Help To Evaluate / ID Historically Signficant Tax Stamp...

The following is a King George III Regis
(G3R) two-sided stamp... I've researched alot
of websites, and pretty sure I've identifed
it correctly... it is positively from before
the American Revolution, and apparent issuance
of one of the Stamp Acts of 1764 or 1765...

i.e. Tea, Sugar, Molasses, Quartering, or the
Documentary Act... I counted just these 5 acts
while looking through the websites, there may
be others...

The specific information is a bit nebulous...
research continues...





All commentary and discussion welcome...

Randall

To begin with, this stamp was NOT used in America. It is a GB documentary tax stamp. The "G" on the upper left indicates that it was used between Jan 23, 1779 and Oct 22, 1794. This basic design has letter designations from A-I, and was used from Nov. 21, 1769 to March 9, 1805. Like nearly all low value GB documentary stamps it is common. With a few exceptions GB documentary stamps don't begin to have serious value until the face value is in the hundreds of pounds, or they were some special use tax stamps with the specific use embossed as part of the design.

Rev... thank you kindly for your input...

If possible, would you please provide
a website where I can read and further
study the info which you have provided...

Thanks...

Randall

I don't know of one, you will have to search. My info comes from The Embossed Duty Stamps Of Great Britain by Frank, Schonfeld, and Barber. 1981. $25 from Eric Jackson's website.

Thanks, Rev... much appreciated...

I just emailed them about the book,
to see if it's worthwhile to order
it, since I only have the one stamp,
and do not plan to own any others...

Randall

Massachusetts Historical Society
similar image from Stamp Act of 1765...

http://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits...x_stamp.html

This is a VERY different stamp from the one you have, MUCH scarcer. Remember, it is not the cypher that is the value, it is the tax stamp itself.

I'll take your word for it (for now),
and won't dispute what you are stating,
but, frankly, I don't see how either
can be more scarce than the other...

Given I can find the exact image of
the Boston society's in multiple places
and (cannot) locate my specific one, my
druthers tell me that if there (is) one
more scarce, it's the one which I have
in my possession... albeit this might
not be the case at all...

The example you can find more images of is
1) in a museum, where it is properly identified
2) is a tax stamp for America (the Stamp Act Stamps)which are both scarce and popular with collectors
3) as I wrote earlier, the stamp you have was widely used for 15 years, it appeared on many thousands of documents in that time. I assure you that finding or not finding an image online proves nothing. If you search the British Guiana #13 you will find dozens of images and it sold for $9 Million; there are a lot of less valuable stamps with fewer images around.

Two ships here.

disi123, the "stamp" part of these revenues is the embossed portion, not the adhesive. In the pic from the Massachusetts Historical Society they show the wrong side of the stamp so it is not so easy to compare with the item you have. However, their stamp is listed in the Scott Specialized cat, in the section for embossed revenue stamped paper, and even though the embossed image of the Hist Soc is seen from the back, if it were flipped you would see it is Scott ERP31, which is illustrated with a photo. Even theirs cats $4000 if on document, but only $450 if off doc, as theirs is. One of the KEY differences between that stamp and your embossed revenue is the appearance of the word "AMERICA" at the top. The stamp act embossed revenues all bore that word.

The small adhesive is similar to a type of stamp that was used in the American Colonies for use with almanacs in 1765. There again, the ones meant for use in the colonies bear the word "AMERICA" printed at the top, and the arms crest is different. Most importantly, it bears a reference of value as 2, 4, or 8 pence. Yours has no value reference from what I see.

Your stamps (adhesive and embossed) are entirely British, albeit from approximately that time period.

Thanks... I spent some time last night
with a very knowledgeable member of the
British site Stamp Boards.com and we had
discussed this item in detail... I now
know it was U.K. (only) issuance, as the
"AMERICA" is not present (as you stated)...

This particular stamp was issued sometime
around 1701, and is quite an interesting
item with an interesting history behind
it, and I'm very happy to own it, even
though it had been only used in the U.K. ...

Randall, it's an Australian site.

Australian, AusSCHMALIAN... the guy
knew his 'stuff' and another member
chimed into the conversation on the
site from North Carolina...

It should be noted that around 1701 there was a very similar stamp issued, but it only says "one penny" on the bottom and not on both sides as this one does. I stand by what I wrote yesterday as to when this stamp was issued and used.

I've become aware of that as well...
and (albeit) it has the I Penny in
3 locations as opposed to just the
one (at the bottom), it may turn out
to be a rarity... we shall see what
we shall see, as someone I'm speaking
with on the subject is researching it...

It's NOT a rarity!! It is simply a different design used later.