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ITEM #1:     EAGLE with "1997", "T375", and fake PORT WASHINGTON, NY postmark/cancel

1/15/2007 - MW wrote: I have 6 stamps that are blue background, with a 3/4 flying eagle. the local stamp collector said they were no good, he called them a Cinderella stamp. Can you give me any info? no marking, but were canceled in NY. My first reaction was that it was a privately printed stamp, perhaps used in connection with some local event in Port Washington, NY, but an hour of Googling and digging led nowhere, so I replied as follows: I agree your stamp is a Cinderella, i.e. not a postage stamp, probably created as some sort of publicity for an event, but I have not seen it before, so I have sent inquiries to other sources, and will let you know what I learn. The cancellation is probably misleading.  That could be a fake cancel, applied as part of the event it advertised, or it might be a real postal cancel, but the Postal Service didn't realize the stamp was not valid.  Real US stamps always have at least "USA" on them, to designate the country, and almost always a denomination.  There are some exceptions, but those have other things to identify them.   The cancel does not look right, either, just the month and year.  It should have a full date, and usually the time as well. It could also be a test stamp - still a Cinderella, but a stamp produced by a stamp printer for testing or training purposes. I'll write again when I learn more. I sent a copy of the image to AskPhil, and got this response: While I cannot tell you what the item is, I can tell you it is not a postage stamp and the red marking is not a postal marking. Nice to know he agreed with my evaluation, but nothing new there. I wrote Roger Riga, whose encyclopedic knowledge of Cinderellas is second to none, and he replied as follows: 1/16/2007 - While I'm not absolutely positive about this, I'm pretty sure that I know the answer to your question. I believe that these cinderellas are faux stamps created to enhance the appearance of a bulk mailing to make it look important or official, e.g., like some kind of Express mail. While I don't remember if I've seen this exact stamp before, I have seen or had similar items. Note the resemblance to some of the express mail eagle stamps of a few years back. I've seen similar stamps on contest related mailings and political advertising. The pitch on the material contained therein usually stresses the need for a quick response (perhaps before you read it too closely) and the envelope might say something like Expedited Mail instead of Express Mail. This could all be confirmed if the original cover still existed, but then there wouldn't have been a question. I suspect one reason we don't see more of them is that most hit the wastebasket with most of the other junk mail. Anyway, other than the two of us, who would care anything about stamps that weren't real ? As I said, I'm not absolutely positive, but I'm confident enough to say that if I owned them, this would be how I would describe them in an offering for sale. That made sense to me, so I Googled for companies located in Port Washington, NY, and guess what? It's the headquarters for Publisher's Clearing House! So that's pretty conclusive to me. These are exactly what Roger guessed, fake stamps used on a Publisher's Clearing House mass mailing. Their value would be minimal, since they were used in huge quantities, so even though most were discarded, many remain. Can anyone send me an image of a PCH envelope with these stamps on it?

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