Articles on Collecting and Research
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Rebel States, Yankee Stamps
by Michael Mahler
On October 1, 1862, a broad tax program designed by the United States Congress to offset the rising costs of the Union Civil War effort took effect, including a detailed schedule of documentary stamp taxes. In a stance at once consistent and paradoxical, the United States government considered these taxes payable also in the eleven “rebellious states” otherwise known as the Confederate States of America. This presentation shows, via intact stamped documents, how those taxes were collected.
This was first done directly, in Union-occupied areas, primarily within U.S. Internal Revenue collection districts established during 1862–3 in Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia, but also in other occupied areas, as shown by examples from Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina.
The main thrust of this effort, though, came after the cessation of hostilities, when documents executed within the former Confederacy were required to be stamped retroactively. In practice, this applied only to long-lasting documents still in effect, such as deeds, mortgages, bonds, leases, promissory notes and the like. The motivation for stamping them was not so much patriotic as eminently practical: without stamps, both the instruments and any record of them were by law “invalid and of no effect”; they were thus fair game for legal challenge by any party with an interest in having them invalidated.
Here is a rich, fascinating and heretofore completely unrecognized subfield of United States Civil War era fiscal history. This presentation includes illustrations of 52 documents stamped within the Occupied Confederacy, and 47 more stamped retroactively after the war, as well as a census of all recorded examples in each of these classes.
California Bill of Lading and Large Insurance Revenue Stamps of 1858–1861
by Michael Mahler
Summary: There were four printings of these stamps, each in a distinct color. Earlier catalogers failed to incorporate this into their listings. Using the Stamp Record of the State Controllers, supplemented by intact stamped documents, all deliveries by the Stamp Commissioners to the Controllers—53 of Insurance stamps, 21 of Bill of Lading—have been identified by color. The dates of first deliveries for the four printings are shown to be as follows: orange-vermilion on bluish paper, May 13, 1858; brick red on bluish paper, July 1, 1859; carmine-lake on bluish paper, March 16, 1860; vermilion on white paper, December 10, 1860.
Priced listings are proposed which classify the stamps by color and control hand stamp. These include the remainders, both with and without control, which surfaced circa 1930.
I. Identifying and Dating the Four Printings
II. Pricing the Four Printings
A Census of Florida Revenue-Stamped Documents, 1862–1872
Cancellations on the U.S. 1898 Battleship Proprietary Issues Part 1
Cancellations on the U.S. 1898 Battleship Proprietary Issues Part 2
A selection of pages from the Walter Orton collection of cancellations. The scans were made by Richard Freidberg. The collection is now in Richard's stock. His web site is on the links page.
U.S. Customs Baggage Stamps
by Hermann Ivester. Original article published in the Sep-Oct, 2008 issue of the American Revenuer. Includes an updated catalog of these issues.
The Bonds That Sparked the Chinese Revolution
by Michael Mahler
U.S. First Issue Playing Cards Stamps on Documents
by Kristin Patterson
Robert Schuyler’s 1853–4 Stock Fraud on the New York and New Haven Rail Road: the Paper Trail
by Michael Mahler
New York Mortgage Endorsement, Secured Debt, and Investments Stamp Taxes, 1911–20 by Michael Mahler
Part 1. Mortgage Endorsement Tax
Read a Summary of Part 1
Part 2. Secured Debts Tax, 1911–16
Read a Summary of Part 2
Part 3. Tax on Investments, 1917–20
Read a Summary of Part 3
Part 4. Interstate Railroad Bonds
Read a Summary of Part 4
Power Point Presentation Parts 1- 4
Revised, Dec. 2011 - Rebel States and Yankee Stamps by Michael Mahler