Philatelic Creations? What Are These?

These are likely manufactured... but why? I found them at our local show this weekend. I showed them to a couple of the postal history dealers that were there, and no one could come up with a valid reason for these bills of lading to have postage stamps  affixed, but they also were unwilling to simply dismiss them as fake.

If these were dated 1862 or later, I would have surmised illegal usage of postage as revenues (although the taxes due likely would have been higher than one cent, and the stamps would not have been this particular issue), but as far as I know there was no tax due in 1856.

The two bills of lading are from the same company several weeks apart. Did the stamp pay some sort of fee, or as suspected, are these completely bogus?

The pieces were not exactly expensive (well under the catalog value of just the stamps), so I'm not sure what the incentive would have been to manufacture these... certainly not a financial one.

Perhaps it was mailed to the recipient this way . like a post card.

I was going to dismiss this outright, but then I saw the positioning of the stamp in relationship to the document folds. It's the same on both documents, the upper-left corner of a rectangular area (picture the exterior portions folded behind). The area within the folds where the stamp resides forms a very envelop-like appearance, with the name of the bank and the city within it.

Hmmm.....

I have simular examples of life insurance policies. I thought they were illeagle revenue usage as well, but then I determined that the document was a mailed item and the stamps were indeed used for postage. Either way, its a nice piece.

Art

Spotted this and wandered if it had relevance. It is from a US court case from 1898 to decide who should actually pay the "stamp" but had it's roots in the statute of June 13, 1848 which stated "to meet war expenditures, and for other purposes," does not forbid an express company, upon which is imposed the duty of paying a tax upon express matter, from requiring the shipper to furnish the stamp or the means of paying for it".
"EXPRESS AND FREIGHT: It shall be the duty of every railroad or steamboat company, carrier, express company, or corporation, or person whose occupation is to act as such, to issue to the shipper or consignor or his agent, or person from whom any goods are accepted for transportation, a bill of lading, manifest, or other evidence of receipt and forwarding for each shipment received for carriage and transportation, whether in bulk or in boxes, bales, packages, bundles or not so enclosed or included, and there shall be duly attached and cancelled, as is in this act provided, to each of said bills of lading, manifests, or other memorandum, and to each duplicate thereof, a stamp of the value of one cent"

http://supreme.justia.com/cases/fed...04/case.html
Is there a lawyer in the house?