New Britain herald., 1927-09-03
OLD l.CEN7 STAMP
 IS VALUED AT g
Bears New Britain Cancellation
 Before Postal Rate Changed

There are few people who have lot heard Of the finds of rare postage stamps on old correspon- dence and few who have not dream cd of making such discoveries lead ir.g to the sudden acquisition of quite large sums of money. One such find was actually made here in New Britain some time ago. many valuable old stamps being found on letters al local factory. But despite the knowledge that of old trunks may yield fortunes, there are few who realize that the New Britain post office itself once sought for by collectors and for which they pay eoodly sums. Yet the local office did that thing and cid it only few years ago.
 The stamp is the current one-cent green with a picture Of Franklin, precancelled NEW BRITAIN CONN in two lines in black capi- tai letters. It is perforated at the sides only. To collectors and govern ment officials it is known as a "coil' stamp and is issued in coils instead of sheets for better handling in automatic vending and mailing 1achines.
 For about 90 years the United al offices to pre-cancel their stamps. This is done by overprinting them, q whole sheet at time, with the name of the office. The stamps overprinted in this fashion require no further cancelline and save much time in periods of heavy mail ing. Precancelled stamps are given out to window customers during the Christmas rush and are also sold to firms which have large patches of letters or circulars going into the mail at one time.
 Until a few years ago each post office did the overprinting itself or had some local printery perform the task. Recently tie government decided that it woulI be more eco- nomical 10 have the Bureau of En- graving and Printing at Washington. " hich prints the stamps, do the overprinting also in the cases of those cities which used large quan- titles.
 New Britain was one of the cities using enough precancelled stamps to have the bureau do its overprinting. One of the first lots turned out was the 1 cent coil stamp precancelled NEW BRITAIN--CONN." This vas used on patches of circular matter by several local concerns, and then occurred the event which made the stamp rare. The postage rates were changed, and the charge for sending circulars was advanced from one to one and a half cents. No further overprinting of the one cent stamp was ever done, and copies from the one lot are cata- logued today at s2. Several local collectors have the stamps and are selling them to other philatelists throughout the country at an aver age price of s1 each. Unsevered pairs are worth more than two single copies and fetch still higher prices. Thus a common" one-cent stamp of the current issue, in used condition, becomes valuable. ...
 The two-cents black stamp issued in mourning for the death of Pres ident Harding also received a New Britain precancellation and Is now worth 40 cents. Other stamps 50 treated are worth varying amounts. It is therefore worth while for local residents to pore over their corre- spondence and see If they have any Of these stamps left on letters.
 The older stamps, of course, are more valuable as a rule than those of the later issues. Any letters mall ed before 1890 have real possibilities in that the cancellation may be of a peculiar type or color, but 1t should be remembered that the whole envelope with the stamp on 1t is worth much more than the stamp removed from its letter. Stamps on correspondence before 1870 are sure to be good, and here again the warning applies that they should be kept on the original covers"