Help With Japanese Revenue Stamp Overprint

Hello, I need a bit of help with the following overprint on Japanese revenue stamps. The image is from the Medicine Revenue section of Narumi catalogue.

The closest I can get with Google translate is "ERASE". Could this be a precancel or sample/specimen type mark?

Hi rrogers.

The pictured revenue stamps were for medicine only, between 1883 to 1926, a kind of Value Added Tax for medicine selling/buying.

Three B/W rubber stamp are old Chinese character of "Erase" as you googled. [01] is the modern form of the same letter and [02] means cancellation, same usage for Western cancellation for postage stamps.

So, I guess those are used (cancelled) pictures on the left and not precancel, as they were not bought for collection around that time. Not sample/specimen in this context. Sample/specimen in Japanese are [03] in modern time, could be [04] in the time of those revenue stamps.

But in fact, the top title inside [ ] is saying "Medicine Revenue sample" - and it does not mean the philatelic term of Sample/Specimen mark on stamps, I guess.

p.s.
Ah, it looks I cannot type any Japanese letters on this message column. I will add images below, to match the numbers in text.

I found old "sample" overprint on 1876-79 stamp, and also two from 1908.

All has three Japanese Hiragana letters "mi", "ho" and "n" from right to left.

They have changed the direction of horizontal writing. That is why the modern one (on the bottom) has same letters from left to right.

Those are the Sample/Specimen marks on postage stamps, or black diagonal lines on the right hand bottom. Medicine revenue might have those different way, as those 3 types look stamped from the main office (as only three types are listed)... well, still a bit of mystery.

Thank you tomonakaazu for that information.
The page that has me confused is page 38 from Narumi catalogue 2016.
On page 36 are listings for the medicine revenues followed by 'band' versions then these overprints.
New catalogue numbers are not used. Do you have this catalogue?
Can you explain page 38 for me?

Narumi catalogue 2016 - I don't have.

>>On page 36 are listings for the medicine revenues followed by 'band' versions then these overprints. New catalogue numbers are not used.

By guessing above, yes you are right that circled character of "erase" might be pre-cancel or sample then.

Would you scan those 2 pages and show here? That will help me to read the descriptions.

Here are scans of 2 pages (35 and 37)...


Page 36 just has images of the 'BAND' format stamps.
I have looked online for images the past couple of days but have not seen any with the 'erase' overprint. I've only seen them in the catalogue. Thanks again tomonakaazu for your assistance.

Hi rrogers.

It is interesting and conclusion is yes, you are right that those are sample/specimen on the catalogue.

First of all, any revenue stamps are cancelled at the point of the stamps are used/applied on a receipt. Anyone can cancel them using their own rubber seal & ink (or even writing name) - and this system is still on in this modern days.

So, I thought the circled "erase" could be sample cancellation shown. But after I read the catalogue description, my conclusion is "they are just sample/specimen which were sent to postal office branches all over the nation".



A few translations:

*1
Revenue stamps for medicine, applied on the seal of paper bag when medicine was sold, then canceled at that point. Stripe types were used to seal bottles, not cancelled because they are broken off when the bottle is opened.

*2
Variety of perforations

*3
3 types (121, 121, 123) exist only sample/specimen mark of "round" and "erase"

*4
No mints of 1, 2 and 3 Rin are existing

+++

Below is the modern examples of "How to cancel revenue stamps" images. Haha

Tomonakaazu - your early mihons are beautiful! I have never seen those before.

The "Narumi" catalogue was written by Steve Hasegawa", it is usually referred to that way. (The book itself says "Narumi's Japanese Revenue Stamp Catalogue") it requires some knowledge of Japanese (which, judging by your name, I suspect you may have) and I believe the seventh edition was just released a couple years ago. I have that and the 2004 Shimomura catalogue, which was the standard for many years I think.

Hi Bcantin.
Good to know about the catalogue which I am not familiar with.. Yes I am Japanese as you have guessed ^_^ but those I listed Mihon samples are not mine. I found those images on-line!

Tomonokaazu - #12399;#12376;#12417;#12414;#12375;#12390;! Kamaishi is my home away from home. The mihons: well, you chose some very nice specimens!