Featured last Sunday on this site was a stock memorandum of sale with four pairs of $1 R184, all stacked on top of each other and cancelled with three cuts that penetrated all 8 stamps and the memo itself. The cuts were simple, penetrating the paper and not perforating or removing paper in the process. The purpose of that post was to feature the eight stacked stamps; today will feature the cutting devices and other types of cut cancels.
Down below is reprised the circular from the Commissioner of Revenue and the Treasury that mandated these cuts that was initially issued on December 1, 1899. By January of 1990, businesses had rushed in to supply the necessary equipment to apply the 3 cut cancels efficiently. Two firms advertised their new cutting devices in the January 6, 1900 edition of The American Stationer. David Thompson tipped me to the first of the adverts below:
Advertisement references the new regulations requiring the cutting of revenue stamps.
The circular ordering the mutilation with three cuts:
There are numerous types of this three cut cancel mandate that show up on the dollar value revenue stamps. Here are a few examples:
DeHaven & Townsend stock sale memo for 100 shares of Western Union Telephone Company to Eames & Moore. The three cuts are prominent on the left stamp. The sale of the shares took place less than two weeks before the end of the tax period, June 30, 1902. Curiously, a section of overprint on the right stamp is missing. Both stamps show the varnish square. This type of cut cancel with the somewhat jagged cuts is one of the most common.
Thomas Denny & Company cancelled R184 with three very close parallel and non-jagged cuts aligned with the bottom and centered on the ink cancel . It appears as if the cancelling device combined the ink cancelling and the cutting processes.
G. M. Carnochan & Company cancelled R185 pair. The cancelling device, like the Denny device above, includes the cutting device with the inking device. However, the cuts are to the side of the cancel and not the bottom and the device supplies ink to the cuts as well. A curiosity is that the date tablet is upside down relative to the company's initials.
Harry Content's cancelled stamps commonly feature these more dramatic 3 parallel perforations. Often they serve to mutilate the stamps beyond collectability. The stamp on the left is practically confetti despite being hinged to an album page.
