Help Please With Tobacco Taxpaid Revenue Series (1871?)

Looking for some help. This is my first post here... I recently scanned a BEP proof book with this series



I am looking for more information on the series (12 items in total). Are there any good internet sources or books (that are not out of print)?

Many thanks in advance...

I'm not really sure what information you are looking for. The frames were printed by Continental Bank Note and the vignettes by the BEP which is why both imprints are there. There might have been an article in the old Essay-Proof Journal or in an old American Revenuer about them, but I don't know that there are. The rates changed rapidly in the early 70's, so the series was short lived. Taxpaid proofs and essays are always beautiful items and in my experience all are very scarce.

This is something I don't see everyday! This one is Turner T-64. The 1871 series includes T-64 through the 60-pound T-76. There are imprint frames in black as well as ones in green for several examples from this series (although not this particular one). Turner's book lists 13 essays for the 1871 issue, but the discrepancy might be that the 25-pound essay was never used.

As far as sources, Turner's book (Essays and Proofs of United States Internal Revenue Stamps) is still available on Amazon or through addall. Like revcollector said, there's probably an article or two out there on this series. I'd be interested to see what others can turn up.

The Turner book is a great resource, but ignore the prices which were laughable even when the book was published.

Thanks for the advice. I have ordered a copy of Turner's book. I tend to upload high res files of all numismatic-related items to wikipedia. When I have done so I'll post the link here.

Exactly. Turner in 1974 quoted this particular stamp at $30.00. While I've not seen any essays or proofs from this series for sale, I'd imagine that they'd go for 10x this figure.

George Turner was an extremely knowledgeable revenue collector, and was philatelic secretary for Morton Dean Joyce, who had the greatest revenue collection ever. He was also the acting curator of the Smithsonian Institution's philatelic collection from 1959 until 1962 and was the owner of the largest private philatelic library ever assembled. The book on revenue proofs and essays came out very late in his life, and he had lost touch with the surging market.

These are listed in "Springer's Handbook of North American Cinderella Stamps including Taxpaid Revenues." I know they are listed in the 10th edition (1985) and possibly earlier ones, too. All of these are out of print but often pop up on ebay. You might also check with the American Philatelic Research Library. They can probably photocopy the pages for you (p36-37) for minimal cost.

The stamps are listed in Springer, the proofs are not.