A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: The End for Now and Happy Halloween

For nearly two months I've covered the subject of these precancels; this will be the last post for the time being.  The next step with this material is to consolidate it into supporting material for a new and updated list.  For now, back to more conventional subjects, like brokers, banks, and insurance companies.

Maintenance and revisions are underway for the tabs (what Google calls "pages") at the top of the website, including addition of the original posts where there were once only links.  The Insurance Agents and Insurance Company tabs/pages are good examples.  Going forward I'll use pages dedicated to cancel series.

For now, and for Halloween, I'll reprise items from a previous post that focused on death:

DURFEE EMBALMING FLUID CO.

NOV

19

1898

*

Crate that once held Durfee Embalming Fluid

NATIONAL

JUL 8   1899

CASKET CO.

National Casket Company Factory, Oneida, New York

APR 28 1899

The Evergreen Cemetery

ELIZABETH, N. J. 

The Red Badge of Courage novelist Stephen Crane is buried near Evergreen Cemetery's main gate.

Still in use in 2023.

Deed for cemetary plot at the Evergreen Cemetery:

*****

From The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, November 3, 1898, now the New England Journal of Medicine.  Apparently, official death certificates for use of the state did not require tax stamps.  Those for personal use did require a stamp:

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: A Literature Review

Philatelic Literature Review

Though Richard Fullerton published in 1952 what has been the definitive list of 1898 documentary printed cancels, there have been other distinguished philatelists that have contributed to the field, and whose work predated and ran concurrently to the work of Fullerton.  Clarence Chappell, who produced an extensive list of the printed cancels on 1898 proprietaries, published a list of their documentary counterparts in the Weekly Philatelic Gossip in 1942.  And a contemporary of Mr. Fullerton, Charles Metz, published lists of these cancels in Chambers Stamp Journal in the late 1940s and early 50s. 

Chappell's format, similar to his proprietary list 

that was eventually updated by Joyce

Clarence Chappell, Weekly Philatelic Gossip, 1942.  Precanceled 1898 Documentaries: The
Railroad Companies.  This article appears to be the first published list in philatelic literature of the 1898 documentary printed cancels.  Chappell confines the list to railroads only.  He includes all of the railroads in Fullerton’s 1952 list except for the Chicago, Burlington & Northern RR, the Chicago, Fort Madison & Des Moines RR, the Kansas City & Northwestern RR, and the Sioux City & Pacific RY.  His format is identical to his better known 1898 proprietary printed cancel list.  As of 1942 it is clear that much discovery was still ahead for these cancels, as Chappell is not only missing four of the railroads in Fullerton’s list, but many of the 2 cent stamps and cancel varieties. 

The Bureau Specialist, November 1946:  This is a stub of an article in which Gilmore E. Martin, Bureau Isssues Association Member #231, reports having the 10 cent documentary battleship precanceled  C.M.&St.P.Ry by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway.  The same Mr. Gilmore reports knowing of a collector in St. Charles, Missouri who has the same 10 cent stamp precanceled I.&G.N.R.R. by the International and Great Northern Railroad and used on an export bill of lading.  Neither of these stamps were accounted for in Chappell’s 1942 list.

Fullerton List (with addendum).  In 1972, Eric Jackson reprinted the list, including a one page addendum that Fullerton added soon after the original list was printed. 

Fullerton Article in Linn’s, 1952.  Railroads on Battleships.  This article in Linn’s Stamp News appeared in a special “Precancel Edition”.  Richard Fullerton was a member of the Precancel Stamp Society, and showed his collecting interests in this article.  While his list was published devoid of subjective commentary, the Linn’s article is a cheerleading piece, written to cultivate interest in collecting 1898 documentary precancels, specifically those made by railroads.

Charles Metz, Chambers Stamp Journal, 1948 and 1952.  It appears that Charles Metz was engaged in collecting and documenting the users, types and varieties of 1898 documentary printed cancels around the same time as Richard Fullerton, publishing his work in the Chambers Stamp Journal and then having articles republished in the The American Revenuer.  It appears that Metz’s first effort came in 1948, titled simply, Check List of Railroad Revenue Precancels.  This list omits the Chicago, Burlington & Northern RR and the Kansas City & North Western RR that are included in the Fullerton List.  By 1951, Metz published a follow-up list in Chambers Stamp Journal, continuing to omit the two previously mentioned railroads but including the I&GNRR 10 cent which was not included in his 1948 list, nor in Fullerton’s list.  Notably, Metz quotes the collector D. S. Tierney, regarding the existence of the Chicago, Fort Madison & Des Moines RR cancel.   Tierney reported in 1951 having this cancel on a Chicago, Burlington & Quincy RR bill of Lading.  Tierney added that the CFM&DMRR was a short line that ran from Fort Madison, Iowa, northwest to a junction with the CB&QRR near Batavia, which was 12 miles from where Tierney lived.  The CFM&DMRR is one of the rarest of all the railroad printed cancels; it may be that the known copy was removed from Mr. Tierney’s bill of lading.

Richard Friedberg, Linn’s,  Printed Cancels on Documentaries are Scarce, 1985.  In this short article in Linn’s Stamp News, Friedberg provides a “scarcity rating” to the most common variety of cancel used by each railroad in the Fullerton list.  Using a scale from 1 to 5, more commonly seen cancels like those of the CB&QRR and I&GNRR are given a 1, while the scarcest like the Chicago, Fort Madison & Des Moines Railroad are assigned a 5.  Varieties and the rarer items among the railroads, like cancels on the 2 cent documentary, are not included in his index.  Those ratings are included in the appendix of this volume.  At the end of the column, the existence of the T.S.E.RY. cancel is mentioned, though the railroad is not among those included in the scarcity index. Richard Friedberg had a long running column in Linn’s Stamp News in which 85 of his columns were collected into the book Introduction to United States Revenue Stamps.  The column dedicated to 1898 documentary printed cancels did not make the book. 

Ron Lesher, Stamp Collector & Dealer, 2021.  Lesher’s article is dedicated to the International & Great Northern Railroad’s printed cancels.  The I&GNRR used more denominations on which to pre-print cancels than any other railroad; Lesher provides examples of all those denominations, including the 1, 2, 5, and 10 cent battleship stamps, the 1c green R154, and adds the I&GNRR’s battleship 1 cent precancel handstamp, which Fullerton included in his list.  Both the CM&StPRy and the I&GNRR used the 10 cent documentary for foreign bills of lading.  The CM&StPRy undoubtedly had cargo that was exported to Canada, while the I&GNRR, Lesher notes, met the National Railway of Mexico at the Texas border city of Laredo. 

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: An Inventory by Stamp and Company

 

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: Kahului Railroad Follow-up

The day after posting the Kahului Railroad printed precanceled stamp, a seller on Ebay from Golubie, Poland, listed two stamps that appear to be examples of Kahului Railroad handstamp cancels:

I had noticed some months back that this same seller had listed these stamps, or at least one of them, but I did not save the images of the stamp(s) or any notes about them.  Coincidently the cancels were back online the day after I first posted regarding the apparently printed version of this cancel.

These two stamps further my doubt as to the legitimacy of the R163 "printed precancel".  My guess is that both cancels above were added after the 1898 tax period by a collector or dealer making fantasy cancels.  There are no extraneous markings like dates or location (the state hardly counts), and it is not clear that any railroad needed to cancel a five cent stamp.  Even the I&GNRR five cent stamp cannot be found in a condition than otherwise unused.  

The two cent stamp is hyphen-holed; the five center is rouletted.  My guess is that the maker of these had a foxed five cent stamp, of little value with the foxing, and selected it for the bogus handstamp.  Otherwise, if these were real, it would imply that the KRR was possibly canceling these stamps across the tax period, as the two cent stamp has the later issued hyphen-hole perfs.  If this was so then I am fairly sure we would have examples of these cancels that do a better job of appearing legit.  

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: The Kahului Railroad?

K . R . R .

 HAWAII

From Frank Sente's collection is this example of a possible railroad printed precancel.  This stamp and cancel was not included in Richard Fullerton's 1952 list, or in the lists of Clarence Chappell or Charles Metz; my guess is that it was either 1) unknown at the time by any of these gentleman, 2) adjudged to be of questionable legitimacy,  or 3) not yet in existence by the middle of the 20th century.

Establishing that this was a legitimately prepared printed precancel could be difficult.  This appears to be the only known example of the cancel, which by itself is not necessarily a problem.  While we do know for sure that there was a K. R. R., the Kahului Railroad, this railroad was not part of a larger system that made use of precancels, and Hawaii was not known as a place for precancels at the time.  So this appears as something of an orphan, which raises concerns.  Further, the stamp has no other confirming contemporaneous markings, like a handstamped date and location, which would help with bonafides.

For now, this stamp and cancel is interesting, but needs some support to have it move from a "jury's out" section of a revised Fullerton list.

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: The Rexford Clift Cancel

Squarely belonging in the contrivances section of an updated version of the Fullerton list, the Waymart, PA precancel looks like a cancel made by a cancelling device prepared to precancel the standard size definitive US postage stamp.  On the example below, there is a bit of the T from the adjoining cancel to the left, and nearly a complete W from the cancel to the stamp that was once to the right.

  

Hmm.  A postage precancel on an 1898 documentary revenue stamp.  

Turns out there was a member of the Precancel Stamp Society, a Mr. Rexford Clift, living in Waymart, PA in the early to mid-20th century, so committed to his hobby or trade that he likely puttered around with fantasy cancels, like the one above.  

And we have clear evidence that he was involved with precancels to the point that he had dedicated stationery for the purpose.  Mr. Clift likely knew the local postmaster and had him make a few of these cancels as favor.  Are there more of these cancels in circulation?  Perhaps a multiple?

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: The Mimeographed Cancels

Occasionally, the active 1898 collector might come across cancels that appear to have been made with a typewriter.  Sometimes actual typewritten cancels may be found, usually confirmed by impressions in the stamp made by the type pressing into the stamp.  But many of the cancels that appear to have been typewritten were likely made with the use of a typewritten stencil placed into a mimeograph machine.  I'm virtually certain that the cancels below were mimeographed due to the lack of any sort of type impressions.  Whether they are or not, and whether mimeographed cancels are considered proper printed precancels, these types of cancels confound the preparation of a proper and complete 1898 documentary printed precancel list.  

Many of these types of cancels were likely prepared on an ad hoc basis, where sudden demand for a few hundred or so canceled stamps made using a mimeograph a simple solution if the tools and machinery were at hand.  And because many of these were probably made in such an ad hoc fashion and quantities were so limited, most of the information provided by these one-off cancels tell us little about who the original preparers were.   

Fullerton did include a small group of mimeographed cancels in his list.  The Adams Express Company, in at least one of its offices, prepared mimeographed cancels on three known dates.  A non-listed AMEX mimeographed cancel was shown earlier in this series.  In a future updated list, I am inclined to include the AMEX mimeoed stamp as long as the Adams Ex cancels are included.  

 

If anybody has other stamps with cancels like these, or others that appear to be mimeographed cancels, please let me know at 1898revenues@gmail.com.

 

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: The Curious and Ambiguous Cancels of Woodstock, Vermont

The Windsor County Clerk's Office cancels come in two known varieties, one with J. R. Pember as the Clerk and Karl A. Pember as the Deputy Clerk.  These stamps have passed through the collections of some of the better known US revenue collectors, but without much explanation as to why they exist, or what type of cancels they might be.  

I acquired the J. R. Pember stamp immediately below from the collection of Henry Tolman.  He had squirreled it away at the back of his his 1898 proprietary printed cancels binder, among the "miscellaneous" cancels in his collection.  The stamp was the only documentary stamp among the thousands of proprietaries.  It is not clear why he might have placed it there; he might have had no other place that made sense to mount it.  There is no clean explanation as to why public officials like the Pembers might have printed cancels, and even less clear as to why they would have done so with one cent documentary stamps.

Based on what we do know, which includes the lack of need for printed quantities of the these documentary stamps, and the existence of the Elgin National Watch cancels, I am inclined to believe that these cancels were made with a similar device to the Elgin cancels.

The Pembers would have had a reason to create an authorizing stamp of some sort as County Clerks, which would have been a single stamp primarily for use on documents.  My guess is these cancels were made by a similar device to that used by Elgin, and they used the stamps to "cancel" these documentary revenue stamps after the stamps were placed on a document.  They might have been used legitimately, they may have been philatelically inspired.  We'll need an actual stamp on document to know.  

The upshot of this theory is that these are not precancels, printed or otherwise.  In a revised list of documentary printed precancels, I would place them in the back with cancels that appear printed, like those of Elgin, but provide that further evidence might show them to be actual precancels.

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: the Non-precancels of Elgin National Watch

The Elgin National Watch Company was one of America's great watch companies; it closed operations in 1968.  Occasionally cancels like those below show up in collections or dealer stocks, looking much like proper printed precancels.  I've kept a page in my album of this material dedicated to the ENWCo cancels for years, figuring it important to have examples showing why these stamps were unambiguously not precanceled.  

The first two stamps below look very much like precancels, and I initially assumed them to be.  However, an examination of their stamps and cancels on document fragments leads to a different conclusion.

E. N. W. Co. - Elgin National Watch Company

Both examples below (and I have several others) show that the cancels were being placed on the stamps after they were applied to what were likely checks or drafts.  The cancels tie the stamps to the fragments in both examples.  What is almost certain is that the company had a canceling device that used metal type capable of applying a rather neat and clean cancel to a stamp on document.  

I believe this type of device might have also been used by a few other individuals and institutions.  I'll provide an example in the next post.

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels, the Non-Fullerton Cancels: The Possible Proprietary Cancel of Charles E. Cornell

Charles E. Cornell was a manufacturer of products that required the payment of proprietary taxes during the 1898 tax period, including cosmetic soaps and other skin products.  His printed precancel is known on the five eighths cent proprietary, and a similar cancel is also known on the half cent documentary.  The question is whether or not the half cent stamp below is that of Mr. Cornell.  It appears to be printed, but it also might be a handstamp.  This cancel belongs in a category of cancels requiring further proof or documentation.

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels, the Non-Fullerton Cancels: The Proprietary Cancel of Dr. Fahrney & Son

Richard Fullerton limted his documentary printed precancel list to railroad related companies, perhaps because so few other firms chose to use printed precancels.  However, just as there is evidence of two trust companies in Philadelphia making use of printed precancels on bonds, there are at least two, and likely more, proprietary firms that used these cancels on 1898 documentary revenue stamps.  

To the E. S. Wells cancels on the two cent documentary shown in a previous post is added the Dr. Fahrney & Son cancel.  The example on the half cent documentary stamp shown below was shown on this site for the first time in 2014.   It is reprised here as an example of a printed precancel that should probably be in an updated list of these cancels.  

This cancel appears fully legitimate as a printed version of the Dr. Fahrney cancel, as it appears almost exactly like the cancel on the five-eighths stamp further below.  The question remains, then, why Dr. Fahrney might have used a cancel on stamp primarily intended for use by insurance companies.  My only theory is that the stamps canceled to help uprate a surplus of lower value proprietary stamps so that the proprietary stamps could be used up.  Based on the example of the five-eighths cent stamp below, we know Dr. Fahrney & Son used that value.  A half-cent stamp would have helped uprate an oversupply of eigth cent stamps for items taxed at five-eighth of a cent.  Other combinations were possible.  

 

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels, the Non-Fullerton Cancels: The Proprietary Cancel of E. S. Wells

E. S. Wells made nostrums for humans including medicines for corns, toothaches, and itching.  But the company might have been best known for rat poison.  I've featured this company and these stamps on this site back in 2014.  Follow the link to learn more.  Today the focus is on the stamps and their cancels.  E. S. Wells is the first of several proprietary product companies to be presented here that used printed precancels on the proprietary series of stamps that also applied precancels to documentary stamps.  

The known use of their cancel on documentary stamps is on the two cent battleship; the company used its electrotyped cancel of 1898 and adapted it for 1899 by planing off part of the bottom loop of the 8 of 1898.  The block below is the only known example I know of.  An example of their cancel on the 5/8 cent proprietary is provided below.  

As with the Provident Savings Life and the bond cancels, the E. S. Wells cancels are not included included in Fullerton's list;  Fullerton contained his list only to railroad-related printed precancels.  

Scott RB23, 5/8 cent proprietary

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels, the Non-Fullerton Cancels: the United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Company

The United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Company was under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad, but issued their own bonds.  The stamp below almost certainly came from a bond, though the copy below has been removed from its orginal document.  The 1902 Poor's Manual of Railroads lists a 50 year mortgage bond that was issued in 1901; this stamp likely came from that bond.  The quest begins for a copy of this bond!

Based on the Poor's Manual reference below, the cancels were likely produced in Philadelphia as were the Girard Trust cancels, as Girard Trust was a Philly based company.  

 1902 Poor's Manual of Railroads.  The relevant UNJRR&CCo bond is number five below, issued in 1901 and maturing March 1, 1951:

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Printed Precancels, the Non-Fullerton Cancels: The Girard Trust Company

In the 1898 War Revenue Law, bonds (the financial instrument version, as a opposed to insurance surety or guarantee bonds), were taxed at a rate of five cents per $100 of face value.  Instruments like these were often sold at a face value of $1000, so that the usual tax on these bonds amounted to 50 cents.  Two types of printed precancels are known on the 50 cent battleship: a Girard Trust Company cancel and a United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Company cancel.  The GT Co. cancel is known on document; several canceled complete bonds for the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad Car Trust are known.  The United New Jersey RR&C Co and the Girard Trust cancels were almost certainly produced by the same company or person; they use what appears to be the same all caps typeface.

The United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Co cancel will feature in the next post.

The Girard Trust Co. canceled stamps were placed at the bottom center of the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf bonds.

Bond 168 of 1750 issued; presumably there were at least 1750 of these precancels made:

Bond 180 of 1750 issued:

Bond front:

 

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels, the Non-Fullerton Cancels: The Provident Savings Life Assurance Society

The Provident Savings Life Assurance Society (PSLAS) produced the most significant array of printed precancels of any company, including railroads.  Because they were in a very different business than the railroads and express companies, they were subject to different taxes, and made regular use of different stamp values.  PSLAS primarily sold life insurance, which was taxed at eight cents per $100 insured.  In addition, forty percent was to be paid on the first weekly premium for any life insurance policy.  A result of these taxes was that insurance companies made frequent use of the 40 and 80 cent documentary stamps in addition to the dollar documentaries to cover the taxes on larger life policies.  

PSLAS printed precancels have been identified on six different stamps, including the 40 cent and 80 cent documentaries, and the Scott  R173, R174, R175 and R182 dollar values.  The cancels consist of a solid outer circle, 20mm in diameter, a thinner inner circle, and PROVIDENT SAVINGS LIFE inscribed in an arc inside the inner circle.  The cancels come in either black or red depending on the stamp denomination except for the forty cent stamp, which is known with both black and red cancels.  Shades of orange red may also be found on the 40 cent stamps.

Of the stamps I have seen that have dates, all appear to have been canceled sometime in 1900.  By 1900, R173 and R174 were issued with hyphen-hole perforations, and the PSLAS printed cancels are only known with HH perfs on those stamps.  Though the 40 and 80 cent stamps were also issued with HH perforations, I have not found the PSLAS cancel on those stamps.  

PSLAS also produced other cancels that were not printed but were likely precancels; a 40 cent stamp is known with a PSLAS perfin and the R175 and R176 dollar value stamps are known with handstamps in black that are similar in appearance to the printed cancels.  Examples of these cancels are shown below.

black cancel

orange-red cancel

forty cent pair with red-orange cancel

stamps courtesy of David Thompson

red cancel

black cancel

red cancel

 R175 pair with red cancel

red cancel

black cancel

black cancel

PSLAS perfin

My guess is that this perfin was applied as a precancel to this stamp, though an example on document would help confirmation.

PSLAS black handstamp

Made to look like the printed precancels, these handstamps may also have been applied as precancels.

PSLAS black handstamp