3c Rose Red (11). Horizontal pair and -1/3 of another stamp adjoining, tied by "New-York Sep. 8" circular datestamp and bold "Due 6" handstamp on brown cover to Greenfield Mass., the "6" due rate crossed out in pencil and re-rated "due 5", manuscript "1854" year date, edge faults mostly confined to corners, otherwise Fine, a number of interpretations of this usage are possible, the most intriguing being that the sender franked it for a double rate plus carrier fee, but the P.O. rated it as a triple rate with the bisect not accepted (5c plus 1c), then decided to accept the bisect, leaving only the unpaid portion due (5c), another possibility, which a P.F. certificate (no longer accompanies) seems to embrace, is that the pair was inadvertently cut -1/3 into the next stamp, and the "Due 6" was struck in error, then corrected, the "bisect" is 6.5 mm in width, almost exactly -1/3 of the full design (19.5 mm); to attribute this cut to simple carelessness seems to us to be a greater stretch of imagination than to accept the prepaid carrier fee theory, but the P.F. has opined that it "is not a bisect usage." Offered on its own merits, ex Piller

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