R154 Bisects and the Certification Process

The two document fragments below with R154 bisects were included in the recent American Revenuer article arguing for the inclusion of an R163 bisect in the Scott Catalog.  As with the R163 bisect document fragments, the examples below demonstrate a legitimate and timely use for bisects when insurance companies, requiring half cent stamps to comply with the 1898 tax law, did not all have access to the half cent battleship stamps.

The Travelers Insurance Company agents H. D. Eichelberger & Company applied the R154 bisects to a Travelers accident policy, and then canceled the stamps in manuscript with "HDE&Co", plus a date.  Note that the first fragment is tied by the manuscript cancel, the second fragment's pen cancel does not show up on the background paper, though it is consistent across the stamps.

Late last year I submitted these fragments to the Philatelic Foundation for certificates.  They came back with mixed results.  The first fragment, with a full R154 and a bisected R154 with the pen tying the stamps to the fragment, was judged to be a genuine bisect.  The second fragment, with a full copy of R155, and without evidence of a "tie" by the pen, received a "no opinion" from the Philatelic Foundation.  The two certificates follow:

The experts at the PF seem to have used a single criterion to judge the first bisect as genuine: the presence of the cancel tying the stamp to the document; while using the absence of a tying cancel on the second fragment to justify thet lack of an opinion.  I guess I need to respect the decision, but the PF ignores multiple layers of evidence   The arguments that the second fragment is legitimate are multiple:

• The stamps are applied to a fragment consistent with an accident insurance policy;
• The person that applied the cancel to the first bisect that was judged genuine is the same person that applied the cancel to the second (perhaps a forensic handwriting expert must provide an opinion?);
• The bisect example was provided to the PF within the context of three other "genuine" bisects (two were R163s) according the the PF; the backing fragment is consistent across all of the examples

Experienced collectors know better.  For posterity, the R154 bisect above canceled with the R155 is a genuine bisect and is a scarce collectible.

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.

R163 Bisects Certified

Back in April of this year I put up a post featuring eight H. D. Eichelberger & Company R163 bisects.  More recently a few of the bisects were submitted to the Philatelic Foundation for certification and they came back as genuine.  

In the upcoming 4th quarter edition of The American Revenuer, the bisects will feature in an article arguing that the Scott US Specialized Catalog should list these rare uses.  I'll put up the article on this site once the journal comes out.

For now, here is an example of one of the certs:

Maybe a Good One?

I've had a battleship bisect used on a check for some time before I found this one, but I'm virtually certain that it was a philatelic creation since the check was to a Savings Bank and made out to "Self." If I can locate it I'll post it, but I'd say it's hardly worth finding.

The one below, however, looks pretty good to me. The two-cent check tax appears to have been paid by a bisect of a four-cent stamp. The check is from a regular bank, was made out to a second party, and was cashed. The cancel ties the stamp to the check. I cannot see where a different stamp was placed and then removed. It looks "good" to me.

Any opinions to the contrary will be thoughtfully entertained.

Cancel for January 23: Bank Check with 4 Cent Proprietary Bisect and the Signature of Major Harry Hill Bandholtz

Like the Wells Fargo receipt book page posted earlier this month, this post has a document with a famous military officer's name included.  Purchased in an auction several years ago, I never closely examined this check until I began to prepare this post.  Two subjects will be explored in this post: the 4 cent bisect and the signature on the check.

Bank check for the National Exchange Bank of Augusta, Georgia

from the account of the 35th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Exhange

Signed by Major Harry Hill Bandoltz

Stamp in upper left is 4 c proprietary cut in half to pay the 2 cent

bank check tax

Close up of the bisect 4 c proprietary with the initials HHB

for Major Harry Hill Bandholtz that "tie" the stamp to the check

Statue of General Harry Hill Bandholtz in front of the

US Embassy in Budapest, Hungary

Regarding Major Bandholtz' signature, from the website of the US Embassy in Hungary:

"The statue in the center of the park on Szabadság tér, facing the Embassy, is that of Harry Hill Bandholtz, Brigadier General, U.S. Army, who was Provost Marshall to General Pershing at the end of World War I.

On August 11, 1919, General Bandholtz arrived in Budapest as one of four generals (English, French, Italian, American) to become the Inter-Allied Control Commission for Hungary, primarily to supervise the disengagement of Romanian troops from Hungary.

He became famous when, on the night of October 5, 1919, as President of the Day of the Commission, mainly through bluff, armed only with a riding crop, he prevented a group of Romanian soldiers from removing Transylvanian treasures from the National Museum.

The statue was erected in 1936, and stood throughout World War II with the inscription, in English, "I simply carried out the instructions of my Government, as I understood them, as an officer and a gentleman of the United States Army." In the late 1940s the statue was removed "for repair." It lay in a statue boneyard until the 1980s, at which time it was placed in the garden of the U.S. Ambassador's residence, at the request of then-Ambassador Salgo. It was re-placed in Szabadság tér at its original location in July 1989, just a few days before the visit of President Bush.

The new inscription on the back reads: "General Harry Hill Bandholtz, head of the American Military Mission, who on October 5, 1919 blocked the removal of the treasures of the National Museum to Romania."  Each year, the U.S. Embassy's Defense Attache lays a wreath honoring Bandholtz on his birthday."

Regarding the 4 cent proprietary bisect:

Three observations:

1.  There is a bisect on the check, meaning there is a stamp that has been cut in half to signify half the value of the stamp that was cut in half.  In this case, a 4 cent stamp was cut in half to pay the 2 cent bank check tax.

2.  The bisected stamp is a proprietary stamp.  Not only is this stamp a proprietary and not a documentary stamp (and a check is a document), the 4 cent proprietary stamp was one of the less commonly used proprietary values. 

3.  The Scott Catalog does not list "unofficial bisects after 1880."

So from the point of view of the great arbiter of legitimacy in stamp collecting, Scott does not recognize this type of bisect.  However, in the revenue section of the Scott Catalog, the State Department's consular service fee stamps do have recognized bisects.  As these stamps were used by State Department officials and bisected by them, they are considered official bisects.

In the case of the check above, while the stamp was not bisected by revenue officials, it was bisected by an official of the US government and a future military hero.  While there is always room to suspect the intentional manufacture of a philatelic curiosity, I doubt that is likely in the case of this check.