About

January 12, 2023:

This is a stamp collectors website based on the Google Blogger platform.  So it takes the form of a blog, a blog dedicated to the US revenue stamps that were issued and used from 1898 to 1902 to help pay the expenses of the Spanish American War, for which I have been a specialized collector for more than 20 years.  As a blog, the website functions somewhat like a diary; I can put up new entries every day (and more than once a day if I chose), though as of this moment I run a publishing schedule of new material every Tues, Thurs, Sat and Sun.  

As of January 2023 there are over 1700 entries on this site that include a wide range of subjects regarding these stamps.  The site in particular focuses on the cancels used on these stamps, especially on the stamps of the documentary series.  

I'm a firm believer that collecting 1898 documentary stamps is one of the greatest niches of the stamp collecting hobby for the history buff that likes research, discovery, and problem solving.  Because the law that created the taxes and mandated the use of tax stamps also required the users of the stamps to cancel the stamps with their names or initials and a date, this particular niche could make the postal history collector seem like they live in a parched desert of collectible material.  Revenue stamps, especially the documentary stamps, are a palate on which the great industrial and economic engines of the United States placed their operational fingerprints.  Because the cancels often carry substantial identifying information, even stamps removed from their original documents can be connected to their original user.


And unlike many classic US stamps, the stamps that underly the cancels like those of Carnegie Steel, AT&T, and J. P. Morgan during the 1898 tax period are often inexpensive, making the hunt for great cancels in collections and on sites like Ebay cost effective.  


Please explore the site.  In the desktop version of the blog there is blog
index on the right side of the page if you scroll down past the Stock Exchange pages and the 1898 Post Archive that makes browsing the site simpler.  

At this time the site is experiencing a slow facelift, with updates to the About section which you are reading, and to the other page tabs in addition to other minor changes and improvements.  Stand by for more changes.





The About language from 2011:

1898 Revenues is an experiment. This site is a blog, which is essentially an online diary that allows me and other contributors to easily post updates or additions whenever we wish. Everything in the left column comprises the running diary section which is updated frequently, while the right-side columns, which can be edited, largely stay the same from day to day.

As for the experiment, there are other blogs out there in philately, but none that I’ve found that function as a workbook for specialist collectors.

The blog format allows for a collector with a roving attention span like mine to “post” or add material to the site as ideas or inspiration occur. As a specialist collector of the 1898 series of US revenue stamps, I have many sub-interests in the series, and am particularly a collector of cancels. This interest in cancels is clearly demonstrated on the site, and as compelling cancels on the series are so varied, numerous, and often cheap, there is a seemingly endless source of material to make additions to the site almost everyday.

I use this website as a stamp collecting tool. Daily site updates or posts provide a framework for work on the 1898 series, including stamps in my collection and those of others. For example, avid reader, 1898 collector and contributor David Thompson sends dozens of scans from his collection monthly for potential use on the site. While cancel possibilities on 1898s are not infinite, they sometimes seem so, and I am always grateful for contributors like David that help keep the accumulation of on-line and searchable cancel knowledge growing.

This raises the fact of the great utility of building online philatelic data. While there are many ways to go about it, like digitizing the existing print resources of the American Philatelic Research Library, the regular addition of posts to this blog, and the back-and-forth of active collectors in creating those posts, is creating a new, real-time way to build a portfolio of readily accessible and searchable philatelic information. Hence my labeling of this site as an experiment. 1898 Revenues is in part helping to preserve the knowledge of present specialists in the field, even if this was never the original intent.

I am always looking for new contributors or a new material for the site. If you have something special or unique to contribute, don’t hesitate to contact me at 1898revenues@gmail.com. Further, if you simply have a question about a stamp or document you have that you don’t know much about, you may send an inquiry to the same email address.





Publisher: John Langlois, Maryland, USA

Contact: 1898revenues@gmail.com

Publishing since: March 29, 2009