1898 Revenues: September 2024

Sunday, September 15, 2024

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad Usage Example(s)

Saint Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad precanceled one cent battleship stamps, while not common, are reasonably available to the collector. However, I have found that most of the examples I have ever seen have rather insignificant secondary cancels, usually manuscript or handstamp dates. Occasionally a stamp turns up with some additional information in a handstamp, though I have yet to find an on-document use of this precancel.

Non-Burlington Route handstamp cancel:

St. L., K. & N. W. R. R. precancel with Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad aka "Big Four" handstamp from Alton, Illinois

The St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad did not run in Illinois, though it did connect with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy that did run through Alton on its way from St. Louis to Chicago. Somehow this stamp was canceled by the CCC&StL in Alton.

Saturday, September 14, 2024

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: the St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad Collectible Types

The St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad ran roughly north-south along the western side of the Mississippi river between St. Louis and Keokuk, Missouri, and connected with several Burlington Route railroads including the Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Hannibal & St. Joseph.

The railrod produced three types of precancels. The first type, a non-serifed 24.5mm long cancel, is known on the both the roulette and hyphen-hole one cent battleship stamps. The second type, using the same set of type as type one, is 22mm long, visibly shorter to the naked eye. The shorter cancel is only known on the roulette one cent battleship, though it is possible that HH examples might be out there. Lastly there is a third type, in art deco-ish letters, that has only been found on a single example of R155. The type 3 was unknown to Fullerton.

Type one roulette:

Saint Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad type one precancel on one cent battleship roulette.

Type one hyphen-hole:

Saint Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad type one precancel on one cent battleship hyphen-hole.

Type two roulette:

Saint Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad type two precancel on one cent battleship roulette.

Type three R155:

Saint Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad type three precancel on R155.

Thursday, September 12, 2024

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad Uses

Something of a north-south railroad that ran along the Missouri and Iowa side of the Nebraka and Kansas border, the railroad's cancels can be found from towns along that route. The railroad connected with the main Burlington Route lines of the CB&Q and the Hannibal & St. Joseph which ran primarily east west.

Precancel with Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad Iatan, Missouri hand stamp

Precancel with Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad Hopkins, Missouri hand stamp.

Precancel with Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad McPaul, Iowa hand stamp

KCStJ&CBRR bill of lading for a bundle (?) of springs.

Consigned to the George Ertel Company of Quincy, Illinois, a manufacturer of farm equipment.

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad Collectible Types and Varieties

Two types of Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad precancels exist. There is a type one which is 24.75mm long, and a type two which is 23.25mm long. The difference is visible to the naked eye when compared, but measuring is recommended. The precancel is only known on the one cent battleship stamp. An HH version of the type two is unknown but possibly exists.

Type one:

Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad type one precancel on one cent roulette battlship

Type one:

Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad type one precancel on one cent hyphen-hole battlship

Type two:

Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad type two precancel on one cent roulette battlship

Technically, the cancel above might be a "variety" of the type two, as the comma that should be after the first "C" is instead placed after the period of "St". This is the only example of the KCSt.J&CBRR I have. As I've written before, the typesetters of these types of cancels on this railroad and of the CB&Q and the St.LK&NW were rather sloppy with their punctuation placement and made many errors.

Varieties:

No Period after second "R" exists on both the roulette and hyphen-hole stamps. Fullerton listed only the HH with the variety.

Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad type one precancel on one cent roulette battlship, no period after second "R".

Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad type one precancel on one cent hyphen-hole battlship, no period after second "R".

Sunday, September 8, 2024

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: Uses by the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad

Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad precancel with H&StJRR Kansas City hand stamp

Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad precancel with Burlington Route Cameron, Missouri hand stamp

Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad precancel with St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad, Hannibal, Missouri hand stamp

Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad bill of lading with H&StJRR precancel for 85 bags of ACME cement. Was W. J. Skidmore an agent or alias for Wile E. Coyote?

Reverse side of the bill of lading:

Saturday, September 7, 2024

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad

The Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, a major Burlington Route component that ran across Missouri just south of the Iowa border, produced one type of precancel, and apparently, only used that precancel on the one cent battleship, on both roulette and hyphen-hole versions of the stamp. Fullerton reported that the two cent battleship can be found with this cancel; I cannot verify that it exists on the stamp and am looking for confirmation. Neither Clarence Chappell nor Charles Metz reported the two cent stamp with the precancel; I have not found one for my collection nor have I seen it in the collections of others.

Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad precancel on one cent roulette

Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad precancel on one cent hyphen-hole

Thursday, September 5, 2024

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: the Chicago, Fort Madison & Des Moines Railroad

Like the Chicago, Burlington & Northern, the Chicago, Fort Madison & Des Moines Railroad's precancels are rare, or more specifically in the case of the CFtM&DM, possibly unique. There is only one example known to collectors; the scan of the stamp with the damaged corners below is the known copy. The 1900 Poor's manual reported that the CB&Q bought out this short line railroad completely in December 1899, which would be consistent with the existence of this precancel on hyphen-hole stamps, but there might have also been roulette versions of this cancel. None seem to have been preserved for collectors.

Chicago, Fort Madison & Des Moines Railroad precancel on one cent hyphen-hole

Tuesday, September 3, 2024

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: The Chicago, Burlington & Northern Railroad

The Chicago, Burlington & Northern Railroad's precancel is only known to exist on the roulette one cent battleship; the railroad was fully absorbed into the CB&Q in 1899, before the Bureau of Engraving and Printing began using hyphen-hole perforations. Joyce also marked this precancel as rare in his stockbook. In my experience I know of at least five examples. I assume there are a few more in the hands of collectors, perhaps more left for discovery.

One cent roulette with Chicago, Burlington & Northern Railroad precancel with Prescott, Wisconsin hand stamp.

Sunday, September 1, 2024

A Collector's Guide to 1898 Documentary Printed Precancels: the Chicago, Burlilngton & Kansas City Railway

The Chicago, Burlington & Kansas, compared to the CB&Q and B&MRRR in Nebraska, was a relatively short railroad in the stable of Burlington Route Railroads, running entirely within Iowa and Missouri. The railroad's precancels are quite scarce, and according to Joyce in the notes in his stockbook, "rare". Joyce also apparently had a blue ink version of the cancel on the roulette stamp, which I have never seen.

One cent roulette

One cent hyphen-hole

Unusual Ink on the 1898 Series Dollar Values

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.

Criteria for Cancels Included in these Updated Lists

The updated lists on this site will not include handstamped cancels. Printed and typed cancels will be included. This differs from the Chappell and Joyce criteria for inclusion.

Joyce used criteria for including cancels in his lists based on Chappell's original criteria. From the introduction of Chappell's original list: "Only the printed and typed cancels will be given consideration in this list. The only exception being those firms who also had private die stamps in this period. The handstamps of these few companies are of general interest and I feel they should be included." I don't think the "general interest" consideration is a strong enough reason to complicate an already complicated set of lists. The handstamps listed by Chappell and Joyce are not printed by definition, they are likely not exhaustive, and by virtue of being handstamps are prone to innumerable types and subtypes. I reason that if a new list is of printed cancels, we should keep it that way, and let others that have have done more work on the subject of proprietary handstamps handle those cancels.

Thus, if you are interested in the handstamp cancels of any of the firms in the updated printed cancel lists, please refer to the excellent work of Robert Mustacich and his Battleship Desk Reference at http://www.battleship-revenues.com/.

The practice of eliminating handstamp cancels from the updated lists will have implications for the revision of cancel types from the Joyce lists. For example, the first few Antikamnia cancel types according to both Joyce and Chappell are handcancels. These cancels will no longer be included as cancel types.

The goal will be to minimize confusion for those who come to collect these cancels and make sense out of them.