Two more first-day covers of the US 2¢ Thomas Jefferson stamp on Silkote paper have been found, bringing the number to three.

Award-winning collector and exhibitor of first-day covers Alan Berkun paid more than US$23,000 for the cover bearing a block. It was sold for US$11,500 in 1998 to a Maine postal history collectorwho also has a full pane of 100 of the elusive Silkote experimental printing from the Liberty series.

Silkote was the resulting product of a 50 yr research before 1954 for a paper with greater resistance to change over long periods. The Silkote paper is whiter than ordinary stamp paper and its surface is extraordinarily smooth. Silkote paper required even less moisture content than the regular Oxford paper used for dry printing, so it offered the promise of greater dimensional stability. Linn's