Super Size Taxpaid Revenues

And it is not by any means the scarcest or most expensive of this type of revenue.

One of the high-end taxpaids in this field is for renovated butter. Original issues are far above my budget but the BEP reprinted one on a souvenir card in 1997. For sheer artistry, this is one of my favorites. It somewhat offsets the yuck factor regarding the product: renovated butter was a way to reprocess rancid butter to make it fit for resale and consumption. The butter lobby (yes, there really was one) no doubt lobbied hard to get this legislation in place in order to save money on what would have been wasted product.

Eric has the BEP reprint for $12.50.

http://www.ericjackson.com/rDetails...8227&this=it

There not only WAS a butter lobby, but it was VERY powerful for quite a few years from the late 19th century into the 1930's when it came to getting certain things taxed and their rates. Taxes on colored and uncolored oleomargarine come to mind; they were eventually declared unconstitutional because of unequal taxation.

Here's a more recent taxpaid, for uncolored oleomargarine. For years the butter lobby kept margarine from being sold in a form that resembled butter, knowing that the pasty white color (much like lard) would turn away customers. Manufacturers had to include packets of yellow food coloring, and housewives had to mix it in to create a more palatable appearance.

Correct. The stamp for colored oleo was identical except it was orange in color and the tax was 10 cents per pound instead of 1/4 cent per pound. That is why it was declared unconstitutional, unequal taxation.

I found a couple of obscure revenues. Still have the glue on back.

Paperhistory, I just read your post on mixed flour. Any words of wisdom on that subject, I just found one in a box of old documents I've been cleaning out. Posted above.

Thought I would join in. I don't collect these but they came in a recent auction purchase...interesting.

I like those opium taxpaids, Southpaw, especially the 1924. I hadn't seen any with the coupons still attached.

One wonders what was included in the "Etc." in "Opium, Etc." ...

Not much to say about mixed flour. The later series stamps (yours is an example) come in 1/8, 1/2, and 1/4 barrel "denominations", and two different roulettes. None of them are pricey, though they are not "common" in the sense of readily available. They can be found with a few different cancels and used from a few different states (I mostly see Washington, Oregon and Minnesota). I think most years there were fewer than 20 manufacturers of mixed flour, so not too many places to use the stamps. There is a rare 1 barrel denomination. The stamps can sometimes be found affixed to tags (the stamps were generally used on wholesale packages, not retail packages), an dless frequently on a cardboard form (those are rather scarce). Teh earlier stamps are larger and have pictorial elements, along with coupons that could be removed to determine the package size or denomination.

I'm not sure if this is an all-inclusive list, but for the period ending June 30, 1924, it would appear that "Taxable Narcotic Drugs and Preparations Purchased Within the United States from Manufacturers" included: Opium, Morphine, Codeine, Heroin, Dionin, Other Opium Alkaloids and Derivatives, Cocaine and Coca Leaves.

That's one hell of a Saturday night...

Well, prohibition was in effect after all...