Fugitive Ink and Scott #R183

Unused Scott R183, $3 Lake block of 4,

 with fugitive ink that's yet to go fugitive

"It wasn't me, it was the one-armed man!" said Harrison Ford's character, Dr. Richard Kimble, in the film The Fugitive.  Kimble, falsely convicted for the murder of his wife, escapes a prison bus and leads the police on a 90 minute chase scene while he works to prove it was in fact the one-armed man who did it.  R183 isn't nearly as exciting.  But the stamp was printed with something called fugitive ink.  So it does have something in common with Dr. Kimble.  R183 is uncommon, and few collectors have more than one copy if any at all in which to compare stamps and color condition.  So for many collectors, the only reason for awareness of the use of fugitive ink on this stamp comes from two entries for R183 in the recent versions of the Scott US Specialized Catalogue: 1) After the entry for the color of the stamp, which is the color lake, is the entry "fugitive ink" in parentheses;  and 2) the little note at the bottom of the entry for R183 that says, Warning: The ink on No. R183 will run in water.  There is no further elaboration or comment.  

Over the years I've managed to accumulate the unused block of four above.  I also have a few used copies off-piece with which to examine the fugitive quality of the ink.  The conditions of the used stamps exposed to water are all very different.  Prompting this post was a stamp recently sent to me by David Thompson -- it is the stamp at the bottom left in the examples below.  This stamp is clearly one that has been affected by the combination of water and fugitive ink to make the ink run, much like the stamp on the bottom on the right, which is even lighter in color.  The two bottom stamps are no longer lake in color.  

The top four stamps represent a progression in just how fugitive the ink can be.  The stamp on the upper left, with the "ATCH" cancel (a cancel for the broker William D. Hatch), appears to have never seen any water.  The second scan shows the back of all the stamps, in the same sequence as the scan showing the front of the stamps.  By looking at its back, it appears that Mr. Hatch's stamp was removed without any water -- gum remains and some of the original document is still attached.  So the stamp appears much as the block of four above.  

The top right stamp shows some fading, but its back shows what almost appear to be bloody scars of the ink that has run through the cut cancel while the lake color in front is largely retained.  The middle stamp on the right is lighter appearing on the front than the stamp above it, yet the reddishness of the cut cancel is not as great.  Oddly, the perfined stamp at the lower right has no bleeding appearance around the edge of the perfins, though the ink ran on this stamp more than any other.  And lastly, the bottom left stamp has its back stained pink from the fugitive ink, which hasn't happened on the other 4 stamps that were likely soaked at some point.  

How could soaking produce so many different results?  What is going on here?  Scott's note tells us that think ink will run in water.  But all these stamps represent very different outcomes from a soak.

Consulting Richard Friedberg, I received this answer as a possible explanation for the different conditions of these stamps:  

"if the stamp is carefully put face up in a shallow dish not much water gets to the side with the ink and it doesn't run much if at all. If the stamp remains face down for a longer period in water it will run a bit/a lot."  

So this answer could very well be the explanation I'm looking for.  But what it doesn't help explain is the opaqueness of Scott's note.  Maybe a catalog is not the place to explain how to manage a stamp like this with an unusual and idiosyncratic ink.  But the note only demands that more questions be asked, and that leaves the collector hanging.  For many, a used R183 off cover with little sign of ink fading or dispersion creates nothing but questions.  Just a brief note as to how off-cover, varyingly damaged stamps might exist would be a good idea for the catalogue for two reasons: 1) to explain what we see in the examples above; and 2) to explain how one might safely remove examples from documents in the future (don't do this please - R183s are so much better on document - unless you must).

Lastly, I have a 1971 copy of the Scott US Specialized catalogue.  There is no mention of fugitive ink or its tendency to run when in contact with water.  Maybe old-time revenue collectors just knew these kinds of things.

Another $3 R183 On-Document Usage

We're pleased to welcome a new contributor to 1898 Revenues.  Reader Charley Kemp has answered our census call by reporting another on-document usage of R183, the $3 Lake Commerce issue of 1900.    

As noted in our prior blog about usages of R183, I had been looking for one on document for more than 35 years.   Now our census count for R183 is up to three!

Notarized Signature Certification Page from a

Property Conveyance in Mobile County, Alabama

December 8, 1900
Charley Kemp scan

 

Regrettably, the conveyance itself is gone so we don't know exactly what property was conveyed, although it presumably was located in Mobile County, Alabama.  It is interesting to note that there were two separate notarized certifications for this conveyance.   First the standard affirmation by the sellers, in this case Frank P. and Mary Alice Andrews, that they understand the contents of the then attached conveyance and had voluntarily signed it. 

 

Then, below the stamps, there is what I take to be a separate notarized renunciation of dower statement by Mary Alice that reads, 

 

     "I Clara M. Stokes, a Notary Public in and for said State and County, do hereby certify that on the 8th day of December, 1900, came before me the within named Mary Alice Andrews, known to me to be the wife of the within named Frank P. Andrews, who, being examined separate and apart from from the husband touching her signature to the within deed, acknowledged that she signed the same of her own free will and accord, and without fear, constraints or threats on the part of the husband." 

 

      "In witness thereof , I hereto set my hand this 8th day of December, 1900."

Signed Clara M. Stokes  

Notary Public, Mobile County, Ala.

 

detail of stamps and pencancel:

Dec 8 / 1900

F P & M A A
Charley Kemp scan

 

 

That four dollars in tax are attached, an R184 $1 gray overprint Commerce Issue in additon to the $3 Lake Commerce stamp, suggests a property value of more than $3,500 up to $4,000.

Frank P(aul) Andrews, was born in St. Augustine Florida January 26, 1841.  The 1860 census shows him living in a boarding house in Paducah, Kentucky, occupation, day laborer with an "estate" valued at $200.  From that rather humble start he progressed through a number of jobs and by 1884 was listed as a grain dealer, F. P. Andrews & Company in Mobile, Alabama.  He must have become rather substantial because the 1912 directory shows him as the Commissioner of Revenue and Roads for Mobile County.  Andrews also was a Confederate veteran.  The Alabama census of Confederate soldiers lists him as enlisting as a private into Company B of the 1st Kentucky Infantry Battalion around May 1861.  He spent four years in the service being discharged May 10, 1865 in Columbus, Mississippi. He moved to Mobile in 1869 and died there in 1913.    

Thanks, Charley, for submitting this nice usage.  Charley also sent along a list of some other interesting 1898 era taxed documents, so we can look forward to seeing more from his collection in future blogs.      

What Are The Odds? Not One, But Two $3 R183 On-Document Usages

Between us, my good friend J. W. Palmer and I have been searching for an on-document usage of the $3 Lake Commerce Issue of 1900 for more than 50 years.  I know several other 1898 tax era document collectors who also have been searching for such a usage.  Happily the quest is over, at least for Palmer and me, as we BOTH found usage examples on eBay within a month of each other last Fall.  To date they are the only reported on-document usages of this stamp.

The lake-colored $3 R183 by itself is not an inexpensive stamp.  In Scott's U.S. Specialized Catalogue it lists for $275 in mint condition and $52.50 in used condition.  For Palmer and me to find on-document usage examples -- what's the word they use in those Visa commercials -- PRICELESS! 



  $3,500 Warranty Deed

Property in Indianapolis, Indiana

February 25, 1901
 

My find came first, in a job lot of 11 deeds, only two of which bore stamps.  I almost went by it as I scrolled through some search listings.  In the small photo I could see one deed just had a 50-cent R171 battleship stamp on it and I figured the red stamp on this deed was probably just the more common $1 carmine R182 Commerce Issue.  Luckily, after scrolling through a few more listings, I decided I should go back and take a closer look.  Boy, was I ever glad I did! When I saw it was a $3 stamp, I recall jerking forward to within inches of my computer screen in shocked disbelief  to take a closer look to make sure it really was a $3 stamp!  Wow, yes, it was!  And the week long wait to see if anyone else had found it seemed an eternity.
 

The tax on deed transfers at this time was 50 cents for property valued from $100 to $500 and 50 cents for each additional $500 in value.  So the proper tax on a deed documenting the sale of a $3,500 property was $3.50, paid here with the $3 R183 and a 50 cent R171.  Usually collectors try to avoid stamps with cut cancels, but I'm happy these have them as the pen cancels don't "tie" them to the document, but the cut cancels, which extend through the document itself, do so.

pencancel on both stamps reads:

P.(auline) E.(dgarton)

2/25/01

double-click image to enlarge

Amazingly Palmer found another R183 usage example, again on eBay, just a couple of weeks later!  

$3,000 Warranty Deed

Property in Hyde Park, Kansas City, Missouri

March 14, 1901

J. W. Palmer scan

pencancel reads:

H.(ugh) J. M.(cGowan)

Mrh. 14,

1901.

Palmer's find also appears on a warranty deed, in this instance a nice single stamp usage properly paying the $3 tax on a property that sold for $3,000.  Like me, he almost missed this lot as the seller had cropped the listing photo to zoom in on just the stamp, so anyone scrolling rapidly through listing results could easily have mistaken it as just a listing of a used stamp.  I missed it for that reason, but Palmer, either with more patience or better eyesight, or both, caught a glimpse of paper around the stamp as he scrolled through his search listings.  He though had missed the listing I had found.  

J. W. and I periodically check what each other has bought on eBay.  When I noted he too had been fortunate to find this R183 usage, I called to congratulate him as it was a significant find; I also wanted to let him know I had recently found one too.  "Yeah", he said, "I saw you had found one and was going to call, just hadn't gotten around to it."  We chatted about how easy it is to miss items because of how sellers choose to picture, describe, and list items; we both have been lucky to find 1898 revenue material in obscure eBay categories, or that has otherwise been poorly described or pictured.

Both Palmer and I periodically exhibit our 1898 material at stampshows. We laughed about how unassuming and vanilla-looking these deeds appear.  Neither document is ornate like an engraved stock certificate, nor do they include an unusual mixture of stamps, or bear colorful cancels.  Quite frankly, they look pretty bland on exhibit pages, just as they do in this blog.

We discussed the difficulty of highlighting their significance in an exhibit; especially how hard it is, even with carefully worded title pages and exhibit synopses, to convey their importance to exhibit judges who, to be fair, could just as easily overlook them as they scroll across one's exhibit pages, as we each did when reviewing eBay listings.   Yes, one can stategically place an item within an exhibit frame and include a note like, "One of two known" on the page, but they are just common deeds after all, albeit with uncommon usages of an uncommon stamp.  

We talked about how long we each had been looking for such a usage knowing that none of the major revenue dealers had ever handled one.  We simply were amazed that we each had been fortunate to find one within a month of each other.  What are the odds, indeed? Yup, that was a pun.

We're beginning to do usage censuses for some of the lesser known 1898 tax era on-document stamp usages and for some lesser known types of documents, like ocean passage tickets, so if anyone can report another R183 on-document usage please contact us, with scans if possible, at 1898revenues@gmail.com

We'll discuss some other interesting deeds in upcoming blogs.       

                



Insurance Companies: Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance

605-623 North Broadway

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Headquarters

1886 - 1914

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company was founded in Janesville, Wisconsin, in 1857 as the Mutual Life Insurance Company of the State of Wisconsin.  Chartered in March of the same year, the firm issued its first policy in November 1858, and in the following year moved operations to Milwaukee.  The company grew rapidly during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  During the tenure of Henry L. Palmer, president from January 1874 to July 1908, Northwestern Mutual became one of the largest insurance firms in the nation.

Northwestern Mutual remains in business to this day as a +$20 billion corporation in Milwaukee.

******

After a few years of accumulating of 1898 revenue stamps, one is bound to end up with at least a few examples of stamps cancelled N.M.L.I. Co., for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.  Below I have one example of a stamp handstamped N.W.M.L.I. Co., but this acronym with the W included seems to less common.

manuscript:

N. M. L. I. Co.

Jun 3

1901

Langlois scans

handstamp:

N. M. L. I. CO.

JUL  29   1898

handstamp:

N. M. L. I. Co.

DEC   11   1899

handstamp:

N. W. M. L. I. CO.,

SEP      25      1899

J.  F.  Paton,  Gen'l  Agt. xxxx

New York Stock Brokers: Pearl & Company

Mr. Pearl's firm was founded by his father in Nashville, Tennessee in the early 1800s.  Dyer Pearl was a presence on Wall Street for 54 years. 

PEARL & CO.

David Thompson highlight & scans

Scarce but ragged copy of R183 with Pearl & Co. cancel