Here at 1898 Revenues I have written a series of posts, among others, on the stamped paper of the 1898 tax period. You can find links to all those posts below. Yet I also have a variety of other collecting interests and activities that are available on the web, and I invite you to visit those sites.
I'm currently serving as President of the American Revenue Association and Editor of The Check Collector, quarterly magazine of the American Society of Check Collectors. Ron Lesher and I are working on a book that should include all one could possibly want to know about the one and two-cent revenue stamped paper. And my interrupted interested in photography is starting to come back to life with the availability of competent digital cameras.
My collecting Interests include U.S. revenues, particularly revenue stamped paper and commercial covers franked with one or more of the 1938 Presidential definitive series. I've been collecting revenues for more than thirty years, and the Prexie covers for almost that long.
Exhibits: I've been exhibiting at World Series of Philately shows for more than ten years, and have become qualified as a judge. My only multiple-frame exhibit so far goes by the (too long) title of "Revenue Stamped Paper of the Spanish American War Tax Era." I show a subset of this, in more detail, in one frame: "Revenue Imprinted Parlor Car Tickets, 1898 - 1902." My other two active one-frame exhibits are "Martha Does Her Part - Use of the 1938 Martha Washington Definitive on Covers Mailed or Forwarded at One-and-One Half cent Rates, 1938-56" (talk about too long!) and "Evidences of the 1932 Check Tax." There is also one involving EFO's of the Civil War revenue stamped paper caused by the imprint printers which needs total revision and more thought about the point that it should be making. Who knows what else may follow?
Web Pages: I have put up web pages that include a look at Civil War revenue stamped paper plus inventories of the rarer types
My wife and I live in Northfield, Minnesota, within reasonable driving distance of our three married daughters and five grandchildren. My working life was spent as an actuary in Saint Louis, Missouri, but I've been too busy with other pursuits to do any remunerated work for some time now.
Posts/Entries on this website on stamped paper:
I began involvement with this website with a series of posts on Scott listed 1898 series stamped paper, all published in 2010:
Bob Hohertz on 1898 Series Stamped Paper Part 1 -- 2010 August 14
I’m happy and honored to be asked to contribute some notes to this site on the imprinted revenues used during the Spanish American War Tax Period. I’ll try to present material in the order of the Scott Specialized Catalog, except where I think it is incomplete or a bit misleading.
The imprint design was taken from the two that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing furnished to Morey & Sherwood and A. Trochsler & Company respectively, in 1874.
I did the combining in the illustration above using Photoshop, but by 1878 a similar design was in use on tobacco wrappers, and remained so until mid 1898. At that time the Bureau changed the wording in the circles around the numerals, changed the numerals themselves, and used the design for documentary imprints.
Since most of the 1898 documentary taxes above two cents were variable depending on the amount of the transaction, only one cent and two cent designs were produced.
Scott RN-X1: Bob Hohertz on 1898 Series Stamped Paper Part 2 -- 2010 August 15
X1. The one-cent rose imprints.
One-cent rose and red imprints were only used by the Pullman Company on parlor car tickets, so far as is known. One did not pay a tax to ride on a train unless it was in a luxury (parlor) car or one used a berth on an overnight trip.
Scott lists one-cent rose imprints as unused, used, and partial. There are two distinct kinds of unused tickets with rose imprints.
Figure 3. This is one of three currently-known unused multi-part tickets with rose imprints.
Figure 4. One of three or four known unused two-part tickets with rose imprints.
I do not know what Scott had in mind for used, but I suspect it would be a portion of a ticket that has substantially the entire imprint present.
Figure 5. There are probably fewer used multi-part tickets that include virtually the whole rose imprint than there are unused ones.
Partial tickets with rose imprints come in three sizes.
Figure 5a. This is what is usually left of a multi-part ticket. This one was used on the last day of the documentary taxes, June 30, 1902. A difficult to find date. Most of the documentary taxes had been repealed as of July 1, 1901, but the taxes on parlor car tickets had not. However, only the multi-part Pullman Company tickets were dated.
Figure 6. This is what the passenger would have retained of a two-part ticket. The ticket on the left has the imprint in the normal orientation, while the one on the right has an imprint that is “inverted” in relation to normal.
Figure 7. There were some multi-station tickets with red imprints. This stub is from one such. No unused copies are known.
X1. The one-cent dark red imprints.
This shade of imprint is only known on two-part Pullman Company tickets. They used it briefly, late in the tax period, so far as I can tell.
Scott does not list dark red as unused, but here is an entire, unused copy.
Partial copies are not common, either. The surviving used imprints are always on the yellow passenger’s stub, where they tend to look red-orange.
The imprint design was taken from the two that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing furnished to Morey & Sherwood and A. Trochsler & Company respectively, in 1874.
Fig1.
I did the combining in the illustration above using Photoshop, but by 1878 a similar design was in use on tobacco wrappers, and remained so until mid 1898. At that time the Bureau changed the wording in the circles around the numerals, changed the numerals themselves, and used the design for documentary imprints.
Fig 2. A proof of the one-cent design.
Since most of the 1898 documentary taxes above two cents were variable depending on the amount of the transaction, only one cent and two cent designs were produced.
Scott RN-X1: Bob Hohertz on 1898 Series Stamped Paper Part 2 -- 2010 August 15
X1. The one-cent rose imprints.
One-cent rose and red imprints were only used by the Pullman Company on parlor car tickets, so far as is known. One did not pay a tax to ride on a train unless it was in a luxury (parlor) car or one used a berth on an overnight trip.
Scott lists one-cent rose imprints as unused, used, and partial. There are two distinct kinds of unused tickets with rose imprints.
I do not know what Scott had in mind for used, but I suspect it would be a portion of a ticket that has substantially the entire imprint present.
Partial tickets with rose imprints come in three sizes.
X1. The one-cent dark red imprints.
This shade of imprint is only known on two-part Pullman Company tickets. They used it briefly, late in the tax period, so far as I can tell.
Scott does not list dark red as unused, but here is an entire, unused copy.
Figure 8.
Partial copies are not common, either. The surviving used imprints are always on the yellow passenger’s stub, where they tend to look red-orange.
Figure 9.
Scott RN-X4: Bob Hohertz on 1898 Series Stamped Paper Part 3 -- 2010 August 21
Since Scott RN-X3 was assigned to yellow imprints and is no longer listed in Scott, I’ll cover those and the orange ones under RN-X4. The shades range from one to the other anyway, and sorting them out is not a very productive pastime.
Scott lists one-cent orange unused, then X4a as on a Pullman ticket, unused, used, and partial. X4b is a Pullman ticket with the imprint on the back, only listed as a partial.
Figure 10. The tax on freight receipts was one cent from July 1, 1898 through June 30, 1902. This is the only type of non-ticket document currently known that bears a yellow or orange one-cent imprint. None are known used.
Although Scott lists all of the X4 tickets under “On Pullman ticket,” two other companies used that color of imprint.
Figure 11. The Chicago and North Western Railway had a split-concession agreement with the Pullman Company which allowed it to operate its own parlor cars during tax period, so it did not use Pullman tickets. This is a simplex ticket that used a special cutter to indicate the destination. The top part of the ticket was kept by the ticket agent, and the bottom half would have been collected by the porter on the train.
Figure 12. The Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railway aka Milwaukee Road used Pullman cars prior to 1890, but not during the tax period. Several unused copies of their two-part tickets bearing a yellow imprint are known.
Figure 13. Several types of Pullman tickets with yellow or orange imprints are known. This form was used in the first months of 1900.
Figure 14. The other type of unused Pullman ticket with a yellow or orange imprint was a two-part, used from 1898 until late 1900 when the imprints in red began to appear. This one is an upgrade ticket. The passenger would have been traveling second class, but wanting a berth for the night.
The catalog indicates the existence of a used copy of a ticket with a yellow or orange imprint which apparently is not a partial. This could be the ticket shown below, which probably had at least one more section above it. If so, it was not used, and their pricing is not appropriate. If not, I have not seen anything like what they are referring to and do not know how the listing originated.
Figure 15. A partial but unused Pullman ticket for an upper berth on a trip between Washington and Jersey City.
Figure 16. The standard two-part Pullman stubs are very much like those used by the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul.
Figure 17. Figure 18. Pullman used a variety of other ticket formats, such as these. Some are even larger, to accommodate a longer list of destinations.
Scott RN-X4b is a partial ticket with the imprint on the back. This listing originated in 1979 in the Handbook for United Revenue Stamped Paper by Joseph Einstein, Tomas Kingsley and W. Richard De Kay. They do not explain what they mean by front and back, and they imply that there are a number where the imprints are on each. All one-cent yellow and orange imprints I have seen are printed on what I consider to be the front, so I would be interested to know how they split them up. At any rate, I can’t illustrate RN-X4b for you.
Since Scott RN-X3 was assigned to yellow imprints and is no longer listed in Scott, I’ll cover those and the orange ones under RN-X4. The shades range from one to the other anyway, and sorting them out is not a very productive pastime.
Scott lists one-cent orange unused, then X4a as on a Pullman ticket, unused, used, and partial. X4b is a Pullman ticket with the imprint on the back, only listed as a partial.
Although Scott lists all of the X4 tickets under “On Pullman ticket,” two other companies used that color of imprint.
The catalog indicates the existence of a used copy of a ticket with a yellow or orange imprint which apparently is not a partial. This could be the ticket shown below, which probably had at least one more section above it. If so, it was not used, and their pricing is not appropriate. If not, I have not seen anything like what they are referring to and do not know how the listing originated.
Scott RN-X4b is a partial ticket with the imprint on the back. This listing originated in 1979 in the Handbook for United Revenue Stamped Paper by Joseph Einstein, Tomas Kingsley and W. Richard De Kay. They do not explain what they mean by front and back, and they imply that there are a number where the imprints are on each. All one-cent yellow and orange imprints I have seen are printed on what I consider to be the front, so I would be interested to know how they split them up. At any rate, I can’t illustrate RN-X4b for you.
Scott RN-X5: Bob Hohertz on 1898 Series Stamped Paper Part 4 -- 2010 August 28
The Scott Specialized listing for X5 is particularly messy. It begins with 1¢ green, unused and used. Since they list tickets later, this presumably refers to non-ticket items. There are three of these.
Figure 19: Freight receipt with a green imprint. The tax on a freight receipt was one cent from July 1, 1898 through June 30, 1902.
Figure 20. Telegram. Telegrams were taxed one cent during the four-year tax period.
Figure 21. Cablegram. Cablegrams were taxed the same way as telegrams.
No telegrams or cablegrams are known used. A copy of a used freight receipt was sold at auction some years ago, but I have not seen it. Also, a peculiar sort of use of these receipts was made in 1905, but I doubt that is what the Specialized means by used.
Figure 22. Receipt used as a menu. This philatelic curiosity was produced in the city of Chicago, also the headquarters of the Pullman Company. A member of the Chicago Philatelic Society was probably an employee of the Pullman Company and managed to acquire receipts on which to print the menu.
In the next line, Scott lists “Partial.” This makes no sense in reference to receipts, telegrams or cablegrams, and probably belongs below the next line, which is X5a, Parlor Car ticket.
At least three different kinds of unused non-Pullman parlor car tickets are known. They are quite rare, and the Scott price ($65 in 2008) is not realistic.
Figure 23. The only known Hocking Valley parlor car ticket. These would have been cut into two parts, one of which would have remained with the issuing agent and the other of which would have been collected on the train.
Figure 24. An unused chair car ticket. A chair car was very much like a recliner, and counted as a berth for tax purposes. This ticket also may be unique.
Figure 25. This Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway parlor car “seat check” was issued and trimmed at the left, but not used. I know of one other of these.
Used (non-partial) X5a tickets are perhaps the most common imprinted tickets now available, although they should not exist. All of them should have been collected on the train and destroyed. However, early in the last century a sizeable box of the ones used by the Pere Marquette Railway must have been salvaged. Virtually all of these were used in the early months of 1902.
Figure 26. A Pere Marquette ticket, used in February of 1902.
Figure 27. At least one Chicago and Northwestern simplex ticket stub survived somehow.
There are partial tickets that fall under X5a, which probably prompted the listing just above it.
Figure 28. Four Florida East Coast Railway stubs are known. One or more Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railway stubs with green imprints also exist.
X5b covers Pullman tickets. Only unused and partial are covered, but entire used copies also exist.
Figure 29. There are four styles of unused Pullman tickets with green imprints. This is the only currently known two-part multi-station one. They are rarer than X4a unused Pullman tickets, but priced lower.
Although there is no listing for them, used Pullman tickets containing substantially the entire imprint are known.
Figure 30. A used Pullman ticket that probably does not qualify as a “partial.”
There are four basic types of partial Pullman tickets with green imprints.
Figure 31. One of the less common Pullman stubs with green imprints specifies the origin and destination of the trip. It was used in June of 1900. Beginning in the last half of 1901 the imprints were placed on the back of multi-part tickets.
The Scott Specialized listing for X5 is particularly messy. It begins with 1¢ green, unused and used. Since they list tickets later, this presumably refers to non-ticket items. There are three of these.
Figure 19
Figure 19: Freight receipt with a green imprint. The tax on a freight receipt was one cent from July 1, 1898 through June 30, 1902.
Figure 20
Figure 20. Telegram. Telegrams were taxed one cent during the four-year tax period.
Figure 21
Figure 21. Cablegram. Cablegrams were taxed the same way as telegrams.
No telegrams or cablegrams are known used. A copy of a used freight receipt was sold at auction some years ago, but I have not seen it. Also, a peculiar sort of use of these receipts was made in 1905, but I doubt that is what the Specialized means by used.
Figure 22
Figure 22. Receipt used as a menu. This philatelic curiosity was produced in the city of Chicago, also the headquarters of the Pullman Company. A member of the Chicago Philatelic Society was probably an employee of the Pullman Company and managed to acquire receipts on which to print the menu.
In the next line, Scott lists “Partial.” This makes no sense in reference to receipts, telegrams or cablegrams, and probably belongs below the next line, which is X5a, Parlor Car ticket.
At least three different kinds of unused non-Pullman parlor car tickets are known. They are quite rare, and the Scott price ($65 in 2008) is not realistic.
Figure 23
Figure 23. The only known Hocking Valley parlor car ticket. These would have been cut into two parts, one of which would have remained with the issuing agent and the other of which would have been collected on the train.
Figure 24
Figure 24. An unused chair car ticket. A chair car was very much like a recliner, and counted as a berth for tax purposes. This ticket also may be unique.
Figure 25
Figure 25. This Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway parlor car “seat check” was issued and trimmed at the left, but not used. I know of one other of these.
Used (non-partial) X5a tickets are perhaps the most common imprinted tickets now available, although they should not exist. All of them should have been collected on the train and destroyed. However, early in the last century a sizeable box of the ones used by the Pere Marquette Railway must have been salvaged. Virtually all of these were used in the early months of 1902.
Figure 26
Figure 26. A Pere Marquette ticket, used in February of 1902.
Figure 27
Figure 27. At least one Chicago and Northwestern simplex ticket stub survived somehow.
There are partial tickets that fall under X5a, which probably prompted the listing just above it.
Figure 28
Figure 28. Four Florida East Coast Railway stubs are known. One or more Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railway stubs with green imprints also exist.
X5b covers Pullman tickets. Only unused and partial are covered, but entire used copies also exist.
Figure 29
Figure 29. There are four styles of unused Pullman tickets with green imprints. This is the only currently known two-part multi-station one. They are rarer than X4a unused Pullman tickets, but priced lower.
Although there is no listing for them, used Pullman tickets containing substantially the entire imprint are known.
Figure 30
Figure 30. A used Pullman ticket that probably does not qualify as a “partial.”
There are four basic types of partial Pullman tickets with green imprints.
Figure 31
Figure 31. One of the less common Pullman stubs with green imprints specifies the origin and destination of the trip. It was used in June of 1900. Beginning in the last half of 1901 the imprints were placed on the back of multi-part tickets.
Scott RN-X6: Bob Hohertz on 1898 Series Stamped Paper Part 5 -- 2010 October 19
Starting on the two-cent X designs, RN X6 is fairly simple. There are many different shades of the two-cent imprints, but only three are listed, two under X6: yellow and pale olive.
Unlike the Civil War imprints, some X’s do appear to be pure yellow. Which ones may depend on the eye of the beholder. To me, the imprint on this ornate check is a good example. In the area of imprinted revenues, any murky color that cannot be readily identified is classified as “olive.”
This check is the only one currently considered to have an imprint colored “pale olive.” I have seen an one on a check of another user that could be classified as such as well. There was no regulation specifying imprint colors, so anything could be used providing it did not interfere with the function of the document.
Starting on the two-cent X designs, RN X6 is fairly simple. There are many different shades of the two-cent imprints, but only three are listed, two under X6: yellow and pale olive.
Figure 32.
Unlike the Civil War imprints, some X’s do appear to be pure yellow. Which ones may depend on the eye of the beholder. To me, the imprint on this ornate check is a good example. In the area of imprinted revenues, any murky color that cannot be readily identified is classified as “olive.”
Figure 33.
This check is the only one currently considered to have an imprint colored “pale olive.” I have seen an one on a check of another user that could be classified as such as well. There was no regulation specifying imprint colors, so anything could be used providing it did not interfere with the function of the document.
Two-cent imprint trial color proofs are known in brown, green and black at least, though none of these colors were used in practice.
Figure 34
Trial color proof in brown.
Figure 35. Trial color proof in green.
No actual use of green for two-cent imprints is known.
Scott RN-X7: Bob Hohertz on 1898 Series Stamped Paper Part 6 -- 2010 November 3
Scott RN-X7 is listed as being 2¢ “orange,” with a line just below for “pale orange.” Scott would have been much better off just saying “(shades)” after the initial listing, as they do in the listings for other types of revenue stamped paper imprints. There are myriad variations in color that fall under X7, and many of them are not “pale.”
In fact, there is a gradation between yellow and orange that makes it difficult to tell where one leaves off and the other begins.
Figure 36. I do not make any attempt to distinguish between X6 and X7 in my collection, as otherwise identical checks are known to have imprints that vary. These two certificates of deposit were used in the first half of 1899, but presumably come from two different printings since the imprint on one is orange, and the other, yellow.
Figure 37. The imprint on this unused certificate of deposit is pretty clearly orange, to my eyes.
Figure 38. Pale orange, to be sure. If the color were much lighter, it wouldn’t be there.
Figure 41. An unused check with a printed Alaska dateline. The only one currently known.
Figure 42. A check with a Hawaii dateline, used by Oahu College in 1901.
Figure 43. A personal check signed by ex-President Benjamin Harrison shortly before his death.
Figure 44. An imprinted money order. Three are currently known, only one from this company. A philatelic souvenir to be sure, as all surviving money orders from this period are, but if it had not been created we would not have known that the Adams Express Company had used imprinted revenues.
Like color, value is in the eye of the proverbial beholder.
X7a is “printed on back only,” and values are given for used and unused examples. At this point we need to get into the subject of the star-punched oddities.
A number of unused, imprinted checks and drafts are known with a group of four to six star punches arcing through the imprints. Some of these have unusual placement of the imprint, or some other problem, sometimes with the imprint, sometimes with the check or draft itself. A good number of these were printed by William Carrie of Boston, who also was licensed to print the imprints. They may have come from that company’s files, but nobody knows for sure.
In a number of cases the imprints on these star-punched items are in unusual places that do not appear to be required for any logical reason, which is the case for unused X7a's. Those I own or have seen have no vignette on the front to cause the imprint to be moved to the back, and in all cases the imprint is inverted on the back as well. They are not quite printer's waste, but they do not appear to have been prepared for use in that form, either. How should these be treated by Scott? Delisted? Footnoted?
Figure 45. An unused check with a Puerto Rico dateline, (inverted) imprint on the back only, badly miscut and bearing star punches.
Figure 46. Genuinely issued and used checks and drafts are know with the imprint placed on the back to avoid a vignette on the front. This Northern Steamship Company merchant’s draft is one of the most handsome examples known.
X7b is missing from Scott. Quite some time ago it was the minor listing for a parlor car ticket, which now is X7i.
X7c is “printed on front and back.” There was no reason to do this in connection with the Spanish American War imprints, and any such check is due to an error. Again, the unused example is one of the star-punched oddities.
Figure 47. There is no reason this check should have an (inverted) imprint on the back.
At least two used checks exist with an imprint on both front and back. These would have been created by the imprint printer running a sheet through the press the wrong way, noticing the mistake, and then putting it through the right way. There was no reason that this needed to be done, and no reason not to do it. It would have been up to the printer.
Figure 48. This check has complete imprints on both front and back. The one on the back serves no purpose. The other used example has the imprint on the back inverted as well.
X7d is reserved for instruments with the imprint “vertical.” Several users chose to have this done to avoid imprints in the center of the checks. There is no listing for an unused example, but one does exist, with star punches. If Scott is going to list other varieties based on star-punched examples, why not here?
Figure 49. The only currently known unused check with a vertical imprint.
Figure 50. A used example with a vertical imprint at left. Several different users chose this orientation.
Figure 51. The only known example of a check with a vertical imprint at right.
X7e is an imprint with a double impression. I do not know of a used example of a true double impression (run through the press twice,) but that is all that Scott lists. An unused example with the star punches does exist, but again is not used as a basis for listing.
Figure 52. The imprint on this check appears to be a true double impression.
Figure 53. The imprint on this used check exhibits light doubling of the design at lower right. This is probably due to some slippage during printing, rather than a complete second pass through the press.
Figure 54. This is not exactly what we think of as a double impression, but it is obvious that the check went through the press twice. Why, is anyone’s guess.
X7i is the number for the two-cent imprint on a parlor car ticket. Two unused examples are known.
Figure 55. One of the two entire parlor car tickets with a two-cent imprint. It was used for a section, while the other example was used for a stateroom.
Figure 57. X7i is known in golden-yellow, and if the listings were consistent something should appear under X6 for parlor car tickets, in my humble opinion. I'd rather see X6 deleted and "shades" added to X7, with a minor listing for olive under X7. Also, to be consistent with the way X1, X4 and X5 are listed, there should be a distinction between "used" and "partial" tickets, as the items above show that both exist.
X7g is the listing for inverted imprints. There is no listing for unused copies, and none are known.
Figure 58. Inverted imprints are known on the checks or drafts of nine different users. This is one of the first two recorded examples.
There are several other imprint varieties that could be listed under X7. One is the presence of a twenty centimes French revenue handstamp on the check, along the lines of RN B1d, the American Phototype design with a ten centimes handstamp.
Figure 59. Perhaps the most fanciful listing would be for “omitted imprint.” The only way to tell if an imprint is totally omitted is for the check to be attached to one with an imprint, as below. The bottom check in this pair probably was folded under the one above it when the sheet went through the press.
This completes a run-through of the Scott-listed X types. If and when I can decide what the status of the star-punched items should be, I may try to have the catalog changed to reflect what is and is not known to exist.
One final star-punched oddity:
Figure 61. How would you describe the imprint(s) on this check? It looks like it was used to clean the press...
Additional stamped paper entries have included a variety of subjects:
Imprinted Check for Use by the Jr. O.U.A.M. -- Hohertz: 2011 August 31
Scott RN-X7 is listed as being 2¢ “orange,” with a line just below for “pale orange.” Scott would have been much better off just saying “(shades)” after the initial listing, as they do in the listings for other types of revenue stamped paper imprints. There are myriad variations in color that fall under X7, and many of them are not “pale.”
In fact, there is a gradation between yellow and orange that makes it difficult to tell where one leaves off and the other begins.
Figure 36
Figure 36. I do not make any attempt to distinguish between X6 and X7 in my collection, as otherwise identical checks are known to have imprints that vary. These two certificates of deposit were used in the first half of 1899, but presumably come from two different printings since the imprint on one is orange, and the other, yellow.
Figure 37
Figure 37. The imprint on this unused certificate of deposit is pretty clearly orange, to my eyes.
Figure 38
Figure 38. Pale orange, to be sure. If the color were much lighter, it wouldn’t be there.
Figure 39
Figure 39. Apricot?
Figure 40
Figure 40. Almost brown. Enough on colors. A used X7 catalogs in the range of $1.00, which is meaningless. Here are four examples that would bring much more, considering location, signer, or the type of document.
Figure 41
Figure 41. An unused check with a printed Alaska dateline. The only one currently known.
Figure 42
Figure 42. A check with a Hawaii dateline, used by Oahu College in 1901.
Figure 43
Figure 43. A personal check signed by ex-President Benjamin Harrison shortly before his death.
Figure 44
Figure 44. An imprinted money order. Three are currently known, only one from this company. A philatelic souvenir to be sure, as all surviving money orders from this period are, but if it had not been created we would not have known that the Adams Express Company had used imprinted revenues.
Like color, value is in the eye of the proverbial beholder.
X7a is “printed on back only,” and values are given for used and unused examples. At this point we need to get into the subject of the star-punched oddities.
A number of unused, imprinted checks and drafts are known with a group of four to six star punches arcing through the imprints. Some of these have unusual placement of the imprint, or some other problem, sometimes with the imprint, sometimes with the check or draft itself. A good number of these were printed by William Carrie of Boston, who also was licensed to print the imprints. They may have come from that company’s files, but nobody knows for sure.
In a number of cases the imprints on these star-punched items are in unusual places that do not appear to be required for any logical reason, which is the case for unused X7a's. Those I own or have seen have no vignette on the front to cause the imprint to be moved to the back, and in all cases the imprint is inverted on the back as well. They are not quite printer's waste, but they do not appear to have been prepared for use in that form, either. How should these be treated by Scott? Delisted? Footnoted?
Figure 45
Figure 45. An unused check with a Puerto Rico dateline, (inverted) imprint on the back only, badly miscut and bearing star punches.
Figure 46
Figure 46. Genuinely issued and used checks and drafts are know with the imprint placed on the back to avoid a vignette on the front. This Northern Steamship Company merchant’s draft is one of the most handsome examples known.
X7b is missing from Scott. Quite some time ago it was the minor listing for a parlor car ticket, which now is X7i.
X7c is “printed on front and back.” There was no reason to do this in connection with the Spanish American War imprints, and any such check is due to an error. Again, the unused example is one of the star-punched oddities.
Figure 47
Figure 47. There is no reason this check should have an (inverted) imprint on the back.
At least two used checks exist with an imprint on both front and back. These would have been created by the imprint printer running a sheet through the press the wrong way, noticing the mistake, and then putting it through the right way. There was no reason that this needed to be done, and no reason not to do it. It would have been up to the printer.
Figure 48
Figure 48. This check has complete imprints on both front and back. The one on the back serves no purpose. The other used example has the imprint on the back inverted as well.
X7d is reserved for instruments with the imprint “vertical.” Several users chose to have this done to avoid imprints in the center of the checks. There is no listing for an unused example, but one does exist, with star punches. If Scott is going to list other varieties based on star-punched examples, why not here?
Figure 49
Figure 49. The only currently known unused check with a vertical imprint.
Figure 50
Figure 50. A used example with a vertical imprint at left. Several different users chose this orientation.
Figure 51
Figure 51. The only known example of a check with a vertical imprint at right.
X7e is an imprint with a double impression. I do not know of a used example of a true double impression (run through the press twice,) but that is all that Scott lists. An unused example with the star punches does exist, but again is not used as a basis for listing.
Figure 52
Figure 52. The imprint on this check appears to be a true double impression.
Figure 53
Figure 53. The imprint on this used check exhibits light doubling of the design at lower right. This is probably due to some slippage during printing, rather than a complete second pass through the press.
Figure 53a. Detail of the doubled area.
Figure 54
Figure 54. This is not exactly what we think of as a double impression, but it is obvious that the check went through the press twice. Why, is anyone’s guess.
X7i is the number for the two-cent imprint on a parlor car ticket. Two unused examples are known.
Figure 55
Figure 55. One of the two entire parlor car tickets with a two-cent imprint. It was used for a section, while the other example was used for a stateroom.
Figure 56. Used X7i’s are almost as rare as the unused ones.
Figure 57
Figure 57. X7i is known in golden-yellow, and if the listings were consistent something should appear under X6 for parlor car tickets, in my humble opinion. I'd rather see X6 deleted and "shades" added to X7, with a minor listing for olive under X7. Also, to be consistent with the way X1, X4 and X5 are listed, there should be a distinction between "used" and "partial" tickets, as the items above show that both exist.
X7g is the listing for inverted imprints. There is no listing for unused copies, and none are known.
Figure 58
Figure 58. Inverted imprints are known on the checks or drafts of nine different users. This is one of the first two recorded examples.
There are several other imprint varieties that could be listed under X7. One is the presence of a twenty centimes French revenue handstamp on the check, along the lines of RN B1d, the American Phototype design with a ten centimes handstamp.
Figure 59.
Figure 59. Perhaps the most fanciful listing would be for “omitted imprint.” The only way to tell if an imprint is totally omitted is for the check to be attached to one with an imprint, as below. The bottom check in this pair probably was folded under the one above it when the sheet went through the press.
Figure 60
This completes a run-through of the Scott-listed X types. If and when I can decide what the status of the star-punched items should be, I may try to have the catalog changed to reflect what is and is not known to exist.
One final star-punched oddity:
Figure 61
Figure 61. How would you describe the imprint(s) on this check? It looks like it was used to clean the press...
Additional stamped paper entries have included a variety of subjects:
Imprinted Check for Use by the Jr. O.U.A.M. -- Hohertz: 2011 August 31
