1898 Revenues: R156 8 Cent Provisional

Showing posts with label R156 8 Cent Provisional. Show all posts

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Auctions: Scott Listed 1898 Documentary Provisionals: Rarity + Poor Condition = Low Sale Prices

The early October Siegel sale of the Dr. Alexander Schauss collection of United States Revenues included examples of the R150s documentary provisionals: R156, R157, R158 and R158A. All the stamps were flawed in some way, with a major visible crease on R156 among other flaws like damaged perfs and thins on the other stamps. As such, one would expect discounts for these stamps in the final sale price relative to the Scott values and the spate over the last few years of sales of this material. But given the rarity of these stamps, I figured the final prices would be much more robust than the ultimate results.

R156 with heavy crease run horizontally across the stamp

Scott Value: $5,750

Sold for: $850

R156 sold for nearly 1/7 of its Scott value, an incredible discount for even a very flawed copy of this rare stamp.

As for the other provisionals, values and sale prices went as follows:

R157: Scott $4,500; sale $1,100

R158: Scott $6,750; sale $3,750

R158A: Scott $12,500; sale $5,250

I won't speculate as to whether there is a trend here. Visit the StampAuctionNetwork page with these stamps by clicking here.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Auctions: Scarsdale Collection Part 6, November 3, 2011, Robert Siegel Galleries

The 1898 revenue series consists of a small group of stamps compared to those in use for the civil war. Yet the series has given revenue collectors some of the field's greatest rarities. Siegel is conducting part 6 of its sale of the Scarsdale collection, and this sale contains the prime Scott listed rarities of the 1898 series, including the gem, R158B, the Daprix overprint on the 1c Trans-Mississippi postage stamp.

Scott R158b

I. R.

P. I. D. & Son.

Lot 100 from current Siegel Sale 1015: Listed for $35,000

In Siegel Sale 915 of Henry Tolman's material a copy of R158b sold for $35,000.

In the more recent Siegel 977 Whitpain sale of a more faulty R158b, the lot sold for $15,500.

From Siegel: FINE APPEARANCE. ONE OF THREE RECORDED EXAMPLES OF THE ONE-CENT TRANS-MISSISSIPPI ISSUE WITH THE "I.R./P.I.D. & SON" PROVISIONAL OVERPRINT. ONLY TWO OF THE THREE ARE UNUSED, AND THIS IS THE ONLY EXAMPLE TO RETAIN ANY OF ITS ORIGINAL GUM. ONE OF THE GREATEST RARITIES OF REVENUE COLLECTING.

Scott R158a

I. R.

L. H. C.

AUG 17 1898 handstamp

Listed for $11,500

from Siegel: VERY FINE APPEARANCE. A RARE EXAMPLE OF THE ONE-CENT CHAPMAN OVERPRINT. ONLY SEVENTEEN COPIES ARE RECORDED IN TOTAL. ONE OF THE GREATEST REVENUE RARITIES.

According to Scott Catalogue, the 1c Trans-Mississippi was overprinted by the Purvis Printing Company with federal government approval. They were ordered by L. H. Chapman of the Chapman Steamboat Line, which operated freight-carrying steamboats along the Erie Canal. Only 250 stamps were produced, additionally, 250 were printed reading "I.R./P.I.D. & Son", for P.I. Daprix & Son, which served different ports along the same waterway.

Scott R156

Siegel Lot 96

Cancelled:

I. R.

handstamp

M. M. L.

I. C.

7/12/98

manusript

listed for $5,750

from Siegel: A large quantity of 1c and 2c stamps were printed with an "I.R." overprint (Scott R153, R154, R155 and R155A). Additionally, small quantities were produced in the 8c, 10c and 15c denominations. These issues mark the first time that the United States had to resort to surcharging. According to Sloane's Column (Jul. 31, 1948), the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Co. handstamped copies of the 8c, 10c and 15c regular issues over a period of five days in July 1898. Sloane states these provisional revenues were brought to the philatelic market by J. E. Scott, a collector and employee of the company. J. E. Scott reported that the company used 41 copies of the 8c, 66 of the 10c and 28 of the 15c. The Scott Retail values support this relative mix of supply.

Scott R157

Siegel Lot 97

cancelled:

I. R.

handstamp

M L

7/22

manuscript

listed for $4,500

Scott R158

Siegel Lot 98

cancelled:

I. R.

handstamp

M M

L I Co.

July 11/98

manuscript

listed for $6,750

Spectacular examples of less rare yet still scarce stamps are also up for auction in this sale:

Scott R180

Siegel Lot 102

listed for $1,600

Scott R181

Siegel Lot 103

Listed for $400

Scott R194

Siegel Lot 106

listed for $2,250

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.