1898 Revenues: Auctions: Siegel June 21-24 Sale with Set of Battleship Proprietary Part Sheets

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Auctions: Siegel June 21-24 Sale with Set of Battleship Proprietary Part Sheets

Lot 951 listed for $36,716.05

The upcoming Robert Siegel sale June 21-24 includes lot 951, described as:

"Twelve items, including sheets of ten of the twelve denominations, others include No. RB26 block of 128 with single imprint and plate no. at lower right and No. RB29 block of 108 and rouletted 5 1/2 without imprint or plate no., all others with imprint and plate nos. at left and right, few imperfections to be exptected in so many large multiples including few perf separations sensibly reinforced or rejoined.

FINE-VERY FINE. A RARE AND DESIRABLE ASSEMBLAGE OF MULTIPLES CONTAINING PANES OF 100 OF TEN OF THE TWELVE DEONOMINATIONS OF THE 1898 BATTLESHIP PROPRIETARY ISSUE.

Scott retail as blocks of four, singles, and plate blocks (where listed) for the panes, and as blocks and singles for the blocks of 108. Plate blocks are listed but unpriced in Scott for Nos. RB 27, RB29, RB30, and RB31."

*****

Any takers for this pricey set of unused proprietaries? Given the value of this lot, I am a bit surprised by the imprecision of the description of the lot. The pictured item above seems to show that the RB31 sheet is RB31p, the hyphen-hole or slot-perfed variety of the stamp. The likely hammer price on this lot would compel any serious bidder to travel to see the stamps or at least ask for more information. However, there is nearly an order of magnitude in price difference between the HH versions and rouletted versions of RB31. Nobody would ever list a classic US postage stamp in an auction and neglect such a distinguishing factor as perf variety. Such is the ongoing (and 100+ year) lack of respect for battleships. Scott albums for decades never included spaces for rouletted and HHd battleships.

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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.