Mint US Classic Revenues

Not counting modern duck stamps or the like, are there Mint old time revenue stamps around? I have never seen one for sale, but I am just a revenewbie.

Sure. You need to see what you want and then check with a stamp seller. If you are a member of the APS you will find plenty of advertisements in their monthly magazine. Same way with Linns stamp news, just to name a few
By the way, just to give you a hint. Why not google revenue stamps



Peter

Yes good advice. I goggled "mint revenue stamps" and there they were, duh. Guess all my eBay searches were for cheap ones, and none of them seemed to be mint. Wonder if in the old days people bought revenues with the idea of collecting them, or if the mint versions are just ones that never did any work. Thanks YbT.

Collecting stamps began almost as soon as they started being issued. So yes, some people did collect them. Not nearly as many as collected postage, however. And collecting habits were very different in those early days, too.

I remember when I first started collecting revenues back in the early 70s, I would walk down the street to my local brick and mortar store and the owner would practically give away the revenue stamps to me.

Some dealers at shows did that too in those days.

I certainly remember purchasing the red documentaries and R733-34 at the post offices in the mid 1960's.

One thing to be aware of is that at least with respect to 1st-3rd issue U.S. revenues (Scott #R1-R151), for a revenue stamp to be "mint" or "unused" and thus deserving of the premiums that are frequently asked, the stamp must have a large part original gum and no evidence of document offset.

The vast majority of what are offered online as "mint no gum" revenues are merely uncanceled stamps that were soaked or sweated off documents. Clerks of the era were hurried, and stamps frequently went through uncanceled. If no cancel is your collecting preference (after all, they ARE beautiful stamps!), just please don't overpay under the assumption that the marketplace treats no gum the same as original gum. They are not the same, even though many sellers treat them as such.

Mint No Gum is a contradiction.

Doubly so for revenues in general, but especially for documentary revenues.

Yes it is, but it is ubiquitous in philatelic marketing and sales communication.

Mostly by sellers who don't know better.