2 Cent Documentary Plate Varieties: More Guide Dot Examples

There have been multiple examples of the so-called guide dots at the top centers of the battleship stamps in recent posts.  In this post are examples of two stamps with dots at the bottom of the stamp.  In the first example their is a dot in spandle toward the top of the stamp, but there is also a dot at the bottom just inside the frame line at center.

The example below includes a dot at bottom center outside the design of the stamp.

No matter what I read, I can't figure how the positioning of these dots made for accurate centering of the transfer roll on the plate.

Cancel for March 11: North and South Rolling Stock Company

N. & S. R. S. Co.

MAR   11   1899

Need some help identifying this company.  Please send an answer, if you have one, to 1898revenues@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.

Editor's Note, March 12, 2011 -  Malcolm Goldstein identified this cancel as likely to be from the North & South Rolling Stock Company.  When this post first went up the title line above had only listed the cancel initials.  As this stamp came from a 2ct calendar replete with railroad related cancels, Mr. Goldstein's ID of this cancel is almost certainly correct.  As for the story behind this company:

From:  THE PERSONAL HISTORY AND PUBLIC AND BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENTS OF ONE HUNDRED EMINENT LUMBERMEN OF THE UNITED STATES,

THIRD SERIES, CHICAGO : THE AMERICAN LUMBERMAN, 1906

Curtis M. Jennings

A few generations ago it was deemed essential that the young man destined for a business career should learn his trade as a whole. Today, while broad knowledge is desirable, special knowledge is all important, and the specialist is found in every walk of commercial and professional life. One of the pioneer specialists in lumber is Curtis Morrison Jennings, of St. Louis, Missouri.

Curtis M. Jennings was born at Risingsun, the county seat of Ohio County, Indiana, October 24, 1852. He is the son of John M. Jennings and Sarah B. Jennings. In this town on the Ohio River the boy spent his days in school and at play.  He was a strong, healthy lad when in 1867 he left the scenes of his birth and went to St. Louis, then a city slowly recovering from the effects of the Civil War. Seeking employment, chance took him to the office of Joseph Bogy & Co., a well known lumber firm, where he was given the position of office boy.

Another youth who entered the employ of the firm a short time after Curtis M. Jennings was John S. Berthold.  Both lads were industrious and quick to learn, and advancement came to them as a reward for the interest taken in the business of their employers. A strong feeling of friendliness sprang up between the two young men as they labored together, and there was more or less rivalry between them, to see who could gain promotion first. Thrift was characteristic of both, and by 1872 they had saved enough money to take advantage of an opportunity to buy out the business of Joseph Bogy & Co.

As the firm of Berthold & Jennings, Mr. Berthold and Mr. Jennings began the wholesaling of lumber in St. Louis.  Experience formed no small part of the assets of the partners, and from the start the firm's business prospered. Mr. Jennings was not a dreamer, nor did he evolve any impossible schemes, but he did plan and shape the affairs of the concern along lines that were out of the ordinary in the lumber industry.

Five years after the firm was organized the volume of business demanded larger supplies of stock than could be secured at mills not controlled by the concern. To provide adequate stocks Mr. Jennings proposed operating sawmills, and mills were secured in Missouri and Mississippi, where yellow pine was manufactured, to be marketed in St. Louis, Chicago and the West generally. The milling business was abandoned in 1890, the firm following the wholesale business exclusively and handling yellow pine and oak lumber, particularly heavy building timber and material for railroads and car construction. This line was gradually developed until in a few years the retail trade was dropped altogether and the firm catered alone to the large consumers. These lines have been adhered to steadfastly, and the firm is known throughout the country by lumber contractors of great city structures and factories, railroad purchasing agents and car building companies.

From 1877 to 1890 Berthold & Jennings maintained yards in East St. Louis, where was carried a stock of from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 feet of car sills. The yard was discontinued when it was found shipments could be made promptly from the mills where the orders were placed. The firm places its business with several yellow pine mills in Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, taking practically all their output. A yard is operated in St. Louis to care for certain lines of trade and a large stock is carried at this point.

Shortly after Berthold & Jennings engaged in the manufacturing line it was found that the transportation companies were unprepared to furnish rolling stock designed for the purpose of carrying large timbers. In 1878 the firm bought 100 flat cars, instead of relying upon the railroads for cars, and ten years later was incorporated the North & South Rolling Stock Company, of which Mr. Jennings became treasurer. At the
time the first order for cars was placed, the Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans Railroad — now a part of the Illinois Central Railroad — did not have enough cars of the proper length to ship heavy lumber, and this was the chief reason why the firm decided to have its own cars. The business of the company grew beyond the expectations of its promoters and today the North & South Rolling Stock Company has 500 cars, including refrigerator, box and flat cars, in its equipment. Not having use for this number of cars in its own business, it has leased many of them to different individuals, corporations and railroads.

Another company in which Mr. Jennings is interested is the Excelsior Car Roofing Company, of which he is president.  This company, which is incorporated, manufactures galvanized iron roofing at St. Louis, and the plant has an annual capacity of about 15,000 roofs. The concern was incorporated in the year 1892.

From the start Mr. Jennings' lumber career has been that of a specialist — car material, heavy railroad and heavy building material, and a rolling stock company organized to own cars for the carrying of heavy material, have been his specialties, with the car roofing business as a side issue. But all of these lines are related, and he has followed out the ideas originally conceived when he embarked in the lumber business. He has not been tempted from this path by the success of lumbermen in other lines of the industry — he has not sought after strange gods in new ventures — but has remained a specialist.

2 Cent Documentary Plate Varieties: Guide Dot Examples

There are many examples out there of a dot in the middle of the spandle on the battleship stamps.  Here are two examples of a double dot in the spandle:

Cancel for March 9: R. J. Johnston & Company

R. J. JOHNSTON & CO.

MAR

9

1900

A member of the New York Cotton Exchange.  The firm failed in 1903 as reported by the New York Times.

Chat Board Discussion on Battleship Guide Dots

At Virtual Stamp Club is an ongoing discussion of guide dots.  Go straight to that discussion here.

2 Cent Documentary Plate Varieties: Guide Dot Examples

This site has started a new theme in the past few days on the so-called layout dots and lines on the battleship stamps.  Philately has understood these to be the artifacts of the plate layout process.  Some readers here are not entirely convinced they all make sense as layout marks.  For the next week or so I will be posting examples of these dots and lines.  I have a fairly substantial set of examples on the 2ct doc, and will show one type and a variation today:

Dot just above upper frame line in center of stamp

Dot just above upper frame line in center of stamp, accompanied by a dot or other mark in the lower portion of the C of cents, not present on the stamp above

Based on centering and the cancels of the above two stamps, I believe these are stamps from the same sheet.  I am not sure how either dot, the one touching the frame line or the one in the C of cents, function as guide dots.  The one in the C clearly defaces part of the design, and would be difficult to burnish of the plate.  The dot touching the frame line does not help to center the stamp horizontally, though perhaps if accompanied by another dot on a different axis could help locate the subject on the plate.  Either way, why would only one stamp have the dot in the C?

Cancel for March 7: Scandinavian American Bank

SCAND. AMERICAN BANK

MAR

7

1900

With cursory research I've established that the Scandinavian American Bank functioned across the northern tier of the United States, with offices that ranged from St. Paul to Seattle  It appeas that their business region paralleled the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railroad lines.. 

Scandinavian American Bank building in Seattle from a 1900 brochure entitled "Seattle and the Orient"

Excursion: Postage Due Cancels

Envelope received from an Ebay purchase

cancelled with "Postage Due Unit" CDSs

This is obviously not a revenue document.  But it was used to ship 1898 revenue stamps.  I had saved it when it came in last year since I thought it was interesting.  I've never received anything like this in the mail, and the careful handstamp cancelling of the 1960s vintage commemorative postage stamps with the Postage Due Unit CDS stamp makes for an interesting curiousity. 

Guide Dots: Questions and Observations

Dave Thompson sends in the following questions and comments about the guide dot post from two days ago (I've done a bit of editing):

I know position dots are used to position the plate so that the transfer roll can be applied to the soft flat plate.  If your examples are position dots, what position is indicated by the dot in about the middle of the stamp towards to top? How can a person determine the proper place to apply the transfer roll (rounded) to orientation exactly in the middle so the position dot would always show in your examples?


Another point, if the description is correct, that could explain why there are examples of the plate screw showing sometimes on blocks, is the speed to needed in printing these stamps. Was it a fact they were in a rush to get these stamps printed? Could be, we all know the history of that time and the need was great that 1 and 2 cent provisionals were made, in addition to a $5.00 provisional.

I'm thinking your examples of position dots are not proper position dots, just a guess on my part, but I'm thinking when the position dots were being applied, they screwed up, and repositioned all the position dots, and just left the position dots (first ones applied in the incorrect position) where they were, did not bother to erase them out as there was to many of them, and they were in a hurry!


In other revenue stamps, especially the first issue revenue, the position dots are usually in the upper right corner, you can all see this on many of the 19th century regular stamps (before the Bureau won the contract in 1894).

****

 

I know very little about printing techniques on these stamps.  From a laymans point of view I would place light dots in two opposite corners of each stamp that would be hidden by the frame line in order to properly place and orient each stamp.  Why was it not done this way?  For what purpose was the mark that damaged the C in so many 2ct documentary stamps?
 
We would be interested in comments and additions from anyone with expertise in the printing methods on these stamps.

Guide Dots on Battleship Revenues

I'm not much of a fly-specker, but I was reminded by John's February 25, 2011 post about about a layout dot in the "C" of the word Cent on a two cent R164p issue, that I have numerous examples of layout or guide dots on a variety of other battleship issues.

While I understand the basic steps involved in preparing a plate for intaglio printing, I'm not a serious student of the engraved printing process and all the technical steps required to prepare a plate for actual printing, so I will rely on the Williams Brothers' classic primer, Fundamentals of Philately, to explain the purpose and function of plate guide dots and guide lines.

In this context the term "guide line" refers to any linear marking on the plate used as a "guide" during the process of preparing the plate preliminary to actual printing, and not guide lines purposely printed on sheets for uses after printing has occurred such as perforating, or cutting sheets into panes, or folding a sheet into a smaller size.

Figure 1
NOTE: Click on Images to Enlarge Them

If you look closely you'll see a "guide" or "position" dot in the letter "I" in the word FIVE on each of the 25-cent R169p issues in Figure 1 above.

Let's listen to the Williams Brothers as they explain the process of preparing a plate to receive image entries from a tranfer roller:

Usually, for varying reasons, the working area of the plate is marked with several series of dots, dashes and even continuous lines. The process of applying the dots and lines is termed 'laying out the plate.' All these markings, which are made after careful measurements, are made with the object of guiding the siderographist where to make the entries. Normally the intention would be that none of the markings should appear on the printed stamp--they should either be hidden by a feature of the design or obliterated by it, or else later removed from the plate. However, many instances are known of stamps bearing such dots, termed 'guide dots' or 'position dots' and lines called 'guide lines' usually within the edge of a design--in color, for, of course, the dot or line on the plate is in the form of a slight recess.

Figure 2

In Figure 2 the "guide dot" appears on these R171p issues in the area of the middle of the spandle between the arched words "United States" and "Internal Revenue". It's best seen in the far right stamp.

Figure 3

In Figure 3 the "guide dot" on these rouletted R163 issues appears in the top selvage above the letter "C" in the word CENT just outside the edge of the design. The third stamp appears to have a double dot.

Figure 4

In Figure 4 the "guide dot" on these hyphen-hole or slot-perforated R163p issues appears just above the middle of the spandle on ALL FOUR stamps in the block.

Figure 5

In Figure 5 the "guide dot" on these 10-cent R168p issues again appears in the middle of the spandle between the arched words "United States" and "Internal Revenue" And on the right stamp there is a faint guide line running through the lower part of the left numeral "10".

Figure 6

In Figure 6 the R164p at left is similar to John's R164 in that there is a "guide dot" in the letter "C" in the word CENT and part of a "guide line" showing in the right numeral "2". However, in this one there is another "guide dot" in the top selvage above the letter "C" just outside the edge of the design. There also appear to be two "guide dots" on the two-cent RB27p at right. One is just outside the top edge of the design between the letters "C" and "E" in CENTS, and another one just below and between those letters.

Figure 7

A "guide dot" appears in all six of the stamps in this RB20 block. In the top row the dot appears in the top selvage above the right leg of the first "H" in the word EIGHTH just outside the top edge of the design. They are faint so I've circled the dot on the first stamp in the row. In the bottom row the "guide dot" appears within the right leg of the first "H" in EIGHTH; again the dot is circled on the first stamp in the bottom row.

Figure 8

On this block of four of R171p fifty-cent issues there are no dots or guide lines visible in the top two stamps, but "guide dots" prominently appear in the middle of the spandle on the bottom two stamps and there is a dramatic guide line running entirely through both stamps, best seen in all four "50" numerals.

There were three different plate layouts for the battleship revenues and presumably all three plates were similarly prepared with guide dots and guide lines. But it's been more than a decade since I've looked at these stamps or thought about them. And as I'm not a serious student of the technical aspects of plate production, as I view them now several questions come to mind:

• How many dots and lines were required to adequately layout a plate? Was a marking required for every entry?
  
• Were some dots and lines actually erased and others left alone? And as the Williams' suggest were some lines and dots obsured or otherwise hidden within the engraved design?
  
• Can examples of guide dots and guide lines be found on ALL values of the battleship revenues?
  
• Was the rush to print these stamps so great that the BEP took short cuts or relaxed their quality standards ?
  

I'm mainly interested in on-document usages of the battleship revenues and have spent little time over the years studying the stamps themselves. But for anyone interested in plate flaws, double transfers, and plate re-entries etc., the battleships offer fertile ground for study.

We'd appreciate seeing examples of guide dots on other values of the proprietary and documentary issues and hearing from anyone who can elaborate upon the technical aspects of the plate layout requirements for the battleship stamps, especially with regard to the use of "guide dots" and "guide lines."

Melchior, Armstrong, & Dessau

MELCHIOR, ARMSTRONG, & DESSAU,

JUL

XX

1900

NEW YORK.

Here is another mystery company, but for reasons quite different than the cancel for a firm that is long dead and has left no trace by the year 2011.  Melchior Armstrong & Dessau draws 100s if not 1000s of Google hits.  Virtually all of the hits are for commercial websites that list or rate heating and cooling contractors in local areas, particularly on the east coast of the United States.  These businesses all appear to be locally owned, small shops.  However, there is not an M, A & D website that I can find.  The firm clearly existed, and was doing big things in 1900 when this stamp was cancelled.

Dave Thompson sent this scan and had some doubts about the spelling.  I think I've got that one solved but need a bit more help in pursuing exactly what kind of business this firm was doing in 1900.

Cancel for March 1: Helmholz & Remick

Helmholz & Remick

MAR

1

CHICAGO.

Frederick Helmholz and Frank Remick were partners in a firm with a seat on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Cancel for February 28: W. A. Mathies

W.  A.  MATHIES,

FEB

28

1899

A W. A. Mathies was a resident of San Francisco in 1870.  I am not sure whether this cancel and that man are one and the same. 

Cancel for February 27: Provident Institution for Savings

PROV.  INST

FEB  27  1899

FOR SAVINGS.

The Provident Institution for Savings was established in 1816 in Boston.  It was the first chartered savings bank in the United States. 

In 1986 the Hartford National Corporation bought the Provident and after 170 years of independence it became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hartford.  It has now been merged into Shaumut Bank.

Portrait of founder James Savage.

Savage lived from 1784 to 1873

The portrait was painted posthumously in 1886 by David Dahloff Neal

2ct Documentary: Cancel and Plate Markings

D. APPLETON & CO.

OCT

3

1900

D. Appleton & Company was a publishing company located in the United States.  The company published many famous and best-selling books, including:

• The Red Badge of Courage
• Uncle Remus
• Memoirs of William Tecumseh Sherman
• The Works of Rudyard Kipling

The company no longer exists, having been merged with The Century Company in 1933 which was in turn merged with F. S. Crofts.  That company was purchased by Meredith in 1960, which was then purchased by Prentice Hall in 1960...and so on.

Meanwhile, this stamp has a couple of other interesting characteristics independent of its cancel.

The C in Cents has a layout dot or marking in the lower portion of the C.  This plate anomoly was documented in this post from January 5, 2011.

The right 2 shows a thin line running through the top portion of the numeral.  This is likely to be some sort of layout marking.  I have seen many of these lines and they usually run across the stamp and both 2s, this stamp only appears to have the line running through the right 2.

Havana Hits

Interesting milestone for this site today as the first known page view from Havana, Cuba occurred.  There have been a few posts on historical moments in the Spanish American War, and the site's title painting is of a battle that took place in Cuba, so I would expect occasional web traffic from the island.  However, there are there are very few computers that have access to the internet in the country, so internet use per capita is low in Cuba. 

Johnson & Johnson Battleship on Carbolated Cotton

A nice, clear Johnson & Johnson cancel has already been shown on the Blog. This one is barely readable, and its only claim to fame is that it is still on the box of Carbolated Cotton where it was placed more than a hundred years ago.

The stamp.

The box.

Carbolated cotton is created by soaking absorbent cotton in a solution of carbolic acid, alcohol and glycerin, and allowing it to dry. The glycerin will bond the carbolic acid to the cotton fiber. It was most probably used to alleviate the pain of toothache due to an untreated cavity.

Johnson & Johnson was formed in 1886 when Robert Johnson walked away from the firm of Seabury & Johnson and went into business with his brother Edward. Today it is a Fortune 500 company with some 250 subsidiaries in 57 countries. We use it when we buy the original Band-Aid brand, Tylenol, or Neutrogena products.

Frank Sente's R163 Exhibit: The Workhorse of the US 1898 Battleship Revenues

A Study of the One-Cent Documentary Issue
Exhibit Synopsis

Treatment

The print run for the one-cent documentary issue was 1,124,972,000, the first time the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced more than one billion copies of a stamp, making this revenue stamp the most common US issue of the 19th Century. It was the most commonly and diversely used of the twenty-four battleship revenues issued when Congress enacted the War Revenue Law of 1898 to underwrite the cost of the Spanish-American War. Mint copies are plentiful, however no plate or die proofs exist, and only three trial color proofs are known. One of those is in this exhibit.

Shown are examples of plate singles from the three plate layouts used over the four-year tax period. Few production varieties exist, given the quantity produced. A block demonstrating the horizontal imperforate error, an example of a dramatic offset horizontal perforation, and a used vertical pair showing an unusual jagged vertical perforation are exhibited.

Documents illustrating the relevant taxes are presented as well as a selection of cancellations from railroad and express companies, the primary users of the stamp. A unique usage of a one-cent Porto Rico overprint is presented and explained.

Importance

Primarily used to pay the one-cent tax on bills of lading and express shipping receipts, this “workhorse” stamp carried the nation’s freight. With a one-cent tax on telegrams and railroad parlor car tickets, it also “carried” words and travelers. Often the one-cent issue was used with other stamps to pay “make-up” tax rates, in particular on present or future delivery commodity sales at boards of trade for which a one-cent tax was charged for each $100 in value, or fraction thereof. These usages provide a historic “snapshot” of the nation’s commerce at a time when the United States was emerging into a true nation-state with world-power status.

Knowledge and Research

Most documents are self-explanatory, although study, research and experiential common sense are required to correctly interpret unusual transactions and puzzling circumstances. Without a clear understanding of the tax schedule one might not have noticed that Wells Fargo required an additional one-cent stamp for a shipment of bullion because that represented a transfer of money requiring two-cents tax rather than the penny required on an express receipt.

The phrase, “comes with baggage”, now most often used in a derogatory sense, stems from an 1898 Treasury Official’s ruling voiding the bill of lading tax on excess baggage. Treasury ruled “baggage, no matter in what amount” could not be considered as a “separate” shipment from a passenger and while an excess fee might be appropriate, a tax thereon was not. Hence a traveler “comes with baggage”.

The current federal telephone tax had its origin in 1898 when telephone calls costing 15 cents or more were taxed one-cent each, but you will not find an example in the exhibit. Without the requirement of a tangible document, as was the case with telegraphic dispatches, stamps were not used to pay this tax. Instead phone companies were required to submit a monthly statement along with an appropriate payment directly to their district internal revenue collector – a rare example of a tax not borne directly by consumers, as it is today.

While the Schedule A taxes were enumerated in a scant four pages; the Treasury Decisions interpreting them make up four lengthy volumes. Interpretative nuggets gleaned from those Decisions and from other official resources were useful in explanations for additional exhibited documents. For example, the explanation for the usage of the one-cent Porto Rico overprint was found in the First Annual Report of Charles H. Allen, Governor of Porto Rico.

Condition

Telegrams, bills of lading, and express receipts often were discarded upon receipt. Frequently they were printed on sulfur-laden paper causing serious deterioration over time. It’s a wonder that any of these casual use documents ever survived, and most that have are either dog-eared or foxed. The ones chosen for this exhibit are in better condition than collectors usually find.

Rarity and Presentation

The tax was in effect for just four years, and in some instances, only three years, considerably less time than for the Civil War tax era, so the window of availability for taxed transactions is narrower. While bills of lading are common, the exhibit contains the earliest known use of the one-cent documentary on one, and a last day of use on another. Renewals of insurance policies are uncommon and one requiring just a one-cent tax, extremely so.

Suggested Reading

Schedule A (4 pages) from the War Revenue Act of 1898

Remembering the Maine...One Stamp at a Time, Vol. 112, No. 8, The American Philatelist August 1998. A schedule of the 1898 documentary taxes by fee amounts appears on page 748.

The Steamboat Chickasaw

Str CHICKASAW.

MAY

13

1899

Dave Thompson sent me a scan of this cancel months ago, and I never posted it because neither of us were sure at the time what Str Chickasaw meant.  During the intervening period, Dave figured it out, and we now know this stamp was cancelled by the Steamboat Chickasaw, a riverboat on the Mississippi that varied its area of operations over time.  In a photo below the boat was described as working rivers around Memphis in the early 1880s. 

The annual report page at the bottom of this post clearly shows the boat operating in Louisiana near New Orleans with a home port of Brashear by the late 1890s.  Funny how management showed the boat to lose $407 dollars in 1899 following receipts of more than $70,000.  Good old fashioned Louisiana book-keeping!

Enhanced Chickasaw cancel from the stamp above