Check Please!

Here are a few lots I picked up on ebay of consecutively numbered checks, all from the New London Northern Railroad co., each set with either different cancels or vignettes.

Two of the sets were especially of interest to me; the first set which are nice early usages in November 1862, and the last set, which have some very crisp steel die handstamp cancels, with nice ornate violet frames for stamp placement.

Wow! Right now I am drooling over those with the trains depicted on them and the perfect SOTN CDS'! Beautiful and fascinating stuff!

This is the first time I have seen the Bank Check issues in action. Imagine that, they put them on Bank Checks.

I wonder if by July they were cancelling the sheets before use; obviously they weren't in March. Can you pinpoint when they started using the handstamp from this series?

The earliest example I have of the cancel is May 12, 1863:

So, whether the amount on the check was 10.00 or 5000.00, it was still only a 2c tax?

The tax was on the instrument (the check) not the amount. Most other taxes on financial paper at the time were based on the amount, or in a few cases a time limit. And there were a LOT of different taxes; some of the taxes and the rates changed from time to time over the life of the first issue, 1862-1871.

Wow! Really nice aquisition!