Super Size Taxpaid Revenues

Jim wins the internet, today!

Correct, the vignettes are different. The original vignette would have been engraved around 1873 or earlier for the first special tax stamps. Somewhere around 1883 it was re-engraved to remove the buildings. This is unusual -- since DC was growing you'd expect more buildings, not less.

Even more interesting is a third transitional vignette of the same scene that the BEP engraved as a frontispiece for a book of memorial addresses by Senator Henry Anthony. The book was published in 1875, so the vignette would have been re-engraved between the two tax stamps. And on this one only the buildings in the lower right are missing.

What these buildings were is a mystery. The ones in the lower right might have been built during the Civil War (barracks?) and were no longer needed. Any other guesses?

Greg,

Any idea what that single black thing is, in the roadway(?)?

It's common on all three engravings.

Looks like a horse drawn wagon maybe?

Whoever is in it must be pretty lonely, I would think.

Jim

Almost certainly a wagon. Looks like there are two people in the foreground near the tree on the right as well.

The shapes do look people-sized.

Jim

I haven't looked at this vignette in a very long time, all the special tax stamps I collect are 1914 and later.

Here's an 800 dpi scan of the road and it looks like a wagon to me, as well. I'm fairly certain this is a view along New Jersey Avenue NW, but how the bird's eye view was achieved I'm not sure. There is currently no building nearby that matches the height of the Capitol.

I probably would never have noticed the variations between the vignettes, if I hadn't picked up the Anthony book and compared them.

A photo taken from a hot air balloon would do it.

Time to dredge up a favorite old topic. I wish we had some other taxpaid additions to this thread.

Today a Special Tax Stamp. This one for Dealer in Manufactured Tobacco is quite common as a single remainder. But you rarely see them in original sheet form, two-up. I'm thankful for my large format Epson Workforce scanner!

Jim; if those are tracks drawn rather than ruts I suspect a horse drawn car or trolly.

Multiples are always very neat to me. I haven't seen a D&S remainder as a multiple before.

I do have the following multiple used provisionally to pay the tax for the three prior years though:

This is very possibly unique. I seem to recall seeing this about 45 years ago either in a collection or an exhibit.

I realized I also have a multiple of the Retail Liquor Dealer STS.

Have a Cigar Box with an interesting caution regarding the tax paid cigar stamp. Haven't seen this on the bottom of a cigar box before and thought I'd post it in the event it was news to anyone else:

Seems to be a CYA disclaimer, in case a retailer sold them for more, so the IRS wouldn't come back to the manufacturer for additional taxes.

All of these are pretty cool. I wanna add to my collection, but wanna process some of what I have first. Still trying to figure out where to specialize in.