NOW (2/10/2019) paraphilatelic maven Ray Petersen has come up with the second item, and this further analysis:

Hi Bill,

While recently browsing Alphabetilately I notice the small odd label in the Name That Stamp section (item #2). I remembered that I used to have some of those (or something similar) and wondered whatever happened to them.

Lo and behold, only a few days later, while rusting through some unsorted stuff, looking for something else, I ran across them.

They are the same base stamp/label, but instead of an overprinted 4, mine have the number 5. And it appears that mine (2 strips of three and a pair) were originally a strip of 8. I have scanned them they way they most likely were when joined. Looking at the scan, it becomes clear that the overprint is a numeral, repeated 5 times, in a box - enabling 5 stamps to be cancelled or overprinted at a time.

Mine have no gum, and do not really look like they ever had gum - the backs are smooth and clean.

So, the good news is that some significant new information is added, but the origin and use of these is still a mystery.

I thought they looked like they could be either:
A) Dues stamps - for an organization or trade union.
B) Savings or trading stamps (like S&H Green stamps).
So I looked through my stash of Danish dues stamps and savings/trading/rebate stamps and discovered that while only some of them had a clear indication of the issuing organization, they all had either a denomination, or a time reference (such as year or month, etc).

The key to these stamps must be the cryptic monogram or monograms on the stamps. My personal bet is NL RE.

I showed your post to a friend last night and he and I both had a nagging feeling that they might be Dutch in origin. Nothing to base it on other than a vague feeling that the first letter pair might be NL for Nederland.

I guess we will just have to wait and see if one turns up actually used on some sort of document.

Ray

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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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