Sunday, November 3, 2024

New York Stock Brokers: Halsted & Hodges vs Halsted & Hollister

There were two firms on Wall Street during the 1898-1902 tax period that had the initials H&H: Halsted & Hodges and Halsted & Hollister.  That both firms also had the name Halsted as the first name in the partnership occasionally complicates cancel identity.  For years I had this stamp with my Halsted & Hodges cancels:


Eventually I found a $2 version of this stamp with the box cancel complete, showing the full "Halsted & Hollister".  The stamp can be found further below mounted next to the one dollar stamp.

It turns out that Halsted & Hollister were not in business until 1901 or potentially late 1900, so their cancels don't show up till later in the tax period.  Halsted & Hodges, on the other hand, were in business across the tax period, from 1898 through 1902, and their cancels are more commonly found.  Their simpler block letter cancel is found on the broker's memo below:



The only Halsted & Hollister cancels I've found to date seem to be unique on Wall Street for the time, as they incorporate "PAID" in large outlined letters in the cancel:


Meanwhile, the Halsted & Hodges cancels are more familiar, with a double oval cancel early in the tax period giving way to the block letter cancel later.  The double oval is on the green R173 below:


No comments:

Post a Comment