Two Grinnell stamps said to be genuine Hawaiian Missionary stamps; Lawrence, Celler say two stamps on card have the right earmarks
By Michael Schreiber
Two of the 10 Grinnell Missionary stamps mounted on a card by George H. Grinnell decades ago are genuine Hawaiian Missionary stamps, according to two stamp experts.
The startling discovery is announced in a lengthy article by Ken Lawrence in the October Scott Stamp Monthly. The magazine began arriving in mailboxes and on bookstore newsstands during the third week in August.
Lawrence of Pennsylvania and Richard C. Celler of New Jersey made their discoveries in early July.
Both men are collectors and recognized expertizers, and each participated in the recent lengthy discussion and debate about the Grinnell stamps taking place on the Internet. The online discussion occurred mostly during June and July, but it continues into August.
The two Missionary stamps said to be genuine are denominated 13¢. Celler and Lawrence say the stamps have the design characteristics of recognized genuine stamps of the issue of 1851 of the Kingdom of Hawaii, the issue inscribed "Hawaiian Postage."
In the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, the 13¢ stamp is Scott 3.
The news of the declared genuineness of the two stamps will propel the already vigorous discussion of the Grinnell stamps to yet another sphere. Will the news be the key to solving the stamp hobby’s greatest mystery?
If the two stamps can be confirmed by other experts to be genuine Hawaiian Missionary stamps, it could move the rest of the Grinnell stamps one step closer to acceptance as different but genuine Missionary stamps.
The two 13¢ stamps are shown on this page. The stamps are used and bear clear markings.
One marking is a circular red Honolulu Postage Paid handstamp dated in March (said to be 1852).
Lawrence and Celler say that "the stamp and postmark match the characteristics of genuine Missionaries and do not match traits of other Grinnells," as Lawrence writes in Scott Stamp Monthly.
The marking on the other stamp is a black seven-bar circular killer, a type of device typically carved from a cork. Of this stamp, Lawrence writes that this stamp also matches "the traits of other genuine Missionaries and not other Grinnells. But the cancel matches a grid style that has only been recorded on Grinnells, and which the Royal Philatelic Society London has condemned as counterfeit."
Celler’s notes for the characteristics of the designs of the two stamps that match characteristics of recognized Missionary stamps are written around the images shown on page 1.
The areas Celler highlights in both of these stamps are a narrow void (open area) in the center of the "o" of "Postage," the horizontal center stem of the "3" of "13," and various propeller-shapes on the ornaments that surround the denomination.
Other areas highlighted on the stamp bearing the Honolulu postmark are a circle and a small piece of ornament near the stamp’s lower right. This stamp is the type I Missionary with "Postage" indented.
The stamp with the grid cancel is the other type of Missionary stamp, type II, with "Postage" fl ush left with "Hawaiian." For this stamp Celler also notes a wide vertical stem in the second "a" of "Hawaiian," the low position of the dot of the first "i" in "Hawaiian" and the small circle in a wedge-shaped ornament at the stamp’s lower left.
If other experts agree that these two stamps are genuine Missionaries, the stamp bearing the grid cancel seems to be the more important.
Its seven-bar grid cancel is a version known only on Grinnell stamps, according to Celler. His study of seven-bar grids on Grinnells and accepted Missionaries is pictured here.
Should the stamp bearing the grid cancel be recognized as genuine, then the seven-bar cancel on it could be genuine. If that grid cancel is proven genuine, then all the Grinnell stamps bearing it could be genuine.
Ultimately, all the Grinnel stamps could turn out to be genuine.
The two stamps are among a group of 10 Grinnell stamps that did not go to the Royal Philatelic Society London in early
2002 to be expertized. They were held back by their owners, Vincent and
Carol Arrigo.
Carol Arrigo is the granddaughter of George Grinnell. In 1960, Carol Arrigo’s mother (Grinnell’s daughter) gave the family’s Grinnell stamps to Carol Arrigo’s husband Vincent Arrigo because he showed an interest in authenticating them. Vincent Arrigo has spent much of the past 45 years trying to do just that.
The 10 Grinnell stamps are mounted on a card, shown at the right. The existence of the 10 stamps on the card was not made public until March 2006 (Linn’s, April 7), although the Arrigos had told a small number of insiders about the stamps and shown them color photocopies of the card as early as December 2002, if not earlier.
Those who saw those photocopies were looking at images of stamps that were newsworthy, but no one, not even the owners of the stamps, seems to have noticed what Lawrence and Celler found three-and-ahalf years later.
Dozens of Grinnells and a few acknowledged genuine Missionaries were on display at the Washington 2006 world philatelic exhibition in Washington, D.C., held May 27 through June 3. Mystic Stamp Co. displayed 42 Grinnell stamps in its walk-in booth.
At the show, Mystic displayed the 36 Grinnells that since March it has been trying to sell for the Arri- gos, including the 10 stamps mounted on the card by George Grinnell, as noted in Grinnell’s handwriting on the back of the card.
Mystic also displayed six Grinnells that belong to the Shattuck family, whose spokesman is Patrick G. Culhane, a greatgreat grandson of Charles B. Shattuck. The Shattuck stamps are not for sale.
Dealer Stanley Piller also had a Grinnell stamp in his stock at the Washington 2006 show.
The show’s exhibition included three showings of recognized Missionary stamps: in the "Hawaiian Postage Stamps" exhibit of Richard Malmgren, the cover bearing a 5¢ Missionary in the "U.S. Domestic Mails 1776-1869" exhibit of George Kramer, and the Dawson cover in the show’s room of rarities. The Dawson cover bears 2¢ and 5¢ Missionaries.
Amid the excitement of the international show, no one seems to have noticed what Lawrence and Celler discovered about a month later. The Open Album column on page 3 tells how they made their discoveries.
Lawrence admits that he did not recognize the two Grinnell stamps as genuine when he fi rst saw the Grinnells in late May at Washington 2006.
He saw the stamps in the public display on the Washington 2006 show floor, and he also enjoyed a private showing offered by Mystic president Donald Sundman before Washington 2006 opened.
Celler also saw the Grinnells at Washington 2006, but only as mounted in the Mystic display. But he has studied large electronic images of the additional 10 Grinnell stamps that were provided to him previously by the owners. He also did not realize initially that the two stamps were not Grinnells.
Celler also has had a chance to study the accepted Missionary stamps in the collection of the National Postal Museum.
The Grinnells are named for George Grinnell, who the record shows acquired the stamps in June 1918 from Charles B. Shattuck of Los Angeles. This is recorded in various sworn affi davits filed by Grinnell and by Edward Shattuck and David Shattuck, respectively, Charles Shattuck’s son and grandson. Shattuck is said to have acquired the stamps from his mother in 1856 when she died.
A deal to sell 43 of the Grinnell stamps in December 1919 fell through for Grinnell when the ultimate buyer-to-be of 16 of the stamps (collector Alfred Caspary) said that the stamps were not genuine. John Klemann, the dealer and go-between who had bought the stamps from Grinnell, sued Grinnell.
In the famous trial of May-June 1922, the judge ruled in favor of Klemann, agreeing that the stamps were not genuine Missionary stamps.
Grinnell (1875-1949) spent the rest of his life trying to rehabilitate the stamps he acquired from Shattuck. After Grinnell died, others took up the cause, most notably Vincent Arrigo and in recent years Patrick Culhane.
In 1927, Grinnell gave 33 of the stamps to David Shattuck, Culhane’s great uncle, returning part of the holding to the original family. Grinnell kept the rest, said by the Arrigos to be approximately half of the holding.
As is now known, the holding at one time was as large as 81 stamps, perhaps 82. Over the years, Grinnell gave away a few stamps. He also lent a small number of them for study.
Some of those stamps did not come back, although the Arrigos say that they recovered a few.
In any case, the known number of Grinnell stamps today is said to be 70 — 36 with the Arrigos (including the 10 on the card), 32 with Culhane for the Shattuck descendents, one owned by Mystic Stamp Co., and one with dealer Stanley Piller.
Mystic acquired its stamp in May when it bought a Hawaiian lot in the Greg Manning Auctions sale of the collection of forgeries assembled by noted expert Varro Tyler.
That stamp supposedly is the one given in the 1960s to a person named "George Cohen." The name is really a pseudonym for George Linn, according to Lawrence. Linn is the founder of Linn’s Stamp News.
In addition to the 55 Grinnells that went to the Royal Philatelic Society London during 2002-04, other Grinnell stamps have been examined by various experts over the years.
In 1942, dealer Y. Souren expertized three Grinnell stamps for George Grinnell. This was for a potential sale, but it also fell through because the buyer declared the stamps to be forgeries. The techniques Souren used are not recognized today.
According to the Royal Philatelic Society, it examined four Grinnells for Linn in 1952. According to Celler’s research, the Philatelic Foundation examined six Grinnells at various times during 1949-76 and declared them to be forgeries.
During 1951-52, Linn borrowed 71 Grinnell stamps, described them and studied them, and published a listing.
Linn wrote in 1952 that he thought the stamps could be genuine, but in 1959 he wrote that he thought they were forgeries. In 1962, he changed his mind again and wrote that he saw no conclusive reasons why the Grinnells were forgeries.
In the 1960s, the Arrigos took up the cause, and in 2000 Culhane began his research, following what an aunt had done in the 1970s. Both families together and separately developed much new data, and in 2002 they submitted 55 of their stamps to the Royal Philatelic Society for expertization (29 from Culhane and 26 from the Arrigos).
The submission of the stamps provoked much discussion.
On Oct. 18, 2003, the Maynard Sundman lecture on the Grinnell stamps by David Beech at the National Postal Museum created more interest. More than 200 people attended.
Beech is the head of philatelic collections at the British Library (Britain’s national museum). The British Library holds the Missionary stamps once in the Tapling collection.
Mystic Stamp Co. has a video of Beech’s lecture on its web site.
Articles published in 2002-04 by the Arrigos, Culhane, Jeffrey Weiss and Calvet Hahn led to more discussion.
On March 15, 2006, in New York City, Hawaii collector Fred F. Gregory of California delivered a lecture on the Grinnell stamps at the Collectors Club of New York. The club recorded the lecture and sells it as a DVD.
Much of the recent discussion among collectors has occurred on the Internet on web sites with chat boards as well as in private e-mails.
Most of the online discussion has taken place this year on the public board at the web site of dealer Richard Frajola, located at www.rfrajola.com, especially during June and July (Linn’s, July 24, page 3). With the publication of the fi ndings of Lawrence and Celler, that discussion no doubt will continue.
In mid-July, Frajola set up Grinnell pages with images of both accepted Missionaries and Grinnells. The pages are located at
www.rfrajola.com/ grinnells/grinnells.htm.
In recent weeks, Frajola also added a census of covers bearing Hawaiian Missionary stamps.
Much other information about the Hawaiian Missionary stamps is online on the Post Office in Paradise web site of collector Fred Gregory, located at
www.hawaiianstamps
.com.
This is one of the Grinnell Hawaiian Missionary stamps that experts Ken Lawrence and Richard Celler believe is a genuine Missionary stamp. They also believe that the stamp’s "Honolulu Postage Paid" postmark is genuine. Surrounding the image of the stamp are Celler’s notes of design features of the Grinnell that match those of accepted Hawaiian Missionary stamps.
This is the other Grinnell Hawaiian Missionary stamp that Celler and Lawrence believe is genuine. It bears a version of a seven-bar cancel that appears only on Grinnell Missionary stamps. Could this cancel be the key to unravelling the mystery of the Grinnells? Could this cancel be the key to proving that other Grinnells also are genuine Hawaiian Missionary stamps?
Study by Richard Celler of seven-bar grid cancels on Grinnell stamps (G numbers) and on recognized Hawaiian Missionary stamps (M numbers). The grid with the notched top and curved left edge appears only on Grinnell stamps, including the stamp pictured on page 1. Celler and Ken Lawrence say that stamp has the same design as accepted Hawaiian Missionary stamps.
The 10 Grinnell stamps mounted on a card by George Grinnell. The stamp at the bottom (G81) and the stamp at the bottom right (G80) are said to be genuine. They are the stamps pictured on page 1.