2 Cent Battleship Documentary: 1940 Letter from the Director of the BEP

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1940 Letter from A.W. Hall, Director of Bureau of Engraving and Printing to Curtis Chapman in Cleveland, Ohio.

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I acquired this letter in the Tolman sale (lot 2496). It was included in the 2 cent battleship calender lot. Its inclusion in the lot leads me to think that the calender, inclusive for all business dates for the three year period of the tax imposed on most documentary transactions, was compiled by Mr. Chapman. The random notes in Mr. Tolman's hand in the margins of the calender indicate a familiarity with the cancels that would not be of the depth of that needed to compile the collection in the first place.

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The "Tolman sale" was a multi-phase auction held by Robert Siegel in New York of one of the more significant US Revenue stamp collections ever put together. Part 4 of the sale was held in May 2009, and this letter was included in that portion of the sale.

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The Christopher West/Elliot Perry work from Mekeel's and the Castenholz re-publication lists the total quantity issued of 2 cent documentaries for the 1898 series as 942,066,800. This includes the I.R. overprinted 2 cent postage stamps. If we use the total issued of the 2 cent battleship stamp of 899, 231,00 as stated in this letter then there were 42,835,800 of the 2 cent Washington postage stamps overprinted. Further, Mr. Hall in the letter above tells us that there were 16,395,000 2 cent battleship documentaries delivered in 1898. As all the Washington overprinted stamps were delivered in 1898, we can then figure that a total of 59,230,800 2 cent documentaries were delivered in 1898.

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Plate numbers as reported by Mr. Hall in his letter and those by Robert Mustacich on his website differ somewhat. Hall's letter states that 216 subject plates with the numbers 8881, 8885, 8888, and 8895 were used. These are not reported by Mustacich. Hall also reported the existence of plate 8004 that was never used. If anyone has a copy of any of the above listed numbers I would like to see them. I assume the philatelists of the early 21st century to be right, not Mr. Hall.

2 Cent Battleship Documentary Plates

Top plate block of 6, #7958. Horizontal rouletting is torqued across the block, growing more off-center to the right, especially for the rouletting in the top margin. This block comes from one of the earliest plates created by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to print this stamp, a 200 subject plate divided into 4 panes of 50 stamps each.

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At Robert Mustacich's Battleship Revenues website (http://www.battleship-revenues.com/) you can find a list of the plate numbers used for the 2 cent battleship documentary as well as all the other battleship stamps. He uses tables compiled by Tony Giacomeli and the Durland Standard Plate Number Catalog for his reference. For the 2 cent documentary, he lists a total of 44 plates used by the BEP to print the stamp, including both 200 and 216 subject plates.

Most plates were used to print stamps that received either rouletting or hyphen-holes only; a smaller group of plates were used to print both, essentially those plates in use by the Bureau during the switchover from rouletting to hyphen holes at the end of 1899.

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Quantities issued: Almost a billion copies of the 2 cent documentary battleship were printed, which explains the use of so many plate numbers. After multiple print cycles the plates began to wear and new plates had to be prepared to keep the images of the stamps sharp. In a 1940 letter I have from A.W. Hall, the Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 899,231,000 2 centers were delivered to the Bureau of Internal Revenue through February 11, 1902. I will post this letter on the blog this month.