The American Revenuer, 4th Quarter 2024: Listing an R163 Bisect in the Scott Catalog

Consider this post a part of a campaign to add a new listing the US Scott Specialized Catalog.  Over the past year or so, two different troves of bisects have come to the attention of this philatelist, and with the assistance of Frank Sente, David Thompson and Dan Harding, an article was published this past quarter on those bisects in The American Revenuer, aka "TAR".  Below is a slightly altered version of that aricle.

The Case for a New Scott U. S. Specialized Catalog Listing: The R163 One Cent Battleship Bisect
by John Langlois and Frank Sente

The Issue

The Scott U. S. Specialized Catalog should list an R163 bisect. Ten bisected examples of the 1898 one cent battleship revenue stamp, Scott number R163, are known to the authors to exist on document fragments and are pictured here. While the Scott U. S. Specialized Catalog lists a one cent I.R. overprinted R154 bisect, R154d, there is no listing for an R163 bisect, despite overwhelming evidence of the legitimate existence of these bisects.

The Evidence

The verified examples are made up of stamps tied to document fragments by hand stamped cancels on paper consistent with insurance documents, and were produced by three different sources: the Northern Assurance Company (3 examples), and the insurance agents H. D. Eichelberger of Richmond Virginia (6 examples) and D. Redfield & Son of Ardmore, Indian Territory (1 example).

 

Background

Starting in 2017, the Scott US Specialized Catalog began a new listing under the number R154, the provisionally I. R. overprinted one cent Scott 279 postage stamp; the bisect is assigned Scott Number R154d. Len McMaster and Frank Sente soon published an article on the bisect in the 2017 fourth quarter edition of The American Revenuer, illustrating three different examples of R154d, including two on full documents: a travel accident policy and a plate glass insurance policy, in addition to an insurance document fragment. The conclusion called for collectors to share usage examples of bisected provisionals and battleships, and included a reference to Joseph Einstein’s 1986 TAR report of two one cent battleship bisects on document fragments. This article provides examples of both, including R154d with manuscript cancels produced by the same H. D. Eichelberger & Company that produced hand stamped tied battleship bisects.

The overprinted postage stamps did not include a half cent value, though the new war revenue law taxed insurance premiums (except for life insurance) at one half cent on the dollar. Some insurance companies or their agents may have occasionally been in a position to charge odd dollar premiums early in the tax period when only one cent stamps were available. According to the 1898 War Revenue Law: Except for life insurance, all classes of insurance were taxed by the 1898 War Revenue Law “...upon the amount of premium charged, one-half of one percent on each dollar or fractional part thereof...”, such that any policy with a premium ending in an odd dollar value required a half cent stamp alone or in combination with other stamps to pay the tax obligation. In effect this meant that most uses of the half cent stamps were on lower cost policies, as higher value policies usually had premiums with even dollar amounts.

The Half Cent Battleship Stamps: To enable insurance customers and businesses to not overpay on odd-dollar premiums, the BEP belatedly produced half cent battleship stamps, making an orange version (Scott R161) available by July 11, 1898 according to the Boston Revenue Book, changing the color to gray (Scott R162) “very soon” after the debut of orange. So the half cent documentary stamps were available approximately two and a half weeks after the one and two cent battleships. Data regarding the distribution of the half cent stamps is unavailable, but it is likely that availability of the half cent stamps was uneven early in the tax period in 1898, especially in July and August.

 

Origin and Description of the R163 Bisect Examples

The Eichelberger Bisects: In 2023, a small, nondescript and handmade stamp album was posted for auction on Ebay. The album consisted entirely of 1898 series documentary revenue stamps, all used and canceled by the Travelers Insurance Company or their agents. Among the pages of stamps were the cancels of the insurance agent H. D. Eichelberger & Company of Richmond, Virginia. Most of their cancels were on stamps off-document on several values of the battleship documentary series. But there were eight examples of document fragments, all on pink paper, with enough of the language on the documents remaining to indicate they were once accident insurance contracts or policies.

Two of the fragments included vertical bisects of R154, manuscript canceled in September, 1898, and six fragments included vertical bisects of the one cent battleship, R163, handstamp and manuscript canceled in August, 1898, tying them to the document fragments. The six R163 bisects include a complete R163 plus R163 bisect for a 1 1/2 cent tax payment, two examples of R164 plus a R163 bisect for a 2 1/2 cent tax payment, two R164 plus whole R163 plus R162 bisect for a 3 1/2 cent tax payment, and one example of two R164s plus a R163 bisect for a 4 1/2 cent tax payment. The Eichelberger bisects are in the collection of John Langlois.

The Northern Assurance Company Bisects: Also in 2023, and listed by a completely different seller, several examples of Northern Assurance Company bisects were listed on Ebay. All appear to be solo uses, for premiums that were for one dollar or less. At least five of these were sold, and three original copies are available to the authors for inspection. ARA members Dan Harding and David Thompson own the examples shown in this article.

The D. Redfield & Son Bisect: The D. Redfield bisect was sold in 2012 in a Robert Siegel auction and is in the collection of Frank Sente.

Listing the One Cent Battleship Bisect

As Len McMaster and Frank Sente argued in 2017, insurance companies and agents were required to comply with the new war revenue law but were sometimes without half cent stamps, especially early in the tax period. One option enabling agents to comply was to bisect the current one cent documentary stamps, including the overprinted R154, the now listed R154d. Based on the examples provided, there is clear evidence that agents did the same with R163, the one cent battleship. Time for the Scott US Specialized Catalog to provide a listing for this bisect, perhaps Scott R163c?

References:

Einstein, Joseph S. 1986. R163 Bisect--Rarity or Just Uncommon? The American Revenuer, Vol. 40 No. 10 (November-December), p.201.

McMaster, Len and Frank Sente. 2017. Bisected “I.R.” Provisional Overprints. The American Revenuer, Vol. 70, No. 4 (Fourth Quarter), pp. 115-116.

Toppan, George L., Hiram E. Deats and Alexander Holland. An Historical Reference List of the Revenue Stamps of the United States, aka “The Boston Revenue Book”, The Boston Philatelic Society, 1899.

Advertisement sources:

H. D. Eichelberger advertisement is from the Virginia Federation of Labor Directory, 1897

D. Redfield & Son advertisement is from the Daily Ardmoreite, August 8, 1899

Northern Assurance Company advertisement is from The Weekly Underwriter, April 28, 1906

 

Post Script:

While the article was going to press, The Philatelic Foundation returned positive certificates for several of the featured bisects, reinforcing the argument for a new Scott listing.