Quebec Unemployement Insurance Stamp

Hi guys...Just wanted to share this Quebec Scott # QU3...Got it in a junk pile of stamps I picked up at a local auction last night...Never seen one before and not sure about the year of issue and the funny "7Z" cancel on the stamp.

Robert

In what has to be one of the most inspired pairings in revenue stamp history, these were affixed to liquor-bottle wrappers to collect a tax for the benefit of the unemployed.

Reminds me of the old joke that alarm clocks with a Snooze feature should be packaged with a bottle of tequila and a stack of unemployment applications.

we have a website for Canadian revenu stamps

http://www.canadarevenuestamps.com/...ef+Tax+stamp

Ya...That's how I found out the Scott # area66, but not sure or cant find out when the stamp was issued..

Robert

Wow, sure are fond of the forgeries!

Forgery...?????

Robert

The forgers were not targeting us in this case...they were attempting to defraud the system of the tax, probably for "hooch" or refilled bottles. I would love to find an actual forgery of one of these, but not enough to pay the price sought by a dealer who has already identified it as a forgery. I'd like to find my own.

[edited to add: Just so no one is confused, the numbering is Van Dam numbering, not Scott. Scott does not list these.]

Let me see if I have the definitions correct..
Forgery.. produced to defraud the stamp issuing entity
Fake.. Produced to defraud collectors
Is that correct?

The terms are bandied about imprecisely. Scott uses forgery for items meant to defraud collectors or governments.

A government would probably say you counterfeited a stamp of theirs.

A fake is usually meant to describe something that has been altered to make it something else; probably something more attractive than it otherwise was. An added inverted overprint to a plain vanilla stamp is probably best described as a fake.

Unless it created something that never existed. Then it is bogus, or a fantasy.

Clear as mud. And someone else will have three different definitions. Just wait.

Yep, clear as mud!

I would usually use "postal forgery" to describe something intended to defraud the government's postal service, but that term doesn't fit this situation very well.

Usual usage is "forgery" if the fake stamp was created to defraud the collector; "counterfeit" if its purpose was to defraud the government or postal system.

So the two Bootlegger QU3's listed on the CanadaRevenueStamps.com site linked to above site are mislabeled forgery instead of Counterfiet?

Ahhhhh...Forgery to me is trying to copy an item to make money, to fool the post office, to fool people...I think forgery is used appropriately here...Just my opinion.

And not a very good forgery as seen by my colour samples taken, forgery colour on the right...And my stamp colour sample on the left..You would think if they spent that much time perfecting the design that they would spend more time doing a colour match.

Robert

Difference of color mixture? Not as stable? 19th century banknote companies had difficulties keeping colors concistent between printings. Would differnt paper make the same ink appear that differnt?

littleriverphil...I would imagine the more softer the fibers the more it would bleed with the chemical reaction of the paper itself, the harder the paper the less bleeding.
Rober