1898 Revenues: What are Printed Precancels on 1898 Documentary Revenue Stamps? A Primer Part Two

Saturday, July 6, 2024

What are Printed Precancels on 1898 Documentary Revenue Stamps? A Primer Part Two

The Railroads of the Chicago & Northwestern System

Part one of this series highlighted the Chicago & Northwestern Railway. However, the Chicago & Northwestern "System" was referred to several times in the post. There were three other railroads in the C&NW system shown on the map provided in part one, and they all used collectible printed precancels, so that of the 20 or so railroads that used printed precancels, the C&NW system represented roughly 20% of the total. The additional railroads included:

the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway,
the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad, and
the Sioux City & Pacific Railroad

All four railroads added year dates to some of their printed cancels, a unique feature of this railroad "system".

Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway:

C. St. P. M. & O.

Ry. Co.

..................1900

All of the cancels of the railroads in this post are not common. Of these, CStPM&O cancels are the most frequently seen, with cancels that have year dates for 1899, 1900, 1901, and some without a year date. By contrast, many of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway printed cancels are some of the most commonly found.

Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad:

F. E. & M. V. R. R.

-----------------------

1902

FE&MVRR cancels are much scarder than those of the CStPM&O, and have year dates that range from no date to 1899 through 1902.

Sioux City & Pacific Railroad:

S. C. & P. R. R.

-------------------

1899

SC&PRR cancels are yet again scarcer than those of the FE&MVRR, and have year dates that include no date, 1899, and 1900.

C&NW System map. The CMStP&O is the railroad shown by the dashed line running northwest from Madison, WI, up to the twin cities and then down into Iowa and Nebraska. The original mainline of the Fremont, Elkhorn ran from Omaha to Deadwood, South Dakota. The original mainline of the Sioux City & Pacific ran from Missouri Valley, Iowa, to Sioux City, Iowa.

In the next post I will begin to explore the major collectible varieties among the railroads in the Chicago & Northwestern System.

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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.