St. Louis, Missouri, 5c Black on Gray Lilac (11X4). Type III, Position 5, large margins to clear, crisp impression on nicely grayed paper, cancelled solely by red circular datestamp, small surface scrape at bottom left (really nothing more than some ink flaking off)

VERY FINE APPEARANCE. A RARE EXAMPLE OF THE 5-CENT ST. LOUIS "BEARS" POSTMASTER'S PROVISIONAL ISSUE ON GRAY LILAC PAPER.

The layout of the plate was altered just before the paper was changed from Greenish to Gray Lilac paper. The original layout contained three 5c stamps at left and three 10c stamps at right. The plate was altered, and the top two 5c stamps were converted to 20c stamps. Only one position, the bottom left position of the plate, yielded 5c stamps. The new plate layout, combined with limited production from the altered plate before it was converted back again to its original format, accounts for the rarity of the 5c on Gray Lilac paper.

With 2006 P.F. certificate

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