1898 Revenues: December 2025

Thursday, December 25, 2025

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 23, 2025

Chicago Board of Trade Companies: The Albert Dickinson Company

The A. D. Co.

MAY 6 - 1901

CHICAGO.

The A. D. Co.

NOV 6 - 1900

CHICAGO.

Albert Dickinson was CBOT member 388

Charles Dickinson was CBOT member 2477

Nathan Dickinson ws CBOT member 2806

from The Grain Dealers Journal, April 25, 1902

Albert Dickinson in History of the Chicago Board of Trade, 1917

Sunday, December 21, 2025

Chicago Board of Trade Companies: Milmine, Bodman & Company

Milmine, Bodman & Co.

APR 26 1898

CHICAGO.

Edward C. Bodman was CBOT member 3304

Luther W. Bodman was CBOT member 3829

Charles E. Milmine was CBOT member 6270

George Milmine was CBOT member 6368

from American Elevator & Grain Trade, May 15, 1902

Saturday, December 20, 2025

Chicago Board of Trade Companies: George W. Montgomery & Company

G. W. M. & Co.

JUN 9 1899

CHICAGO.

George W. Montgomery was CBOT member 1093

George Montgomery was a member of the CBOT but was also a prominent insurace agent with his partner, Metellus L. C. Funkhouser. Their insurance firm, Montgomery & Funkhouser, has been featured on this site in 2023.

George W. Montgomery

Thursday, December 18, 2025

Chicago Board of Trade Companies: McReynolds & Company

McReynolds & Company

McReynolds & Company,

JAN 14 1899.

George S. McReynolds was CBOT member 2502

Frederick H. Babcock was CBOT member 6984

from Modern Miller, July 20 1901

from Men of Illinois, 1902

Sometime in September, 1905, George McReynolds provided to the Corn Exchange Bank a receipt for a large amount of grain he kept in his own elevator, providing the bank with the equivalent of ownership of the grain. McReynolds removed most of the grain without telling the bank. He went to jail for the fraud. I suspect there were other charges against him as well given he was spending years in Joliet.

from The New York Times, August 26, 1910

Futures contract fragments:

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

Chicago Board of Trade Companies: O. A. Thorp & Company

O. A. THORP & CO.

SEP 24 1900

CHICAGO, ILL.

Ole A. Thorp was CBOT member 3870

from The Chicago Tribune, January 22, 1899

from A History of the Norwegians of Illinois

Sunday, December 14, 2025

Chicago Board of Trade Companies: The Ellsworth & Cross Company

THE ELLSWORTH &

CROSS CO.

MAY 16 1901

CHICAGO.

Henry Ellsworth was CBOT member 5092

Albert Eugene Cross was CBOT member 6138

Henry R. Boomer was CBOT member 6777

Henry Hittle was CBOT member 6552

Albert E. Cross from History of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, 1917

Saturday, December 13, 2025

Chicago Board of Trade Companies: J. F. Harris

J. F. HARRIS.

APR 17 1899

CHICAGO

J. F. HARRIS,

JUL

1899

CHICAGO

John F. Harris was CBOT member 5345

from The Grain Dealers Journal, July 10, 1900

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Chicago Board of Trade Companies: Ralph E. Pratt & Company

R. E. PRATT

MAY 11 189?

CHICAGO

Ralph E. Pratt was CBOT member 4592

from The Grain Dealers Journal, December 25, 1898

from Men of Illinois, 1902

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Chicago Board of Trade Companies: Weare Commission Company

W. C. Co.

MAR 15 1899

CHICAGO.

Charles A. Weare was CBOT member 1684

Portus B. Weare was CBOT member 1685

from The American Elevator & Grain Trade, May 15, 1902

Sunday, December 7, 2025

Chicago Board of Trade Companies: Charles B. Congdon & Company

C. B. CONGDON & CO.

APR

1900

CHICAGO.

Charles B. Congdon was CBOT member 2261

from Chicago and Its Resources, 1892

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.