1898 Revenues: Abbott Alkaloidal Handstamps and Joyce/Buford Lists

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Abbott Alkaloidal Handstamps and Joyce/Buford Lists

In yesterday's Abbott Alkaloidal post, I mentioned that the Joyce/Buford data contains listings for handstamps for most companies. The handstamp list was not posted or discussed yesterday. But last night, Bob Hohertz sent in the scan above of a handstamp cancel from Abbott Alkaloidal. So I figure it is a good idea to show the J/B handstamp data (UBCJ stands for "Unlisted by Chappell Joyce):

Type H 1 UBCJ

1/8c DEC 10 1898 Violet R

3/8c DEC 24 1898 Violet R

Type H 2 UBCJ

1/4c FEB 3 1899 Violet R

MAR 14 1900 Violet R

3/8c FEB 3 1899 Violet R

AUG 2 1900 Violet R

AUG 10 1900 Blue R

JAN 29 1901 Violet HH

5/8c SEP 25 1899 Violet R

JAN 18 1900 Violet R This is the stamp shown above

FEB 20 1900 Violet HH

MAR 14 1900 Violet HH

JULY 10 1900 Violet HH

SEP 26 1900 Violet HH

NOV 12 1900 Violet HH

1c APR 7 1900 Violet R

APR 26 1900 Violet R

1 1/4c APR 11 1899 Violet R

JUL 5 1899 Violet R

SEP 12 1899 Violet R

SEP 25 1899 Violet R Double

OCT 26 1899 Violet R

NOV 24 1899 Violet R

JAN 20 1900 Violet R

JAN 26 1900 Violet R

JUN 22 1900 Violet HH

AUG 27 1900 Violet HH

SEP 24 1900 Violet HH

OCT 5 1900 Violet HH

OCT 9 1900 Violet HH

NOV 6 1900 Violet HH

MAY 13 1901 Violet HH

2c NOV 7 1899 Blue R

26-Feb Violet R No Year

2 1/2c FEB 1 1899 Violet R

APR 17 1899 Blue R

SEP 21 1899 Blue R

JAN 18 1900 Blue R

MAR 14 1900 Blue R

JUN 12 1900 Blue HH

SEP 1 1900 Violet HH

SEP 13 1900 Blue HH

JAN 7 1901 Violet HH

5c SEP 19 1899 Violet R

DEC 20 1899 Blue R

JUN 12 1900 Violet R

JUN 20 1900 Blue R

NOV 5 1900 Violet R

As you might know, the website Battleship Revenues is far more authoritative on proprietary handstamps than anything you are ever likely to find on this site, and I recommend that anyone interested in the subject purchase a copy of The Battleship Desk Reference (BDR), or make use of the online database that draws from the BDR.

The Chappell/Joyce list occasionally includes handstamps, as defined originally by Clarence Chappell. Joyce maintained the same protocol of including the handstamps in his list of companies that printed private dies and printed cancels for the updated 1950s list. For example, listings for Antikamnia include several handstamp types prior to the listings for printed cancels, such that Chappell/Joyce lists Antikamnia handstamps for types 1 through 4, and does not begin to list printed cancels until type 5. I have always found this situation very confusing, and apparently, by the time the Joyce/Buford data was put into form, so did its maker find the combined handstamp and printed types confusing. Hence, the printed cancels in the Joyce/Buford data receive their own type "P" designation, leading to labels of types P1, P2..., and handstamps receive a similar designation with an "H".

As Bob Mustacich has demonstrated at Battleship Revenues, the field of proprietary handstamp cancels is nearly an inexhaustible one for the collector. These space will look at these cancels on occasion, but not as a matter of regular practice.

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Unusual Ink on the 1898 Series Dollar Values

THESE STAMPS ARE BOTH SCOTT R191! From fugitive ink to color changelings with unknown origins. These are both copies of R191. Can only exposure to light produce the color changes you see in stamp on the right? Or possibly a soak in bleach or other chemical? I doubt it. These stamps have so many examples of changelings that there must be something else happening. The ink used on this dark green series of stamps was different than that known on any other BEP printed stamps, never mind the varnish square. It is likely the BEP was experimenting with ink on this issue. Inks are discussed further if you click on the stamps.

Collecting Cancels

Welcome to 1898 Revenues, a website that features the stamps used to pay the Spanish-American war taxes imposed by the US Government starting in July, 1898. But while this site features those stamps in general, a focus is on their cancels, and on the firms that applied them. Unlike US postage stamps, which were canceled by the US Post Office and now Postal Service, revenue stamps were ordered to be canceled by their users in such a way that the identity of the user and the date was included in the cancel. This makes the collecting possibilities nearly endless, so that a single variety of stamp, for example, the 2 cent battleship stamp intended to pay documentary taxes, had potentially millions of different users, and therefore as many different cancels. Please browse the site and discover the collecting possibilities, made so much more accessible now through online sales. Cancels on these stamps have become much more interesting and accessible with the massive amounts of archival and historical data available on line. Rather than hours spent in libraries or with heavy volumes to identify cancels, search engines allow for cancel sleuthing at home.

Battleship Proprietary Printed Cancels: Updating the Joyce/Chappell Lists

In the 1950s, Morton Dean Joyce updated a list of printed cancels on the battleship proprietaries compiled by Clarence Chappell. Joyce's is a very long list consisting of more than one hundred companies and thousands of cancel dates. In the years since Joyce completed his list, many new cancel dates have been demonstrated to exist, and an update of the 1950s list is needed.

This site is attempting that update. Using the Joyce/Chappell lists and the former collection of Henry Tolman (ARA #25) as a base, a gradual effort will be made to post updated lists to the best of my knowledge, making a call for those that can contribute new dates and new images of those cancels.

Following in this column are quick links to excel files of these lists by company. Also are links to the posts that I have made on this blog regarding these companies and their cancels.