Just A Label Or A (Private) Revenue? Mckesson & Robbins,1886

I am almost sure that this is just a label, but could it also have some revenue specifications which I don't see?

It is not mine, I just saw it on ebay... :)

A tael is a unit of weight.

This comes from a brief period when the imported opium stamps had been discontinued. And yes I would consider this a facsimile of the before and after imported opium stamps.

How about a link on ebay?

It is not actual listing any more... I have saved the photos to ask for opinion here, but forget to do that before.

It is over now.

Final price was about 5 USD.

I wish you hadn't posted the price, that is an item I would have paid somewhat more for. As would some others.

Ok, how about some clarification. The date on the label says 1886 well after the black 5 Teals stamp came into use for imported smoking opium in 1879 and before the duties were increased on Oct 1, 1890 using the same stamps and being marked DUTY PAID. So my question is this. McKesson and Robbins was a well known manufacture of medicines, if they imported this Opium for a non smoking use would it be exempt from tax and duties and the item used as more of a tamper seal? I don't see a break in taxation that would explain this piece any idea of the date range?

Since per the law the first series of imported opium stamps were in use until Feb 5, 1889, and the stamps were only to be used on smoking opium it seems likely that this label was used on opium delivered for medicinal uses only. Since it does not specifically mention the customs, Perhaps it was used in the New York bonded warehouse as a way to keep shipments tagged for individual customers.

For those interested, the laws on contained in the June 1974 listing of the American Revenuer, which is listed online on the ARA website.

The reason for the relatively few survivors of the imported opium stamps was that in the 1880's they were required to be canceled with sulfuric acid!

So this is a facsimile of sorts. I had not recalled the precise period when the use of the customs stamps was discontinued, but it was relatively brief. There are facsimiles that have survived this brief period. The illustrated item is apparently not from that period.

So McKesson & Robbins used this lookalike imported opium stamp to prevent tampering with their product. I am somewhat surprised that such a lookalike was not suppressed by the Customs Service. Similar cigar and alcohol lookalikes were suppressed in the 1870's. The cigar facsimiles were intended to fool the consumer into thinking that a domestic cigar was really an imported cigar (and therefore obviously more expensive). The one alcohol facsimile with which I am familiar was intended to prevent wholesale liquor dealers from mixing their superior bourbon with cheap rotgut, again trying to deceive the consumer.

The opium facsimile is a wonderful artifact of the late nineteenth century. And yes the $5 was an enormous bargain. If it had been widely viewed, it should have brought considerably more.

There is at least one more with the same ms cancels by the same hand in the same time period in a collection I have seen (you probably have seen it as well, Ron).

Yes, it has been listed on the German ebay, which doesn't have categories connected to the USA's one... sometimes you should try to go there http://ebay.de

Really, how much do you think that this one could have a ebay value, if it has been properly listed on the ebay USA, in the correct categorie... with a quality titles and description?

It might easily have brought several hundred dollars, depending on exactly who saw it.

Sorry, no news about the opium facsimile label :(

But something which I actually have in my hands... nothing special, a small album with US BOB space fillers... but, possibly someone here will find some unusual detail...

So, just to share...

Someone asked me in mail to see the link for this listing, although it has been ended... I can't find that mail, and forgot who asked me, so this is the link... I hope it still works...

www.ebay.de/itm/311538525328

Here is a better quality image of the five tael facsimile label.

Looks identical to the first one shown, but it's subtly different. In better condition, as well.

Jim

Not to relentlessly grind this particular topic into the ground, but I thought an update was in order.

1) I don't believe that the facsimile opium tax paid labels were produced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. They are lithographed for one, not engraved, and the quality of the vignette doesn't look like their work. I believe that the labels were privately produced by a few manufacturers. This is a close up of the one illustrated above.




This is the facsimile illustrated in the American Revenuer, June 1979, page 125. It was made by George Marcus and Company, in London, England. It is known in 5 taels black, and no denomination red (presumably to simulate the U.S. red domestic opium tax paid stamp):



I doubt many more varieties from other manufacturers exist, but there could be a few.

2) I consider the facsimiles seen so far to be remainder copies, not used copies. They clearly have every appearance of having been used, with handstamped and manuscript cancellations and markings and so on, but I think that is how they were made to look.

I agree with the comment made above that the facsimiles were found by the customs service and suppressed. What we have today seems to be those few copies that escaped.

I'm not saying that NO used copies exist; just that, at least in the example that I have, there is no indication that it was actually used.

3) No one has noted that the McKesson and Robbins example has the wording of "extract of opium." This is a different product altogether than simply raw opium powder. From this website:

http://chestofbooks.com/health/mate...f-Opium.html

this is what extract of opium is:



(Sounds like they were making masa).

An in case you were wondering what that one word meant (I know I did), it's this:



Jim