Canadian Engraving Beauty

Just rec'd this from an ebay sale. It's 10 cm on a side.



I am continually amazed at the quality work in revenue stamps - an area quite neglected in philatelic circles

Hi sak,

Does it have a Van Dam or other catalogue number?

A real beauty!

- stamporator -

Wow, very nice.

Stamporator - van Dam's 2009 catalogue does not list tobacco or alcohol stamps. That's the catalogue I have.

Years ago someone sent me a HQ scan of the stamp....made a print and framed it...i look at every day....a real beauty.
If you don't mind me asking...how much did it cost you?

Q/ Is that '181' lbs or '/8/' lbs?

google Christopher Ryan's Catalogue of Federal Tobacco Stamps of Canada.
it's an online pdf, free, and very comprehensive. He doesn't give monetary value, but he has itemized and pictures hundreds of tobacco stamps. An amazing reference

Graphis - it was ebay #291666134311
jamesw - I could not find it on either van Dam or Ryan

A real beauty sak

Thanks for sharing.

Dianne

As stated in a previous post, Van Dam does not classify tobacco stamps. From the Brandom catalogue, it is the P-189a (with partial date "19___"). In 1976, there was a price of $5 (more of a rarity factor than actual price).

There is also the free Ryan catalog that numbered this stamp RA14. There is no prices in this catalog, but it is much more recent and probably more complete. The catalog is available from the main page of the Van Dam web site (http://www.canadarevenuestamps.com/). Look for the yellow box "Catalogue of the Federal Tobacco stamps of Canada" on the right. The PDF is downloadable in two format right from there. I have just seen that there are additions...

And YES, revenue and tobacco stamps are often works or art!

Sak, I quite agree that the quality of engraving and design on revenues is sadly overlooked in the larger philatelic community. This is especially true of the larger taxpaid revenues, Canadian and US alike. Thanks for posting this wonderful example.

Here are a couple examples from my revenue collection: an obscure Canadian lock stamp I picked up and later sold. And an American tobacco taxpaid, issued a few decades before your customs stamp. I was attracted to both for their engraved designs.