A war tax was created in 1917 that included capital stock sales and promissory notes, among other things. An interesting item that was also included was "revenue stamps also will have to be affixed to parcel post package on which the postage amounts to 25 cents or more." (New York Times, November 29, 1917). It was clear that postage would be paid with normal postage stamps and the tax would be paid by revenue stamps and cancelled by the sender. The sender was to add their initials and the date in ink on the revenue stamp for cancellation, but the postage stamps were to be cancelled by the Post Office. Even though the act called for slits to be cut in a revenue stamp of 10 cents or more, Post Office Department Bulletin dated December 4, 1917 states: "The slitting with a knife or other instrument of tax stamps on parcel-post mail is not required." That same bulletin also directs that "only the postage chargeable thereon is considered; the fees paid for special delivery and insurance ... shall not be counted."
I went searching for an example on eBay and found this:
I'm not going to buy it, but it seems like an interesting example to analyze.
I have been reading the section on this very topic in Beecher and Wawrukiewicz, and their examples come from the Daniel Pagter Collection. As a side note, I swapped stamps with Dan back in 2005 when I was just getting started in serious collecting. I had no idea who he was and he was just as nice as he could be! I feel like a math major that just found out his middle school tutor was Albert Einstein! Back to the example at hand:
The first thing I noticed was that it has insurance for $100, which was 25 cents at the time of mailing. I see 31c written on the tag in manuscript, but that makes no sense since there is only 46c in postage. It was postmarked in Indiana, so this Chicago company apparently found a post office in Indiana that was in Zone 4 from New York. (Chicago to New York was Zone 5). I wonder if they found it cheaper to truck everything going to New York to this Indiana PO, and if they shopped around to find the closest PO to CLAIM they were Zone 4 from New York. In other words, would a Postmaster have an incentive to fudge a bit to increase revenue through his post office? Interesting sidebar. Anyway, Zone 4 postage was 7c for first pound and 4c each additional in April 1918. 7 pounds would be 31c postage for a total of 56c. Looking at the postmarks more closely, it appears that a stamp is missing at the bottom of the tag, likely a 10c stamp. So this tag was PROBABLY properly franked with 31c postage and 25c insurance and properly taxed on the 31c, but one of the 10c stamps is no longer on the tag.
Interesting.
Does anyone have a similar example? RevStampMan?
Lars
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"Expanding your knowledge faster than your collection can save you a few bucks."
When you asked in the other post I thought that is what you were thinking of. I have seen them many times before. But I have never felt the compulsion to add them to the hoard.
I was thinking about adding a SINGLE example as an oddity. Actually, ALL of my revenues are "oddities" since I don't collect them. I tried to put together a reasonable ensemble of revenue examples and would appreciate your critique. I don't have a federal marihuana stamp (RJM*), Camp stamp (RVC*), or Trailer Permit (RVT*) yet. If you see anything else I'm missing that's a major category, or if I have mislabeled anything, I'd appreciate your advice, and if you have any damaged examples of RJM*, RVC* or RVT*, I'd be interested in working out a deal.
Here are the relevant pages from my collection:
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"Expanding your knowledge faster than your collection can save you a few bucks."
Lars, you dog you, what a lovely ensemble of the broad collecting field of Taxpaids. Thank you a bunch for the posting-each and every area has a ton of stuff that could be collected, should anyone get an appetite for a collection along a particular direction.
Thanks again for that.
Dan C.
Larsdog,
Wow, Very Nice!
You have the Scott types pretty well covered! Though you made a mistake in that you don't have a RVC. You DO have one on page 10 (bottom right). You also have a Very Nice selection of Tax Paids as well. You are missing a few types and style types. Off the top of my head you could add a 1st type Prop. (green and black, RB1-10), Stock Transfer (AKA green's) $ Value's, The 3rd Series USIR is not represtened, Large Type Narcotic. Tax Paids are also well represented. Of note the "Coin Opperated Amusement devices" is highly saught after. You could add a cotton tag, Cigar Strip, Provisional Cigar, Alcohol Warehouse, There are Several dozen large Special Tax Stamps (STS) You could add one, Alcohol Bottle Seal (Remember those Red or Green stamps over the cap), Their are MANY others Tax Paids depending how insane you want to get. Drop me an email and I will provide you with a few missing types.
Thanks, Dan. That was the goal, but it's really hard to know when to stop!
RevStampMan, I'm om my iPad this morning, but I'll get with you later. I really appreciate an experts' view. There are so many areas one can go crazy in.
Lars
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"Expanding your knowledge faster than your collection can save you a few bucks."
"Though you made a mistake in that you don't have a RVC. You DO have one on page 10 (bottom right). "
You're right, of course. I copied my wish list from the web site which is incomplete and not up to date. Here is the real wish list (at least it was until you pointed out some new things to consider):
Marihuana Tax
Trailer Permit
live plant tag
M-Bag tag
cotton tag
1917 War tax tag
I keep my wish list in an Excel spreadsheet with auction history and other info and it's not always handy. I can get to the web site from anywhere. As you can see, I was aware of the cotton tag, but before you posted yours I had never seen one!
"You are missing a few types and style types. Off the top of my head you could add a 1st type Prop. (green and black, RB1-10), Stock Transfer (AKA green's) $ Value's, The 3rd Series USIR is not represtened, Large Type Narcotic."
I will take a look through those in my Scott Specialized. Of course I would LOVE to have a persian rug, but they are too pricey for an ancillary area of collecting.
"You could add a cotton tag, Cigar Strip, Provisional Cigar, Alcohol Warehouse"
I know about cotton tag. For the tobacco part and some other oddball stuff I relied more on Springer, but I sold my catalogs after deciding what I wanted to include. Scott doesn't list much for tobacco. I haven't heard of an Alcohol Warehouse stamp. I have a lock seal (page 16). Is a warehouse stamp different?
"There are Several dozen large Special Tax Stamps (STS) You could add one, Alcohol Bottle Seal (Remember those Red or Green stamps over the cap)"
That sounds like a good plan!
"Their are MANY other Tax Paids depending how insane you want to get. "
I don't want to get very carried away at all, really. I'm really looking for glaring holes in what I have.
"My own personal Obsession is Patent License, Royalty Fee, and Copyright Stamps and related
"
I've never even HEARD of Copyright stamps. I'd like to see an example of that. I do a lot of work involving copyright, so it's a natural interest.
"Drop me an email and I will provide you with a few missing types."
OK!
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"Expanding your knowledge faster than your collection can save you a few bucks."
Hey Lars. Check out page 47 of the January 20, 2014, issue of Linns. They have a photo of an airmail cover with a 2 cent revenue paying the war tax. There also is information on the parcel post war tax.
The caption for the cover includes this: "...The 2 cents Documentary revenue stamp paid the required war tax on parcel post postage greater than 25 cents up to 50 cents..."
Also included in the article is the PMG's Order Number 884 from November 17, 1917, and an analysis of it.
At a show in Los Angeles many years ago, I asked a dealer if he had U.S. Revenue Stamps, he seemed upset about something. He said he was getting out of the U.S. Stamp market and just have foreign stamps from now on. He sold me a small box which he loaded all his U.S. Revenues for $85.00. There were many different kinds of revenues in this box, my point is there was about 6 or 7 examples of this 1917 War Tax Revenue Stamps still on the parcel post tag, thought maybe somebody here would like to see one of these.
You can identify off parcel post cancels by looking for the revenues with the parcel post double oval cancel, I've had some of these for many years and did not realize what I had!
They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin 13 Dec 2014 03:40:32pm
re: 1917 War Tax Revenue stamps
"Private Message" click on member name and then where it says "Send a Message"
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