1898 Revenues: Auctions: Helmholz & Remick Futures Contract

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Auctions: Helmholz & Remick Futures Contract

This 1899 Chicago Board of Trade contract shown sold on Sunday, December 11 on Ebay for $32.88. Compare this with the stamps used as examples in the price discussion for used documentary revenues in this post on December 13. While those used stamps have little value, those on this small futures memorandum of sale are a different matter. $32.88 is not a fortune, but it is +30x the value of the same stamps off cover and without distinguishing cancels.

The bidding for this item was interesting. It appears that three collectors or dealers placed "snipe" bids. All three snipers have an extensive Ebay sales or purchase history as indicated by the number of transactions.

Clearlly, by this bidding pattern, this is a document wanted by advanced collectors and dealers of material catering to those collectors. I can't be sure why this item was so popular with those sniping bidders, but I can take a guess:

Two special characteristics of this piece may have driven the final sale price above $30:

1. The cancels are special: big clear ornamental shields that neatly tie the stamps to the piece.

2. The memorandum has a statement regarding documentary tax requirements at the upper right. It reads:

STAMP TAX

For each one hundred dollars in value or fractional part thereof ONE CENT.

Immediately below this statement fall the stamps with a total of 15 cents in face value. This contract sold for $1500. The guidance regarding the stamp tax requirements is scarce; this document was used at the Chicago Board of Trade; I would guess that other CBOT traders might have used similar documents.

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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.