These are the newest additions to my collection.
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Webster & Popkins. 3-cent Playing Cards with a tool gouge or plate crack at top center, plate position #14, on a CDV.
USPS. Philatelic use of provisional overprint on an advertising cover from Schwind & Garrabrant, Bicycle Building and Repairing, along with matching letterhead with a whimsical birthday message referencing the revenue stamp.
USPS. Improper use of a provisional overprint on a machine-canceled cover from July 1898.
All-over double transfer. Very rare. Doubling throughout design, from scrollwork to all text, to portrait. Were it not for the fact that the doubling is in different directions, this could be mistaken for a double impression.
The Seager & Coryell Gold and SIlver Mining Co. of Idaho. Vertical pair, used improperly as revenues, along with a myriad of hyphen-hole perforated battleship documentaries, paying tax on a stock transfer, on the reverse of a stock certificate issued to and signed by one of the company owneers. Additionally, the 2-cent battleship documentary next to the postage stamps is also an improper/illegal use, as it is a reused revenue stamp, dated a full 2 years befoe the date this stock certificate was ever issued.
Peoples National Bank. 2-cent proprietary battleship revenue used improperly on a July 1898 check. 2009 APEX certificate.
USPS. 2-cent battleship documentary used improperly as postage on a Nov. 1898 dentist's commercial mail from Portland to Norway, Maine.
USPS. Block of 4 of 1-cent provisional overprints used improperly as postage on an 1898 cover.
Lincoln Bank and Trust Co. Two examples of the R229 double impression on a 1923 promissory note. These are the first examples of any of the 20th century double impressions that I've seen still on document.
John W. Hastings. 2c Washington bureau used improperly as a revenue stamp on an 1899 store check from John W. Hastings drawn on the First National Bank, Wellsboro, PA.
USPS. Improperly used on cover as postage on a 1962 commercial cover.
Early matching usage (EMU) of a $2 Conveyance imperf, on a February 1863 indenture.
2-cent Black Jack used improperly as a revenue stamp on an 1867 receipt. The writer must have been a physician: holy illegible handwriting, Batman!
Nassau Bank of Brooklyn. 2-cent Black Jack used improperly as a revenue on an 1864 bank check.
One-of-a-kind jumbo right sheet margin example showing portions of the next stamp at top and left.
Camden and Amboy Railroad and Transportation Co. Slightly munged stamp (and document), a bill of lading confirming receipt of one case of hoop skirts from Eagleton Manufacturing Co. Virtually all known documents with R6e originate from the Eagleton Manufacturing Co.
State Fire Insurance Co. Nothing special about the document or the stamp, but that handwriting/printing style is very unusual.
The Eugene Loan & Savings Bank. Three proprietary battleship revenue stamps (Scott # RB20, RB21, and RB23) used improperly as documentaries, along with Scott #R154, 1-cent Franklin provisional overprint, paying the 2 cents tax on an August 1898 check from Eugene, Oregon. A very coloful combination of stamps, with the 3 proprietary battleship revenues adding up to the missing 1 cent in total.
Impossibly scarce document. Vertical strip of three 2-cent Proprietary (R13c) improperly paying 6 cents tax (the correct rate) on a San Francisco 1864 promissory note. The strip features two of the three plate positions associated with the T13a major double transfer: the middle stamp is plate position 133 showing doubling of elements only at the bottom of the stamp, and the bottom stamp is plate position 147, the full T13a showing doubling at top and bottom. Ex-Bleckwenn.
To my knowledge there are no known intact multiples of all 3 plate positions. I also have an example of the full T13a along with the plate position below it (position 161) showing doubling of just the top elements, which you can see here.
J. C. Smith. Just a stunningly beautiful oversized packaging label with a horse vignette, with a 2-cent Proprietary revenue affixed, canceled with initials matching the business name.
Five Civilized Tribes. Very unusual document, a photostat of a 1902 homestead deed from the Muskogee (Creek) Nation, Indian Territory, filed with the department of Interior on August 22, 1916, with a handstamp cancel from the 'Five Civilized Tribes'.
West Penn Railways Co. Very scarce stamped baggage ticket, taxed as an agreement. This tax was only in effect from December 1, 1914 through the end of 1915. Like other passes and tickets (unlike financial or legal documents) virtually none were saved.
Edward C. Roth & Co. July 1898 change-of-beneficiary addendum to an insurance policy, with 21.5 cents paid in tax. The half-cent battleship printed in orange was only used for a very short period of time at the beginning of the Spanish American War tax period, replaced by the same denomination printed in gray (Scott #R162). There are fewer than 10 reported examples still on document. This document was typed on a delicate tissue-like parchment; it's amazing it survived at all.
United States Tobacco Co. Horizontal pair of RJ9, along with two pairs of RJ7, a vertical pair of RJ3, and a block 6, strip of 3, and single of RJ2, paying $14.30 tax on a 1935 memorandum of sale of 715 pounds of tobacco. Very scarce on document.
Planters Looseleaf Floor. Single RJ9 along with RJ4, RJ3, and a horizontal strip of RJ1, paying $6.19 tax on a 1935 memorandum of sale for 610 pounds of tobacco. Very scarce on document.
Martin's Warehouse. Vertical pair, along with an additional single RJ9, RJ8, RJ5, a horizontal pair of RJ3, and a single RJ1, paying $27.36 on a 1934 memorandum for the sale of 676 pounds of tobacco. Very scarce on document.
Clerk's Office. Very scarce, only the second example of the 10-cent Contract part perforate reported still on document.
B. F. Beckwith. Large stencil cancel that doubles as a backstamp.
J. Hughes. Large format stencil backstamp. Presumably this was also used as a cancel at some point. If you have seen such an example, please let me know.
Jer. B. Fies. Extremely unusual in that the 'D. N. Wentzel' stencil backstamp doesn't match the information in the printed backstamp. Did one photographer buy out another? Was the stencil applied by the purchased or a collector after the fact? We may never know.
P. B. Killam. Large format stencil backstamp. This may also have been used as a cancel. If anyone has seen such an example, please contact me.
Gilbert Brothers. One of the most beautiful stencil backstamps I have ever seen, in the form of a tree leaf. This stencil may also have been used as a cancel. If you have seen an example, please contact me.
S. H. Moulton. Lovely stencil backstamp. This may also have been used as a stamp cancel; if anyone has seen an example of same, please contact me.
Torr & Jeffries. Stencil precancel.
J. F. French. Large format stencil cancel also serves as an identifying backstamp.
A. J. Morse. Broker's call-buying privilege card.
Thomas R. Rutherford. Blocks of 4 are not typically found on small-size CDVs. Also unusual in that there is a mismatch between the company name on the cancel and the photographer backstamp just barely peeking out over the stamps. Possibly bought out another photographer's business?
Mrs. D. Sears. Another bored clerk decided to trace a charicature of George Washington. Female photographers during this period are quite scarce.
G. K. Proctor. Wonderful example of a handstamp cancel used as both a CDV backstamp and as a precancel.
N. G. Johnson. Beautiful strike in red of unusual photographer cancel with the city name 'ERIE' curved.
Shorey's Gallery. A bored clerk decided to draw a moustache and beard on George...
Horizontal block of 10, with the 4th stamp in the top row being the double transfer at top, plate position 34.
Erie Oil Company. Unusual combination of stamps paying the 25 cent tax on this oil company stock certificate: a 20-cent Foreign Exchange, the scarcer of the two 20-cent denominations, not frequently seen on document, and a 5-cent Playing Cards, which was not supposed to be used for documentary purposes, so this constitutes an improper usage.
Swiss Post. Not a postal use of a revenue stamp, but rather a lovely historical item. Provisional overprint sent from San Francisco to Basel, Switzerland, in September 1898, with notation that reads 'Dear Sir The stamp on the margin marked I.R. is a postage stamp turned into an Internal Revenue Stamp of the War issue, provisionally to supply the demand before the regular War issue could be got out by the Government.'
Mark C. Terry. Very scarce photographer stencil.
Double transfer in top stars, plate position #92. Of the 4 positions that show doubling in the top stars, this is one of the two most dramatic. Due to the muddiness of the orange ink, the double transfers are considerably tougher to acquire on Scott #R140 vs. the second issue #R113.
Scratched plate at left. Seeking a confirming example to establish it as a plate variety vs. simply a printing anomaly.
Catlin's Drug Store.
C. Marti & Co. Beautiful European style oval cancel.
Absolutely huge margins and well centered. R78c—R80c are notoriously difficult to find well centered, as they were printed very close together.
Hall & Ruckel. Repaired tear at lower right, otherwise a gorgeous stamp and cancel!
Block of 4 with full gum never hinged. Extremely scarce. Catalog value shown is for hinged; no pricing is given for never hinged.
Schuyler Skaats & Bros. Block of 4, tied with 3 other known blocks of 4 as the 2nd largest reported multiple per the Curtis census. Ex-Joyce.
Major double transfer.
Major double transfer. Faint cut cancel.
Major double transfer, cut cancel.
Edward F. Davison. Lovely European-style oval cancel.
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Stock certificate #4 from B & O Railroad Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B & O Railroad of Monopoly fame), for 200,000 shares of preferred stock ($20 million at the time, equivalent to $750 million in 2024), resulting from the railroad's bankruptcy/reorganization, issued to the voting trustees of the railroad. 9 copies of Scott #R181 (plus 1 additional stamp, serial #600 which has fallen off) paid the $10,000 tax. This is only the third known document with the $1000 Madison affixed. The other two documents only have 1 stamp each, and both are cut canceled. All 9 examples on this document are uncut. A one-of-a-kind document! Part of an incredible historical transaction find, which I have chronicled in full on this page.
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Stock certificate #1 from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B & O Railroad of Monopoly fame), for 400,000 shares of preferred stock ($40 million at the time, equivalent to $1.5 BILLION in 2024), resulting from the railroad's bankruptcy/reorganization, issued to the voting trustees of the railroad. 400 copies of Scott #R178 on the back and attached sheets paid the $20,000 tax (2 stamps have fallen by the wayside over time; only 398 remain). Part of an incredible historical transaction find, which I have chronicled in full on this page.
Dr. Henry Baxter.
Cohen, Cook, & Co. Morrissey type 2a: Last '6' created by punching out piece of upper right part of top loop of an '8'.
E. H. Truex.
Dr. Bennett.
Wm. Blanchard. 1869 Receipt statement with 2-cent post horse and rider used improperly as a revenue stamp, with a socked-on-the-nose handstamp cancel.
J. Gurney & Son.
Privately rouletted, on piece. Very scarce. This is listed in Scott, but unpriced.
John H. Smith, Auditor. Interesting and unusual $50 war bond issued by the treasurer of Ripley County, Indiana with 5-cent Express tied by embossed cancel. Issued less than a month before the end of the Civil War.
Pleasant Valley Wine Co. 2-cent battleship with multiline handstamp cancel on 1899 draft, with slogan 'Producers of Great Western Champagne' at top, and engraving of a wine bottle on the reverse, very unusual.
Ledyard & Fralick, Bankers. 2-cent Andrew Jackson 'Black Jack' used improperly as revenue on 1864 check.
Improper use of 2c vermilion Andrew Jackson paying 2 cents tax on an 1879 check, subsequently caught, and an R152b affixed properly paying the tax, the latter tied via embossed cancel.
Extremely late legitimate use of a part perf on an 1867 Oregon quit claim deed. The overwhelming majority of genuine 1st issue imperfs and part perfs used after 1864 come from the west coast: California, Washington, and Oregon.
Hagerstown Bank. Ornately engraved draft on fragile onionskin paper.
Top margin single used on an 1863 power of attorney for shares in the Lancaster and Ephrata Turnpike.
Rochester Bank, Successors to First National Bank. Draft with bold vignette, printed on pink paper.
Miller & Elder. Previously unreported receipt. Wholesale booksellers & stationers. Interesting partial green overprint at lower left, as well as a dateline beneath the receipt. It appears this may have been part of a larger document.
J. S. Bearns & Co. Top margin pair with part of an arrow marking, nice position piece, with cut and handstamped cancels, on 1901 broker's memo.
Ellingwood & Cunningham. Uncut example on broker's memo. The open and especially closed numeral overprints are not seen as frequently on document as one would expect.
Office of the Collector of Customs. Small-format document, the equivalent of a modern day exit visa.
Registrar's Office. Hawaii revenue stamp (Scott #R3) used on 1895 deed for a parcel of land.
Odd Fellows Hall Association of Sacramento. 1866 Stock certificate.
3-cent Washington used improperly as a revenue stamp on an 1866 marriage certificate from Sycamore, IL. Doubly illegal, as the tax was also underpaid by 2 cents, as the rate was 5 cents. There is an attached statement from the bride's parents granting permission for the marriage.
Mrs. E.C. Jacobs. 2-cent 'Black Jack' postage stamp used improperly as a revenue stamp on CDV. Female photographers from this era are quite scarce.
Horning & Fritz's Photographic Rooms. 2-cent 'Black Jack' postage stamp used improperly as a revenue stamp on CDV.
Cased daguerreotype (?) with horizontal strip of 3 of R14c affixed, photographer unknown. R14c has very few multiples known, with the Curtis census showing only 4 multiples larger than this single strip of 3, and 3 pairs. The catalogue value shown is for a pair and a single.
G. William Young. Beautiful 3-inch x 4-inch framed tintype with 25 cents tax paid via six 4-cent Proprietary stamps and one 1-cent Express stamp. This is the largest number of 4-cent stamps I've seen on a photo to date.
Two identically framed photos with gilt paint, each with bisected 2c USIR stamps, being two halves of the same stamp. Matched pairs of bisects are extremely scarce.
Horizontal pair with very crisp impression, the left stamp exhibiting a horizontal plate scratch running through Washington's hair, proceding part of the way into the right stamp.
McNeely & Co. Lovely 1866 two-color check with background vignette of various animals. McNeely & Co. was a tannery and manufacturer of various animal skins, parchment, vellum, etc.
Chenango County Clerk's Office. 1868 certificate of citizenship, where someone drew the name 'John T. Brownson' in multiple colored inks, simulating a 3D typography effect... a lot of effort for a legal document. Also note the dual-date formatting, indicating not only the calendar year, but also 'the year of our Independence the ninety second' since 1776.
Mint never hinged full gum block of four. Catalogue value shown is for a hinged block of four. Scott does not price NH revenues.
New England Screw Steamship Co. Lovely 1866 stock certificate with a steamship vignette and a bold company seal also depicting a steamship.
German Exchange Bank. Unusual document that cannot actually exist. Check dated June 6, 1898, with stamp canceled same date. The only problem is that the tax didn't go into effect until July 1, so there would have been no reason to tax this check, nor would there have been revenue stamps available on June 6. The most likely story is that the check writer forgot that the month had changed and wrote June instead of July. The check was actually written on July 6, 1898, which places it within the tax period and aligns with the processing handstamp on the reverse. Still, a fun and interesting item.
Palmer & Johnson. A virtually impossible (certainly improbable) and fantastic combination of document attributes: dual-nation stamped document + revenue bisect. Top half of unidentified bisected 10c revenue stamp tied across the cut by Apr. 12, 1870 datestamp on foreign bill of exchange, drawn in Liverpool, Nova Scotia for $25.00 in gold and payable in Boston Mass., 2c Nova Scotia Bill Stamp paying the proper Canadian tax, entered the United States via the banking house of Palmer & Johnson in Bangor Me. Five cents was the proper tax for this document. Ex-Bleckwenn.
C. F. Adae. Oversized document of foreign exchange printed entirely in French, dated March 1869, with U.S. revenue stamp tied via handstamp cancel on obverse, and French revenue stamp on reverse. Scarce dual-country stamped document.
Lovely vertical pair. Multiples are relatively scarce. Ex-Bleckwenn.
Horizontal strip of four, a very scarce multiple. Catalogue value shown is for two pairs.
Cavaroc & Co. Liquor dealers. Double transfer prominent at top and lower right.
C. O. Benton. Counterfeit Benton's Pine Tree Tar Troches pictoral cancel, first discovered and written about in 1997. In addition to the relatively coarse impression, there are several design differences between this and the real cancel, most notably (1) the word TREE at right runs right into the 68, whereas on the real cancel there is a large amount of space between the two design elements, and (2) the right stem of the second N in BENTON's is much longer than on the real cancel. Even as a fake cancel, it is quite scarce, with less than 10 examples known.
20th century illegal/improper usages are much less common than their 19th century counterparts. This is an improper use of a 10-cent James Monroe issue of 1923 on a voting proxy/power of attorney document.
Thomas Groom & Co. Very rare negative eagle handstamp cancel, one of only 4 known examples across all stamp denominations, all of which are faulty. Stamp has been repaired and reperfed. Thomas Groom & Co. was a stationer and importer of De La Rue playing cards.
Wright & Siddall. Very scarce cancel for 'Dr. Fitler's Carminative for Infants and Adults. Price 35 Cts.' on a fairly scarce 1st issue silk paper.
Harvey Scovil. 7-line printed cancel reading 'Scovil's Worm Killer. Christie's Ague Balm. Dr. Bicknell's Bitters. 1870' on 1st issue silk paper.
World's Central Laboratory. Extremely rare cancel. Manufacturer of Father Arent's Rheumatic Plaster.
J.F. Henry & Co. Vertical pair, both with handstamp cancels.
Hamlin's Wizard Oil Company. Interesting and scarce 4-line cancel. The grayness of the ink as well as the edges initially caused me to believe it a counterfeit cancel, but per Mike Morrissey, it matches an example in his collection, and he believes it legitimate.
Walker & Taylor. 8-line typeset cancel that reads 'SLOAN'S Condition Powder, Horse Ointment, Family Ointment, Instant Relief. WALKER & TAYLOR.' Seen far more frequently on the 1-cent denomination than on the 2-cent.
Beautiful negative CB monogram handstamp with exterior double dotted circle. The previous owner attributed the cancel to Charles Bartlet, but I believe that to be inaccurate. Bruce Baryla included an example of this cancel in his CD-ROM reference on Civil War photographer cancels, as he had an example on an unmarked CDV, so it is likely a photographer, but we just don't know whom.
J. B. Wilder & Co. Pictoral cancel very similar to the famous Poland's Magic Powders cancel.
N. J. Beers' Drug Store. Not 100% sure of the cancel attribution, as the only reference I could find containing some of the phrases in the cancel was an 1881 issue of the Yale Banner.
Pettit & Barker. Multiline handstamp on 1-cent Proprietary affixed to piece of original packaging for 'Dr. J. Pettit's American Eye Salve' with wonderful logo and branding.
W. H. Jessup & Co.
G B & C ???. Just a gorgeous stamp and cancel with wonderful color contrast. Company unattributed. Double transfer at lower right.
Charles E. Abbott, M.D. Gorgeous full strike on piece.
Y C ???. Horizontal pair with unusual unattributed 'YC' circular handstamps with what appear to be Asian characters.
Cook ???. Wonderful stylized 'Cook" pictoral cancel on silk paper. Blue threads visible on both front and back of stamp.
H. J & L. JG&L stencil without the month and day slug in the center.
L. Gross & Co. Dr. Henley's Wild Grape Root IXL Bitters was first introduced to the public in 1868 under the flag of L. Gross & Company at 518 Front Street in San Francisco.
What appears to be a meticulous little manusacript cancel is actually a printed or handstamped cancel, as I have now seen identical versions in different ink colors, all with the exact same strokes, which would not be the case on a true handwrtten cancel. Unsure of exact attribution... P?rley Jeff**s.
W. Y. L. & Co. Unusual multiline handstamp with the second and third lines in a script font.
A. H. K.
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