The Die Varieties
of the
NESBITT SERIES
of
United States Envelopes

By
VICTOR M. BERTHOLD.


NEW YORK
SCOTT STAMP & COIN CO.
1906.

Copyrighted, 1906
All rights reserved.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION

"Variety is the spice of Life". This aphorism, if applied to collectors of the dies of the early United States envelopes, changes with kaleidoscopic rapidity into: "Varieties are the bane of collectors". The truth of this statement is borne out by the fact that, though the die varieties of the Nesbitt issues are one of the most interesting phases of American philately, the amount of our knowledge concerning them is surprisingly small.

If we recall that many of these dies have been in existence for half a century, embracing all issues prior to 1870, and thus, in comparison with modern issues, are hoary with age, that they have been collected for decades by ardent lovers of United States envelopes, our surprise is heightened.

The honor of the first attempt at describing the various Nesbitt die varieties and making this knowledge public property belongs to an English philatelist of rare ability, the late Gilbert Harrison. While this confers great credit upon the latter, it is an humiliation to American philatelists that this page of our own history was left to be written by an English student. Even so, this work[A] did not appear until fully forty years after the Nesbitt dies were first issued.

It is, likewise, true that Messrs. Tiffany, Bogert and Rechert in their "Historical Notes"