Cancel for December 15: The Pewabic Company

Author's Note 12/17/2010:  The original title of this of post was "The Pewaric Company."  I've scrutinized this cancel a bit more and decided to run a search on a different spelling.  "Pewabic" produced different results, leading to identification of the source of this cancel.  So this post has since been edited.

PEWABIC

COMPANY,

DEC  15  1898

IRON MOUNTAIN,

MISSOURI

On April 4, 1853, the Pewabic Mining Company was organized as a corporation for mining copper, under the laws of the state of Michigan.  The company expanded beyond Michigan and included assets in Iron Mountain, Missouri.  Around the time of this cancel the company employed approximately 600 people at their Iron Mountain minesl

Iron Mountain mining operations were large enough to spur the building of dedicated railroad lines into the region, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern Railway, which issued its own printed cancels as illustrated below.

A link to Iron Mountain history is included here. 

Iron Mountain was originally alleged to be a large mass of nearly solid iron.  While productive mining did exist at the site for many years, the mythology of the mountain's purity did not match reality.

Printed cancel for the

 ST. LOUIS, IRON MOUNTAIN AND SOUTHERN RAILWAY

The StLIM&SRy was originally built to transport iron ore from Iron Mountain up to St. Louis.  Overtime it would expand and become part of Jay Gould's railroad empire.  Its remnants are now part of the Union Pacific.

William Moses Gould, the famous "Iron Mountain Baby." 

Cancel for December 15: Smith Brothers Cough Drops

The famous Smith Brothers trademark logo. 



S.B

12/15/1900

manuscript cancel

Smith Brothers trademark from bank check upper left

The complete check

You can still buy Smith Brothers Cough Drops by visiting the website for The Victory Old Time Candy Store.

RB20 1/8ct proprietary attached to Smith Brothers packaging.

Sente scan

From the current Wikipedia entry for Smith Brothers: 

William Wallace Smith I (1830-1913) and Andrew Smith (1836-1895) were the sons of James Smith (c1800-1866) of Poughkeepsie, New York. James' family had emigrated from Fife, Scotland, in 1831, and James had emigrated from St. Armand, Quebec in 1847. In New York, he opened a small restaurant, ice-cream parlor, and candy business, called "James Smith and Son". James Smith bought a cough drop recipe from a peddler named Sly Hawkins. In 1852, James developed lozenges and advertised them in the Poughkeepsie paper selling them to those "afflicted with hoarseness, cough or colds". William and Andrew inherited the business after their father died in 1866. The brand was then named "Smith Brothers Cough Drop". In 1872, to prevent drug stores from selling generic lozenges, they developed one of the first factory filled packages with trademark branding. On the packaging the word "Trade" appeared under the picture of William and the word "Mark" under that of Andrew, they were then incorrectly referred to as Trade Smith and Mark Smith. Andrew died in 1895, and William continued as president of the company almost up to his death in 1913. William was succeeded by his son, Arthur G. Smith (c1875-1936), who continued to expand the company by adding menthol drops (1922), cough syrup (1926) and wild cherry drops (1948). Arthur G. Smith had two sons: William Wallace Smith II (1888-1955) and Robert Lansing Smith (1891-1962). The trust funds that owned Smith Brothers stock in 1963 merged their company with Warner-Lambert. The last Smith Brothers Cough Drop manufactured in Poughkeepsie was made in 1972. They were thereafter manufactured by F & F Foods in Chicago, Illinois.

Cancel for December 14: C. P. Company

C.  P. CO.,

DEC

14

1900

SO.  OMAHA,  NEB.

Its been a several day hiatus for us at 1898 Revenues.  Happy holidays and Merry Christmas as we make our way into the festive season.  Our posts might be a bit sporadic through this period.  Bear with us!

Cancel for December 10: S. C. Smith Insurance

S.  C.  SMITH

DEC  10  1898

INSURANCE

A Pair of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & Saint Louis Parlor Car Tickets

Several days ago Frank Sente and I bid on the same lot on eBay - a parlor car ticket with a battleship revenue paying the required tax. I came out the winner by a few dollars, and Frank expressed the hope that I would blog on it some day. I will when I receive it.

This reminded me that I do have a pair of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & Saint Louis Railway parlor or chair car checks, each with a one-cent battleship on the back. These appeared on eBay around nine years ago, when I was putting together my very first exhibit (imprinted parlor car tickets), and I badly wanted them for the first page to show how companies that didn't use imprints paid the tax. I set a high snipe, and got up in the middle of the night to go see if I had won them. Indeed, I had.

Interestingly enough, the tickets were used in December of 1901, after many of the Spanish American War taxes had been repealed.

The CCC & StL Railway operated from June of 1889 until it was folded into the New York Central in 1930.

Cancel for December 7: H. K. F.

H.  K.  F.

DEC    7    1898

Who or what was HKF?

The Shift Hunter Letters

David Thompson did us a favor by looking for the double transfer in today's previous post in the The Shift Hunter Letters, to no avail.  Dan Harding maintains a pdf version of this document on his website.  In my earlier reviews of battleship related shift and double transfer material I did not include this reference.  While most of the work in these "letters" involves first issue material, there is a fair amount of treatment of battleships at the back.  Thanks to Dan for keeping this pdf up at his site and for Dave for checking it out for us.

R164 Double Transfer

Here is an interesting pair of stamps with the same double transfer.  The arrows in the margins of the quadrille paper point to clear westward shifts on the rouletted stamp immediately below and the hyphen holed stamp that follows.  These stamps were likely printed months apart yet they show the same error.  A limited number of plates were used for both the roulette and hyphen hole stamps.  Can anyone tell me which plate this double transfer comes from?

Roulette

Hyphen hole

Triply Taxed Bills of Exchange

One of the joys of blogging about the taxed documents of the Spanish American War era has been corresponding and trading notes with other collectors. In the course of blogging about bills of exchange, Bob Patetta and I discovered we both possessed bills of exchange that had been taxed in three countries: The United States, Great Britain, and Switzerland. As "philatelic hat tricks" so-to-speak, they hold prized status in our respective collections.

Bob's is in the form of a Customer's Bank Draft; mine was written as a Sight Draft. Initially I thought it would be fun to include both in the same blog, but decided instead they deserved separate attention. Here's Bob's example.

To accomodate all the transit endorsements plus an explanatory note, a piece was added, (at right on front view), so the document is elongated to the degree that it's hard to show in its entirety. I've done so, for the record, in the first two illustrations below, and will discuss the draft from the next set of four detail scans.

The First National Bank of Wallace, Idaho

Customer Draft of John Ritz

August 3, 1898

Patetta scan

Reverse of Ritz Draft

Showing Swiss Revenues and Transit Endorsements

Patetta scan

Detail view of Ritz Draft

Showing US and GB Revenues

Patetta scan

The draft was written by John Ritz, Wallace, Idaho to Fredrik Ritz, Buren an der Aare, Canton Bern, Switzerland. As best I can determine, 5,260 Swiss Francs equated to slightly more than US$1,000. At 4-cents per $100 in value or fraction thereof, the proper tax rate for singly written bills of exchange, the US tax was 44 cents (11 x $.04), so Ritz overpaid the tax by 1-cent. The US stamps are pencancelled "J R" with a further date stamp of "AUG 3 1898" added by the Wallace Bank. Also note what appears to be an internal bank tracking number, 9909, within the the oval cancel at upper right:

The First Bank of Wallace

No. 9909

Wallace, Idaho.

As the endorsements on the reverse will show, the draft passed through the Hanover National Bank in New York to the Union Bank of London which taxed the draft One Penny atop the US stamps. Cancelled:

UNION BANK OF LONDON

19 AUG 1898

LIMITED

Detail of Top Portion of Reverse of Ritz Draft

Showing Swiss Revenues and Two Endorsements

Patetta scan

Incredibly the draft apparently reached Bern the next day, August 20, the date of the Marcuard & Co. cancel shown below. Marcuard & Co. added the Bern Canton revenues, shown above, totaling 41 centimes. We'd appreciate receiving comment at 1898revenues@gmail.com from anyone able to explain the Swiss tax rates.

If you look closely at the Pay Hanover National Bank Or Order endorsement of the First Natl Bank of Wallace, you'll note it has been overprinted with a three-tiered boxed ENDORSEMENT ERASED cancellation with wavy lines in the top and bottom tiers. Again, we'd appreciate comment from anyone who could explain which party may have added that cancel and why.

Detail of Middle Portion of Ritz Draft

Showing Three Endorsements
Patetta Scan

The above middle portion of the draft shows the tranmittal endorsement from the Union Bank of London to Marcuard & Co. in Bern as well as Marcaurd's subsequent endorsement to an unknown entity in Buren:

Payez a l' ordre de la

???????? der ???????? Buren

Valeur en compte

Berne, le 20 Aout 1898

The final endorsement is important as that's the party that ultimately would have communicated with Fredrik Ritz. Again, we seek comment about that unknown party.

Detail of Bottom of Ritz Draft

Showing an Explanatory Note
Patetta Scan

Finally, we'd appreciate hearing from anyone who could translate the text of the note written at the bottom of the draft.

Despite the questions raised it is a wonderful piece demonstrating taxation in three political realms and our thanks go to Bob Patteta for providing the scans.

A Bankers Life Association Insurance Policy

This Bankers Life Association policy was issued for $2,000 on the life of Peter A. Hinners of Beardstown, Illinois in December of 1900. The tax on life insurance policies at that time was eight cents per hundred dollars or fraction thereof of indemnity, and in this case was paid using two eighty-cent battleship revenues.

The policy included membership in the Association, involving a $43 deposit, payable in four equal installments at 4% interest. The promissory note in the policy was not taxed as such, or at least, no tax was paid on it. Perhaps if anyone had called the IRS's attention to it, the result would have been different.

The Bankers Life Association was founded July 1, 1879 and became a mutual company in 1909. In 1985 it changed its name to Principal Financial Group and it currently is one of the Fortune 500 companies.

Cancel for December 3: M. A. & C. Railway

M.  A.  &  C.  RY.

DEC

3

CANCELLED

On September 19 last year a cancel by the same railway appeared on this site.  Since that time I have failed to identify the MA&C Railway, which is odd, since with the vast resources now available online regarding railroads the process of identification is usually short and simple.  Again, if anybody might know the full name of the railroad behind these initials, please let me know at 1898revenues@gmail.com.

Meanwhile, the best online resource I've ever found for researching railroads is Railroadiana.  A screen shot of the names database search page is included below.  The site is maintained by collectors and experts of railroad collectables, and they maintain a search engine in which one can search by railroad initials.  This has been quite useful for me, though the Railroadiana database still produces a blank for the MA&C.  Since the search engine did not help, I also posted the stamps with the MA&C initials on the question page of the Railroadiana site to see if any of those that follow the site could help provide an answer.  Nobody could.  So I am still stuck!

Screen capture of Railroadiana railroad names database.

Cancel for December 2: W. T. Durand

W.  T.  DURAND

DEC

2

1898

MILWAUKEE, WIS

W. T. Durand ran a Milwaukee insurance company.

Cancel for December 1: Lincoln County Bank

Lincoln Co. Bank,

DEC    1   1899

Merrill,   Wis.

This bank still exists today.  Find their website here.  The bank was founded in 1897 as a private bank and became state chartered in 1903.  The bank changed its name to Lincoln Community Bank in 2007.

An Incoming Bill of Exchange

When I saw this rather bedraggled first of exchange, directed to a U.S. company from Mexico City, at a stamp show my heart beat a bit faster due to its date - July 1, 1898. That feeling quickly dissipated when I saw that the Mexican revenue was canceled on that date, but the U.S. revenue not until July 6. I bought it anyway.

The dating formed a logical sequence, as the bill was issued in Mexico City and sent to New York for payment. The U.S. stamp was added by a representative of the Hidalgo Mining Company, possibly in Pittsburgh on the 6th of July, as there is an undated handstamp on back indicating payment from the Lincoln National Bank of Pittsburgh to the Seaboard National Bank of New York. The Seaboard National marked the instrument as paid on July 7th.

All well and good, but the tax paid was not sufficient. In the Compilation of Decisions Rendered by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, January 1899 it was clearly stated, "Checks drawn in a foreign country, but payable in the United States, taxable 2 cents on each $100 or fraction thereof." The tax on this $996.65 bill of exchange would have been 20 cents. But at least one bank found it necessary to ask the IRS for that ruling.

It really isn't clear from reading the War Revenue Act what the proper tax should have been - two cents like a check cashed in the United States or twenty cents like a bill of exchange written in the United States - so the Hildago Mining Rep can be excused for adopting the cheaper view. If only the timing had been such that he had added the stamp on July 1.....

A Bit of a Puzzle

This interesting certificate of deposit was discovered by Mike Morrissey. He sold it to me when he moved several years ago:

Certificates of deposit were taxed from July 1, 1898 through June 30, 1901. If no interest was offered nor granted the tax was a flat two cents, no matter how much was deposited. If interest was guaranteed, the tax was two cents per one hundred dollars or fraction of one hundred dollars. Many deposits fell into an intermediate category where interest was given only if the money was left for a particular length of time, usually six months. In such a case, two cents tax was paid at the time of deposit, and the remainder was paid if and when interest was granted.

The certificate shown above bore interest of three per cent per annum only if the deposit were to be left at least six months. It was properly taxed two cents via imprinted revenue at issue on December 20, 1900, and an additional thirty-four cents when redeemed, since the total tax on the $1773.22 deposit was thirty-six cents if interest was paid.

Since interest was paid, the certificate was not redeemed before June 20, 1901. In fact, the handstamp used on the added revenues on the back is dated July 1, 1901. This is what makes the certificate unusual - if the certificate had been redeemed July 1, NO additional tax would have been payable, as the portion of the tax law concerning certificates of deposit had been repealed as of that date.

Two possibilities come to mind. First, if the bank did not realize that the tax had been repealed, it could have collected it in error. This is not likely, as there were more sweeping changes effective on that date, such as no longer needing a revenue stamp on checks payable on sight or demand. The repeal would have been widely known for some time, surely by the First National Bank of Jamestown.

The second possibility is that the certificate was redeemed on Saturday, June 29, and that the bank routinely processed such surrenders on the following Monday. Under this scenario the depositor would have collected his money on Saturday (or even Friday?) and paid the bank for the stamps, which were applied to the certificate and canceled Monday, July 1, along with any other certificates that had come in on the weekend. The redemption would have been properly taxed, but the date on the stamps would not have reflected the actual date of the transaction.

The only way to get a better feel for what went on here is to find other certificates from the same bank which show deposits redeemed near the end of a calendar month. I have another one dated in December of 1900, but it apparently was redeemed sometime after June 30, 1901, since there are no additional stamps on the back. These certificates do not seem to be too uncommon, so perhaps others can offer additional data points.

E. P. S. Works: El Paso Smelting Works

E. P. S. Works

JUL 9-  1898

Dave Thompson sends in this pair with a confirmed ID of the the company represented by the initials EPS Works after Frank Sente posted a full on-document use of the cancel.  Thanks to Frank for his post and Dave for sending in the scan of this R164 pair.

Outbound Bill of Exchange from US to Mexico

Consolidated Kansas City Smelting and Refining Co.

22.58 Silver Peso Bill of Exchange to Mexico

July 13, 1898

The Consolidated Kansas City Smelting and Refining Company was a huge conglomorate of numerous companies by 1898 including the Mexican Ore Company ( bill signed by their cashier), and the El Paso Smelting Works (cancel on US stamps). Without the documentation that likely accompanied this payment it's hard to tell who was paying for what other than someone involved with the CKCS&RC was sending 22.58 Pesos to someone in Mexico.

Because 22.58 Peso is less than $100 yet the bill was taxed 4-cents with a pair R164 battleship revenues, it's likely that only a single copy of this bill was issued. The relevant tax was 2-cents per $100 on each copy if bills were written in sets of two or more, or 4-cents per $100 if written singly. The bill was also taxed 4 centovos in Mexico by the Banco Comercial de Chihuahua in Juarez, just accross the Rio Grande from El Paso.

Today Juarez is one of the most violent cities in the world due to the Mexican drug wars, but in 1898 there was an open border between Mexico and the United States.

El Paso Smelting Works cancel:
E.P.S. Works
JUL 13, 1898

What are the Odds? Another Money Wire to Richwald!

Receipt for Money Wire to Richwald

F. A. Kail Banking and Exchange Office

42 Avenue C, New York, NY

June 6, 1899

Our thanks go to JW Palmer for providing today's subject document. Actually JW sent this scan to me several years ago asking if I thought it had anything to do with foreign exchange. We both assumed it involved foreign exchange, but alone, by itself, neither of us understood it was a receipt for a money wire. It wasn't until some other similar documents, like the P. V. Obiecunas, Max Schamberg, and Maurice Grau receipts, came to our attention did we recognize this to be another example of a money wire. Sometimes in philately, as elsewhere, understanding doesn't occur until a critical mass of material is accumulated. Alone each piece is hard to understand, but looking at them all together makes it easy to see that they are simply receipts for transfers of money that didn't involve paper documents; i.e. money wires!

And it never ceases to amaze me what I learn when I look at items critically, as one must when creating an exhibit, or writing an article, or, in this instance a blog. It wasn't until I decided to include this item in this series of blogs about money wires that I recognized this K. A. Kail Co. money wire for 50 Kr. sent from New York City is addressed to a party residing in Richwald, the same small town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to which the P.V. Obiecunas money wire was addressed. Given the thousands of immigrants who must have sent money back to family and friends in Europe, what are the odds that of the handful of recorded examples, two (one from Pittsburgh and one from New York City) would be addressed to the same small town where less than 1,000 people resided?

As 50Kr is less than $100 it is properly taxed as a singly written bill of exchange, the tax for which was 4-cents per each $100 in value, or fraction thereof.

Other than the date, June 6, 1899, the cancel regrettably is illegible.

We'd appreciate reports to 1898revenues@gmail.com of other examples of similar money wire receipts.

Happy Thanksgiving from 1898 Revenues!

Cancel for November 25: Provident Life & Trust Company Of Philadelphia

THE PROVIDENT LIFE & TRUST COMPANY OF PHILADELPHIA.

11  Mo

25

1898

Interesting big cancel, with a long name spelled out in a CDS.

Top it off with "11 Mo" for November, a Quaker dating method in which the names of the months are not used.  Provident Life and Trust was likely a Quaker owned and operated company.

David Thompson sent me this image of an R175 with a similar cancel to that above.

Another example of a Provident Life cancel. 

From Wikipedia:

The Quaker "plain calendar," or "scriptural calendar," differs from what Quakers refer to as the "world's calendar".  The plain calendar uses numbers to denominate the names of the months and days of the week. It emerged in the 17th century in England in the general non-conformist movement but became closely identified with Friends by the end of the 1650s and continuously since that time.

The plain calendar does not use names of calendar units derived from the traditional names due to their derivation from pagan deities. Instead, it uses ancient terminology as found in the bible where the days of the week were numbered; for example, Jesus' followers went to the tomb early on the First Day of the week. From this, the plain calendar week begins with First Day (equivalent to the traditional Christian Sunday) and ends on Seventh Day (Saturday). Similarly the calendar's months run concurrently with the traditional months albeit named First Month, Second Month, etc..

***

Provident Life and Trust Company:  In 1922 The Provident Life and Trust Company split into two companies: the Provident Mutual Life Insurance Company and the Provident Trust Company.  Eventually through mergers and name changes the Provident Trust Company would become the Provident Naional Bank and eventually the Provident National Corporation.  After Provident National Corporation merged with Pittsburgh National Corporation in 1982, the merged companies became PNC, one of the largest banks in the United States today.

Provident Life & Trust Company building,

409 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia

Built in 1879 and demolished in 1959

Designed by architect Frank Furness

Another Money Wire to Europe

Receipt for Money Wire to Europe

P.V. Obiecunas, Pittsburg(h), PA

December 28, 1899

Wasko Szandala sends 40Kr. (about $10.00) by wire through P.V. Obiecunas in Pittsburg(h), PA to Mila(sp?) Czupa in Boglarka, Hungary, a small village now located in Northeast Slovakia. The "P.O. Richwald" reference suggests that the money would be sent to that neighboring town as it had a post office where the money could be received.

According to the 1913 census Boglarka had 248 inhabitants, all Ukrainian(Ruthenian). Richwald had 850 residents, all Slovaks. Although Richwald had a post office, it did not have a telegraph. The closest town with telegraph service was Bardejov, about 15 Km to the East.

It's unclear where Obiecunas sent the wire, but the money was most likely converted to a postal money order and sent to Richwald for delivery.

Untied Pen Cancel: P. V. O.

Stamp Tied by Datestamp and Payer's Name

That the stamp is tied by the name of the payer and the datestamp suggests it was already affixed to a blank receipt form. Many Pittsburg area immigrants likely sent funds to family members in Europe via Obiecunas and other similar firms providing banking and European exchange services. That the P.V.O. pencancel doesn't tie suggests it was a precancel, another hint the forms were prestamped and ready for use.

As the amounts were most likely small (under $100) it would have made sense to set up the receipts in advance with a 4-cent stamp paying the tax on a singly written outbound bill of exchange. Again, as there was no financial instrument was actually drawn, the receipt provided the medium for recording the tax payment for the transaction.

International Money Wire Taxed as a Bill of Exchange

Receipt for Money Wire to Europe

Max Schamberg & Co., Pittsburg, PA

March 11, 1901

For years Max Schamberg was the consul for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or at least for the Austrian Monarchy, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1866 he founded his own company providing banking and transportation services, primarily to serve the ever increasing immigrant population in Pittsburg. He sold the business in the 1880s to Issac E. Hirsch, who is identified as the proprietor in the upper right corner of this 1901 receipt.

That this receipt for 10 Roubles is taxed 4-cents suggests that the money was transferred to Europe via cable where it either was converted to a postal money order or sent via registered mail to the intended recipient. Had an actual bill of exchange been drafted and sent through the mail, the tax stamps would have been affixed directly to that document and not this receipt. The receipt simply served as an appropriate medium for the tax stamps required by the wire transaction.

We do seek assistance regarding the name and location of the recipient. It appears to be Szachne? Lawsonordiz? in Lasman? We may be far off the mark with those spellings. As the amount was given in roubles, I suspect this may have been going to the Ukrainian area of the Austro-Hungarian empire, but that's purely supposition. Can anyone offer more definitive information?

As best I can determine, 10 roubles would have been worth around $100 in 1900. It would have been considered to be a singly-written bill of exchange for which the tax was 4-cents per $100 in value, so the tax of appears to be is correct. We'd appreciate comments from anyone who might otherwise confirm the exact exchange rate between roubles and dollars in 1901.

Double-ring Circular Date Stamp:

MAX SCHAMBERG & CO.

MAR/11/1901

Pittsburg, Pa.

Cancel for November 21: Columbus, Hocking Valley, and Toledo Railway

F. B. EVERETT

NOV

21

1898

AUDITOR

F.B. Everett was the auditor for the Columbus, Hocking Valley, and Toledo Railway.  At the time of this cancel the company was in receivership and would be reorganized in early 1899 as the Hocking Valley Railway.  By 1930 the Hocking Valley Railway would be merged into the Chesapeake and Ohio.

Logo of the Hocking Valley Railway, successor of the C, HV & T

Bob Hohertz' sent in this scan of the only known imprinted Hocking Valley Parlor Car ticket to complement this post.