United States, Scott #3268, used(o), 1998, Uncle Sam Hat Stamp; Rate Change Transition Stamp, issued to cover the transition period after a postal rate change for first class mail up to 33 cents up from 32 cents, this is the eighth similar rate change stamp, so the eighth letter of the alphabet was used “H”, and the symbol of a Hat reinforces the “H”, hence an Uncle Sam's hat was selected for the image for this series of stamps, inspiration for the name Uncle Sam to represent the United States is generally considered to be Sam Wilson, a meat packer in Troy, New York; during the War of 1812, Wilson was responsible for shipping rations to soldiers; all packages were required to carry the initials of the country they came from; the rations Wilson shipped thus bore the letters U.S.; most of what Wilson sent went to the army supply depot at Greenbush, NY, near Albany, not far from Troy, where many soldiers from Troy were also stationed; the men who received the rations knew Samuel Wilson and his nickname ‘Uncle Sam’; when asked where the rations came from, these men responded ‘Uncle Sam’, in short order, during the war, any thing that came from the government came from ‘Uncle Sam’; this continued on into peace time, and resurfaced during the Civil War with Uncle Sam pictured in the Northern Armies in a variety of ways; after the war, political cartoonist Thomas Nast introduced the famous Uncle Sam outfit - striped pants, tail coat, and tall hat; this stamp is a booklet stamp, one of the internal right side stamps in the booklet, imperforated right, perforated 11.2 on the top and bottom, and perforated 11.1 on the left side (this distinguishes it from two other booklets for this issue, variously perforated 9.9, 11, and 8), five of the twenty stamps in each booklet pane are so configured, this stamp is from the booklet of photogravure stamps issued by the Avery Dennison company under contract, issued at an individual counter value of 33 cents, non-water soluble self adhesive panes, black, red, white, and blue, Scott 2019 Catalog Value: 25¢, nicely centered, double strike cancels, both large, circular, red-inked, probably double-rimmed, socked-on-the-nose cancellations, the main, a half circular, three-quarter clockwise turned, cancel with some mailing details, on the top border, the second, a quarter-to-half circular touch corner cancel at the lower left, both are well clear of the main image, good perforations, stamp was soaked from the mailing envelope using the Bestine solvent and placed on a piece of black trimmed card stock for an attractive album mounting; centering, mounting, and image clear cancel warrants a selling price premium. This is not a 'bait-and-switch;' the stamp you see will be the one you receive.
Please review my terms of sale. If you are not ordering from the United States, there is a $US1.55 additional postage expense that needs to be added to the price of the stamp. If you are ordering from the United States, there is only a $US0.68 added postage expense. Also, if you make additional purchases from my offerings, they can all go in one mailing at no extra shipping expense for the added purchases. I will send the purchase by US first class mail, since the relatively low value of the stamp does not warrant signature or tracking mail. Hence the buyer assumes risk of loss or non-delivery. I will keep a scan of my mailing to verify that the correct mailing address was used. If not satisfied, return the stamp to me at your own expense, and I will refund the cost, but not my postage to you. If the stamp is not as described, I will refund the cost and reimburse you for postage both ways.
By way of reference, I am an American Philatelic Society member (195176) and an American Stamp Dealers Association (ASDA) member. Thank you for looking, and I hope this is the perfect stamp to fill that gap in your collection.
