More R155 SOTNs

The latest installment of a running series on R155s with socked-on-the-nose cancels.

M.  V.  T.  Co.

SEP   7  1898

CANCELED 

O. C. R. R.

OCT  1  1898

Old Colony Railroad

FIRST  NAT'L  BANK

JUL

23

1898

NELIGH,  NEB.

Mobile & Ohio Railroad Stock Memoranda of Sale

Below are memoranda of sale for the stock of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad cancelled by six different brokers.  The 1898 tax period was an interesting one for the stock of the Mobile & Ohio.  In late 1898 the stock was trading in the low 30s, by mid 99 and into 1900 the low 40s, but then by early 1901 the shares rocketed to around $70 per share.  The memoranda below are in chronological order starting in 1898 and then running through early 1901. 

The history of the M&O indicates why the railroad's stock might have experienced a price spike by February 1901.  According to a history of The Mobile and Ohio Railroad in a book by James Lemly::

...the board of directors of the M&O recommended that stockholders and bondholders of the M&O accept a security exchange plan which was offered by the Southern Railway on January 31, 1901. The Southern wanted the north-south line of the M&O and was in a position to provide financial assistance which the M&O needed to remain in competition with its richer rivals. Under its plan, the Southern acquired control of the M&O when the holders of 48,748 shares out of 53,206 shares outstanding exchanged their stock for 4 per cent Southern stock trust certificates. At the same time the holders of a majority of the M&O general mortgage bonds exchanged their securities for Southern collateral trust gold bonds for the same amount, principal and interest, payable on the same dates and secured by the M&O general mortgage bonds.

100 shares @ $31 7/8

December 30, 1898

Ladenburg Thalman

$2 in tax stamps

300 shares @ $42

April 10, 1899

Harris & Fuller

$6 in tax stamps

100 shares @ $40 1/2

May 15, 1990

Rolston & Bass

$2 dollars in tax stamps

200 shares @ $40 1/4

May 15, 1990

S. F. Johnson

$2 dollars in stamps on front, and an additional $2 on back

100 shares @ $69

February 1, 1901

I. S. Wormser

$2 in tax stamps

100 shares @ $70 1/2

February 1, 1901

W. S. Lawson & Co.

$2 in tax stamps

*****

Back to the story of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad.  James Lemly's book says this about the Mobile & Ohio's origins:

The Mobile Road, as it was often called in its early days, was planned by the people of Mobile to serve the city, in the same manner that the Mississippi River had served New Orleans. The railroad was expected to bring the trade of the upper Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Ohio River basins to Mobile. The project was named the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, because it was to connect that city with the great river systems which converged near Cairo, Illinois, and thus the port of Mobile was to assume a much greater role in commercial affairs at the expense of New Orleans.

The Mobile & Ohio ran south-north in a corridor dominated by two other major railroads, the Illinois Central and Louisville & Nashville.  Eventually it would shake loose from its relationship with the Southern Railway, reported at the top of this post.  The M&O would then join up with the Gulf, Mobile & Northern and form the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, with lines running from the Gulf of Mexico to Chicago.  The GM&O would be known as "The Rebel Route."  By 1972 the line was merged with the Illinois Central and ceased to exist.

1902 Mobile & Ohio route map

Cancel for May 10: B & P

B.  &  P.

MAY 10 1901

Stylized but unknown cancel.  Need some help identifying this one. 

Tracking 1898 Values

Its been awhile since I've run a post on 1898 values.  I never purchased the 2011 Scott US Specialized, so I never reviewed price changes, or the lack of them, over the previous year's catalog.  But some interesting chatter in the ether lately has encouraged me to look at other indicators besides the Scott valuation of 1898s. 

Of course, here at this site we would never think that we could raise the popularity and demand of 1898s.  We do know that there is at least one big fish in the pond these days, and that always helps with values on the high end.  Seems more folks out there than just one or two know that 1898s are hot. 

I don't swim too much with the big fish, preferring the low-brow world of humble cancels.  But I do own some high-rent material, and the contributions of co-bloggers and others have helped display some remarkably desireable material here.
In January I ran a post on Harmer-Schau's upcoming auction that included some very interesting 1898 material.  The original auction, held January 28-30, can be found here.  I highlighted several lots, and said that I would come back to report on the auction results.  Well, I never did.  So we can look at a few lots now and see how they did.  I was always taught delayed gratification was a good thing!

The following four lots were included in the Harmer-Schau sale:

RB31p hyphen hole plate imprint block, estimate of $1200-1400 prior to auction

Realized $1093

It didn't break the estimate, but the block still managed to pull more than a $1000.  Just a few years ago in a Siegel sale, plate imprint blocks of this stamp sold for less than $400.  Somebody is paying attention to these now.  It helps that Scott now lists them. 

RB24p hyphen hole plate imprint block, estimate of $400-$500 prior to auction

Realized $460

This block fell into the estimate range. 

Mckesson & Robbins proprietary printed cancel collection - 181 dates/stamps, estimate $750 to $1000

Realized $575

Way below estimate.  However, while the realization relative to the estimate was low, consider another way to look at these.  During the Siegel sale of Henry Tolman's proprietary printed cancel material, his two volume collection sold as a single lot for approximately $4000.  His McKesson material represented several pages of the collection, yet was a fraction of the overall material.  In relative terms the McKesson collection above sold for terms far above the Tolman stamps.  Same applies to the Emerson stamps below:

Emerson Drug proprietary printed cancels collection - over 950 dates/stamps - Estimate $1800 to $2000

Realized $1668

Then there is the example of the Ebay lot below, listed by a seller who didn't even identify why the item was so special.  I'm not sure he knew it was extraordinary, and had to be surprised when the item sold for ton.  I originally posted on this lot the day it was sold. 

50 copies of R154 on a bond cancelled on the first day of use.

Realized: $787

Here we have a single 1898 document, with nothing but a few one cent revenues framing the page.  $787 later, it had a new owner.  Of course this document is special, but I would guess that it would have sold for no more than $300-500 five years ago. 

I don't have the patience to track other 1898 Ebay sales to establish if there is any sort of trend in values.  I will definitely buy the catalog this year, so we'll see where that takes us.  Meanwhile, if you've seen anything interesting to report on this matter, please contact us at 1898revenues@gmail.com.

Cancel for May 8: American Express Company

AM. EX. CO.

          1900

Just a reminder that the search continues for new examples of printed cancels on the documentary 1898 stamps.  Our series on these cancels can be found here.  The original organized attempt to list these cancels was orchestrated by Richard Fullerton in the early 1950s, and his list included express company cancels like the American Express example above.  The list largely comprised the cancels of railroads, which utilized printed cancels on the documentaries more than other businesses.

Please review the posts that follow the link above, and if after doing so you find that you may have unique material to contribute to this effort, contact us at 1898revenues@gmail.com.

Cancel for May 8: Hamburg-Bremen Fire Insurance Company

BURG-BREME

MAY

8

1899

E  INS.  CO.

The Hamburg-Bremen Fire Insurance Company was ordered to discontinue business by the President of the United States in 1918 under the Trading with the Enemy Act."  Public pressure and this act led to the end or a major change in brand and character of many German and German-American businesses in the United States during World War I.

Hamburg-Bremen Fire Insurance Company Calendar

Hamburg-Bremen Fire Insurance Company postal cover

though dateless, the stamp dates the cover near the 1898 revenues period of use

A Repeat Offender

Most of you reading this blog are familiar with promissory notes taxed at two cents per hundred dollars or fraction thereof, such as the following note.

Signed on February 15, 1901, the note stated that the American Water Company would pay the Chicago Consolidated Bottling Company $150 on August 15, 1902, and was franked with a four-cent battleship to pay the tax. Nothing unusual there.

The check below is a bit different. Written on October 22, 1900, instead of paying to the order of James Romney at sight or demand, E. Sullivan made it payable on November 1 of that year. This took the instrument from being taxable as a check to one being taxable as a note, or at least one taxable as other than at sight or demand, which has the same tax rate as a note. The correct tax on $964.68 should have been twenty cents, not the two cents paid by the imprint. There is no sign that additional stamps were attached anywhere to pay the remaining eighteen cents.

When I first saw this check, I assumed that the writer either didn't realize that they had changed tax status by turning the check into a note or they didn't know there were additional taxes involved. And somehow it got past the bank.

A bit later I found this December 3rd instrument. Same writer, same payee, but this time the note was for $844.96, payable December 13th.

The writer may still not have known that additional taxes were payable (in this case sixteen cents more), but what was the Park Bank of Albany thinking??

The Fullerton List: Revisiting Express Company 005, Adams Express Company

This post is part of a continuing series on Richard Fullerton's 1952 Catalog of Railroad Company, Street Railway & Express Company Printed Cancellations on the 1898 U. S. Revenues.

Examples of the cancels, when available, are posted.

Express Company 005: Adams Express Company

This site's first Fullerton/Adams Express post was here on November 1, 2010.  Since then, Frank Sente has offered a scan of a stamp listed by Fullerton that was not in the original post.  This is an update to include that scan. 

Adams Express did not use printed cancels per se. These cancels listed by Fullerton were made by mimeography with a typed stencil, the same way my third grade teacher in 1971 would make our worksheets. The Joyce/Chappell lists for proprietary printed cancels also includes these mimeographed cancels.

Type 1: Four lines of mimeographed typewriter caps.

2ct Carmine Rose        a. Dated: Aug 12 1898 (1) Roulette

No scan available of this type


Type 2: Three lines of mimeographed typewriter caps.

2ct Carmine Rose    a. Dated: Aug 12 1898 (1) Roulette
                               b. Dated: Oct 25 1899 (1) Roulette
                               c. Dated: Nov 19 1900 (1) Roulette

EX005 Type 2 b.(1)

Richard Friedberg scan

EX005 Type 2 c.(1)

Frank Sente scan

Cancel for May 6: Adams Express

ADAMS EX. CO.

MAY  6  XXXX

New York

Another Adams Express Cancel!  Find other posts on Adams Express here.

Bank Check Tax Paid with 4 R162 Gray Half Cent Battleships

When it rains it pours!  An inquiry into the scarcity of the use of half cent gray battleships on checks has produced multiple examples.  Here are a few more:

Bob Hohertz scan

Bob Patetta scan

Bob Patetta scan.  Stamps on reverse.

stamps from the check immediately above

Bank Check Tax Paid with 4 R162 Gray Half Cent Battleships

This past Saturday I ran a post on a check from Dave Thompson written by a J. W. Grim of Harissonburg, Virginia, upon which Mr. Grim had applied a block of 4 half cent stamps.  I asked questions about how freqently this might have happened, and whether there might be other examples.  3 replies came in, with Frank Sente and Bob Patetta providing new examples. 

It seems that Mr. Grim frequently used half cent stamps on his checks, and did so over a long period of time.  Perhaps he was an insurance broker that sold lots of policies that required half cent stamps, and those were the stamps available in his office.  Whatever the case, here are two more examples:

Dave's check is from 1899, the top check from 1900, and bottom from 1901

The bottom check has a 2 cent documentary remnant.  Frank believes that the bank or someone from Barber & Perkins possibly placed the stamp on the front of the check, not noticing the half cent stamps on the reverse side.  The person then tried to remove the stamp.

The reverse sides of the checks above.

Does anybody out there know the story of Mr. Grim of Harissonburg, Virginia?

A non-J. W. Grim example

Reverse side, endorsed by Ethel Smith

Cancel for May 4: Austell Refrigerator Car Line

Austell Refgr. Car Line,

MAY   4   1899

ATLANTA, GA.

Alfred Austell

1814 - 1881

Alfred Austell was an important banker and financier in Atlanta upon the outbreak of the Civil War.  His bank and finances were wiped out by the war, but he bounced back, built a new bank, and created Atlanta's Cotton Exchange.  He also became a major backer and organizer of railroads in the region.  While I have found out little about the Austell Refrigerator Car Line, the company was no doubt a post-humous spin off of one of Mr. Austell's many business activities.

Imprint Plus Adhesive - Part 2

Continuing with a look at imprinted checks that have had an adhesive revenue added, I can only offer two examples that would bear out the idea that a third-party endorsement created a taxable event.

The first is a Merchant's National Bank draft on the Fourth National Bank of New York. Written October 25, 1898, it bears an adhesive revenue dated October 29. The rest of the cancel appears to be "Happy MED Co." It is not a bank cancel, at any rate.

The payee, Marietta F. Edgar, endorsed the check over to James somebody, and the Bank of Staten Island guaranteed the endorsements. This is reminiscent of the circumstances surrounding the Cowles check in the previous post on this subject.

Second, we have a check written to the order of C.R. Spaulding on May 7, 1900. It was endorsed by Spaulding and Geo. J Grear in what appears to be the same hand or at least using the same pen. The next endorsement is by Sister Bernardine of the Sisters of Notre Dame, who added a battleship revenue and canceled it with the initials S.N.D. There is no guarantee of endorsements involved.

If it is truly a four-party check, why is there only one additional stamp?

For each of these checks with an added revenue ostensibly for third-party involvement, there are dozens in my collection that do involve a third or fourth party, but do not appear to have paid any tax as a result.

For instance, the draft below was written on the First National Bank of Oxford, New York, payable by the Central National Bank of New York City. The payee, Peter V. Newkirk, endorsed it back to the writer, Jared C. Estelow, who then endorsed it for payment. The endorsements were guaranteed by the Erie County Savings Bank of Buffalo. No additional tax was paid.

Interestingly enough, there is a faint pencil notation "for deposit Elizabeth Newkirk" at the far left. Apparently Peter Newkirk changed his mind and no attention was paid to that endorsement.

The next check was written by William Potter to Mary L Potter, who endorsed it over to H.V. Allen, who endorsed it over to someone whose name was something like B.F. Thomas. All endorsements were guaranteed by the Boylston National Bank. No additional tax was paid on this four-party check.

Another four-party check is this one written to F.E. Patton, who used a "Pay to the order of" endorsement to W.F. Higgins, who, in turn, endorsed it to John McCann. When the National Bank of the Republic received it they guaranteed all previous endorsements. There is no evidence of an additional stamp.

These are just a few examples of the third and fourth-party checks in my collection that do not have additional stamps. I think there are enough to conclude that endorsement to another person or financial institution did not create a taxable event, or, if it did, almost no one paid the tax.

To end this installment of the saga, let's take a look at four checks written by the Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Virginia railroad Company on August 25, 1898.

The first, paying T.C. Kennedy for damage to a meadow caused by fire set by a train, has only an adhesive revenue. It was endorsed by Kennedy and A.S. Godfrey, a third party.

The second has only an imprinted revenue. It paid for a lamb killed (and two injured) by a train. The payee, John Erthel, endorsed it, but it was a third party, J.B. Hopkins, who signed it over to the Citizens National Bank.

The third, paying the Queen City Supply Company for various supplies, does bear an adhesive revenue, but there is no indication that Queen City did anything but cash it at the Market National Bank. The handwriting on the added stamp is virtually indecipherable, but it appears to have been added on August 30, the same date as it was paid through the Cincinnati Clearing House. Who added it and why are good questions. This use is early in the tax period, so perhaps someone did not understand, or did not recognize the imprint as having paid the tax.

The fourth was paid to C.L. Bowman, Agent, for coal. Bowman endorsed it over to the Walnut Hills Coal Company. The extra stamp on the check was added on the day of issue and bears the initials T.H., so was likely put there by Thomas Hunt, the Treasurer of the railroad. As we will discuss in the next installment, we have some evidence that directing checks or drafts to an agent or commission merchant triggered a second round of taxation - but why would this have been paid by the issuer rather than by the agent? Also, the cancellation on the stamp on the meadow fire check is a handstamp, so why wouldn't Hunt have used it to cancel the stamp on this check?

There are more questions than answers here, I'm afraid.

To be continued.

High Value Stocks with the Portrait Issues The $1,000 James Madison Issue

Consideration of R181, the $1,000 James Madison Portrait Issue leads to another Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad stock. We considered two other CO&GRR stocks in our last blog about the $500 Portrait Issue.

I'm not sure why the upper right corner is clipped on all three certificates. They all are clearly marked CANCELLED with a bright red handstamp, so what purpose was served by clipping the upper right corner? The clipping obviously occurred after their initial issuance as the $500 stamp on one of the stocks shown previously was affected by it. We may never know the answer, so let's just enjoy seeing one of two currently known on-document usages of the $1000 Portrait Issue of 1899.

$2,000,000 Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad Stock Certificate
Issued through the Girard Trust Company
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania August 2, 1901
Mike Mahler scan

Like one of the other CO&GRR certificates previously shown, Samuel Dickson, William Jenks, George Colket, Effingham Morris, and Charles Ingersoll, Voting Trustees are listed as the owners. The initial issue tax of .05/$100 in value or fraction thereof was properly paid on the reverse with a single $1000 James Madison stamp.

Mike Mahler scan

The $1,000 stamp paying the initial tax appears on the reverse. The power of attorney form transferring the stock to Charles E. Hampheys, also the recipient of the other two CO&GRR stocks previously considered, has been completed and signed. It is undated so if that transfer actually occurred, payment of the $400 transfer tax and the 25-cent power of attorney tax could have been done, albeit improperly on the books of the company or by separate memorandum no longer with the certificate.

detail of cancelled stamp
Mike Mahler scan

We've viewed three CO&GRR stocks in our series of blogs about high value stocks bearing Portrait issues. All three exhibit clear and proper payment of the .05 cent/$100 tax on initial stock issues. But payment of the .02/$100 resale or transfer tax has been handled differently on all three.

For the $2,000,000 stock above, although the transfer form has been completed and signed there is no evidence of payment of either the power of attorney tax or the transfer tax.

For the $1,027,500 stock shown in our April 29th blog the $205.50 transfer tax was paid directly on the certificate, but there is no evidence of payment for the power of attorney tax.

For the $1,690,650 stock also shown in the April 29th blog, a payment of the 25-cent power of attorney tax appears, but there is no evidence of payment of the $338.13 transfer tax.

That evidence of those taxes don't appear on the certificates doesn't mean they weren't paid, although that is a distinct possibility. The War Law provided that transfer taxes could be paid on the books of the company, but that option was to be restricted to cases where the transfer was evidenced only on the books and not on the certificate transfer form as in the case of these three stocks. The other way transfer taxes could be paid was by separate memorandum, appropriate only for sales of stock where the transfer form was "assigned in blank" again not the case with these three stocks.

The inconsistencies aside, it's been fun to blog about these high value stocks and to see them all in one place. I'm sure sure there's an interesting tale behind the CO&GRR stocks. And just who was Charles Hamphreys, the transferee on all three?Perhaps if more high values examples surface the story will be revealed.

We are conducting a census of on-document usages for all three Portrait Issues, Scott numbers R179, R180, and R181 so if readers either have, or know of, other on-document examples of these $100, $500, and $1000 issues,whether they be on stocks or other documents, please contact us at 1898revenues@gmail.com.

Cancels for May 1: Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway

Here are cancels on May 1 from 1899, 1900, and 1901 by the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway.  All of these come from Henry Tolman's 2 cent calendar, and are a good indication of the run of LS&MS documents that were available.  The 1900 and 1901 cancels were made by the La Porte, Indiana office.