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Adams Express Stamps

As discussed on my page here, I believe that all of the Adams envelope stamp listings should be removed from Scott catalog as I feel that they represent a fantasy produced in the 1870's and sold by a stamp dealer from New York named Wuesthof. The cancels that appear on the two fake covers shown are also worth noting as the cancels appear on Adam's newspaper stamps.

The Adam's Georgetown oval cancels

The two different dates of the Adam's Georgetown oval cancel are shown above and recorded as follows:

Dated "Nov 3" 
     in orange on 50c envelope stamp, fake cover shown above, ex Dale - Lichtenstein
     in orange on 25c envelope stamp, German sale of November, 1921
     in blue on Adam's newspaper stamp, ex Caspary, Worthington and Hunter
     in blue on Adam's newspaper stamp, ex Hall

Dated "Jan 14"
     in orange on 25c envelope stamp, ex Middendorf
     in blue on Adam's newspaper stamp, ex Caspary Worthington and Hunter

The above represent the only examples that I record of this cancel that have readable dates. Although Adam's Express did have an office in Georgetown, no genuine stampless examples of the cancel have been reported. The fact that they exist only with two different dates is odd enough but the fact that they each exist in two different colors on the same dates is very damning indeed. I believe that by extrapolation from the proven fake cover of November 3, and the record of different color postmarks on same date, the January 14th postmarks are fake as well.

The Adam's Sacramento double circle cancels

The fake cancel on the above cover is the same style as genuine Adam's Express Sacramento postmarks. The fake differs from genuine however in that it is 35.5mm instead of the 37mm of the genuine. Also, the lettering appears to be noticeably thinner and the black ink is slightly different.

I find three additional examples of this cancel, all on Adam's newspaper stamps. They are the ex Hall, lot #404 example, the ex Needham example pictured in Sloane records, and the ex Ferrari, sale #10, lot #85 example. I can not determine the date on any of these example but the thin cancel lines appear to match the fake example above.

All of the used Adam's stamps that I have been able to locate, including the adhesive, (fantasy) envelope, and newspaper stamps, bear one of the two major types of fake cancels discussed above, or fake manuscript cancels. My conclusion is that none of the newspaper stamps, or adhesive stamps were likely exist genuinely used.