, postal his- never seen before. There will be a few more down the road as tory, or fancy cancel collection please give me a call: 847-910- several pieces have not yet returned from the Philatelic Foun- 6048. dation. You will find an exceptional page of 1847 issue proofs Further Update on Shipping during the COVID-19 from the Gross collection. The last of the volumes of the Wes- Pandemic – Revised December 7th theimer collection of essays and proofs is being broken down. Over the past six months we have had various problems The regular issue India plate proof collection is being offered with first class passing through the Post Office system. intact. It took to many years to build to now piece meal it out. Two flats took three months and one month respectively to Finally, the Moderately Priced Essay & Proof pages return. reach their destinations, and a third one had still not been They did extremely well in Newsletter No. 95. delivered (It finally showed up in early November). Enjoy the hunt! All orders valued at over $500.00 and less than $1,000.00 are being shipped via priority mail flat rate at our expense. We tested this policy during the three months spent in Georgia earlier this year. There do not seem to be any problems with priority mail envelopes. If your order is under $500.00 we’ll ship it via first class mail at our expense. If you want it to be shipped in a priority mail envelope the charge will be $5.00 and we will pick up the additional $2.75. This is the smart way to go since all our mail problems centered around hard flat first-class envelopes. Orders over $1,000.00 are shipped via FedEx three-day express saver at our expense. Subscribe Today to our Bi-weekly Email Newsletters In addition to our printed newsletter I send out a Bi-Weekly Email Newsletter on Thursdays at 10:00 AM CST. There are usually two each month unless we are travelling. Over the past 10 years over 449 separate newsletters have been sent out. It features essays, proofs, postal history, stamps, and literature. The focus is moderately priced items. Recently added is a section titled: Bargains of the Week which features essays and proofs that are from the remainders Buying Opportunities of collections purchased over the years. These items are of- The “thrill of the hunt” is one of my favorite aspects of this fered at very attractive prices. business. I enjoy buying an intact specialized collection and Clients who set an alert for the 10:00 AM email blast are just putting it on the shelf for an extended period. This gives usually successful if they spot something that they want to add me the opportunity to study and learn from it before determin- to their collections. The sell through rate is usually about 75%. ing how to market it. Such was the case in November when I If you would like to start receiving our email newsletter just purchased Jon Schoonmaker’ s award winning collection: The send me your name and email address to: [email protected] National Bank Note Company’s Essays and Proofs Leading to the Design of the One Cent Issue of 1870. Over the years I Our Show Schedule for 2021 APS Great American Chicagopex Stamp Show November 19-21, 2021 We will have a booth We will have a booth August 12-15, 2021 Westin Chicago Northwest Rosemont Convention Center 400 Park Boulevard Rosemont, Illinois Itasca, Illinois 60143

2 • James E. Lee’s Philately • Whole No. 96 Westheimer India Paper Plate Proof CollectionBy James E. Lee Beyond the Scott Catalog is taking this issue off.

worked with Jeff to put this collection of India paper plate proofs together over a periodI of over 15 years. It is 95% complete with an example of every Scott listed regular issue India plate proof from the 1847 issue through the Columbian issue and includes E1P3-E3P3 as well. The only issue missing is the Continental (156P3-166P3). The condition is solid throughout, without thins, nice margins, bright colors, and strong plate impres- sions. The Columbian issue can be seen on page 13. As a result of space constraints, in this issue, the balance can be seen on request. I would be happy to send any interested party scans of the balance of the collection. It would be difficult to dupli- cate. (EP96-20) $8,500.00

James E. Lee’s Philately • Whole No. 96 • 3 Five-Cent Taylor Postal History

185 – 1882 use to Foochow, China 5c UPU rate from Stratham, NH via Boston, San Francisco. Hong Kong & Foochow marking on the reverse. From the Wingate correspondence. Immaculate ! (PH96-03) $150.00

179 – FLS, 1878 use bootlegged from Port Au Prince. 5c UPU rate, forwarded by H. Becker & Co. (hand stamp on back) stamped and entered the in New York City October 9th. Rare bootleg use. Ex-Markovits (PH96-04) $250.00

179 – Complete FLS, 1878 use to Switzerland 5c via Swiss closed mail to Zurich, with receiv- ing mark on the back. Fresh and clean. (PH95- 05) $95.00

185 – 1881 use to Yokohama, Japan 5 UPU rate from Lowell, Mass. addressed to the paymaster aboard the U.S. Ship Morocco. New York, San Francisco & Yokohama receiving marks on the reverse. Full cover. (PH96-06) $150.00

185 – 1879 use to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil forwarded to Oxford, Mass. 5c UPU rate from Truckee, California to Lieutenant aboard U.S. Flagship Hartford in Rio. Forwarded back to Oxford, Mass. Rio, Boston, & Oxford back stamps on the reverse. (PH96-07) $125.00

4 • James E. Lee’s Philately • Whole No. 96