A Small Wine Stamp Collection

I just finished mounting a small collection that some might enjoy.

link is here:http://www.rfrajola.com/wines/wines.pdf.

That is gorgeous, but the word 'small' does not seem to be the correct choice here!

Peter

Super Cool!!!


I'm lucky enough to also own an RE31 plate block of 6 (ex-Cleland), so your 2 makes a total of 3 known (so far). Curious to know if there are more.

Awesome job!
Downloaded for future reference.

For those not aware, any of the large values with tabs that have added stamps are EXTREMELY scarce; having a rare $40 reissue with with $3650 additional is incredible, an almost certainly unique usage(those three values are not very common either).
The used 1 7/10 stamp is one of the great rarities in all of US revenues. An amazing collection.

Absolutely fantastic, thank you for sharing.

The Frajola Value Rating (FVR) scale is also an original contribution that I hope realizes wider use, even for stamp categories with thousands of issues.

Unfortunately that scale is not nearly as useful an idea as it first appears. Catalog values for revenues generally do not necessarily have a correlation to scarcity, with far more variation then postage stamps have.
There is no real way to estimate the survival rates of wine stamps because of their use. A stamp like the 3 1/2 cent, which is a great rarity was actually printed in a decent quantity of 117,000, but practically no one would have saved one over those 13 months given their probable use. And the war. In this case the catalog reflects that, but it is tricky as a true indicator.

I agree 100%. I don't collect the wine revenues, but enjoyed this very much. Thanks to those who pointed out the great scarcity of some of these items.

neat I enjoyed learning about these


-MV

Awesome collection! I have a small sampling of the wine revenues with only the dolllar error as my oddball. That is a neat area of collecting and was nice to see some true rare items.

Revcollector - Thank you for your comments. However, I am afraid I do not understand your complaint about the rating system. It was not intended to reflect scarcity so the fact that it fails in that regard is not a valid criticism. As stated and devised, it is meant to reflect catalog value and it does that .... absolutely. To the extent that catalog value reflects a combination of scarcity and demand, so does my rating system. What it lacks is cash valuations. Actually the plotted curve of catalog value and percentile is very interesting and gives a clue at the depth of the market if one knows the absolute number of known and available copies.

I actually thought of this system specifically for wine revenue stamps because the unused stamps values are messy because of the Smithsonian dump of remainders. In presenting this particular collection, without being crass by stating catalog values (and all I have is a 2013 catalog), my desire was to select the top ten percent of material in teh collection and show that material only. The collection was not mounted to be shown in an exhibit and judged.

A spectacular showing of the gems of the wine stamps, which for three decades I collected and exhibited with great abandon. And then came the disgorgement from the National Postal Museum.

I will have a number of comments as I have time to pull and examine my files.

Where are the fermented fruit juice stamps (Scott REF)? They are quite a challenge to complete!

But for today let me start with page four, the in-betweens. Where is the 10¢, which is also a part of the in-betweens? I have seven of them in my stock book. I would disagree with the estimated census. I have six of the 15¢ in my stock book; 10 singles and a block of four of the 20¢; six of the 30¢, and a total of four of the $1.20.

Ron - Thanks for comments. I do not have the 10c and did not know of its existence. Nor was I aware of the quantities you have of other denominations. The page should probably be eliminated. But, as the collection will not be exhibited, I will leave the page as of interest to people who may not know about the items other than the inaccurate, or poorly worded, footnote in Scott's catalog (unless it has been edited since my 2013 edition). Hard to get find accurate census information when the stamps are not trading in the auction market.

I just uploaded a corrected version incorporating the new report from Ron(same link as above but new file) and with several other minor edits.

Great philatelists of our era sharing information on SCF. Outstanding thread.

I need to first correct my comment on the 10¢ in-between. The 10¢ went through the same ink color changes during the late Prohibition years, what I will call the blue green - I have uses in 1933, the Partial Repeal era and I have separated these uses in my stock book on the same page with the in-betweens. However, the 10¢ are not shorter in height. So I was wrong in my original post. I should also add that the 4¢ goes through these same color changes that are characteristic of the late Prohibition years.

When we get to the so-called Series of 1934, rouletted 7 and the yellow green shade, the plates seem to be the high etch plates which were still printed on the offset presses. These plates have a much longer life expectancy. George Brett sometime referred to these issues as being from high etch plates and at other times referred to them as letterset printed (because the image on the plate was above the surface like letterpress, but still being printed on offset presses, he combined the terms). These high etch plates are sensitive to the pressure settings on the offset presses and when too much pressure is present, we get ink squeeze into the open areas, often confused with double impressions. When I get a chance I will try to add some images to show this squeeze. Brett wrote about this in the Bureau Specialist. I will get a specific citation, when I add some scans.

In my next post I will try to present some census numbers on the reprinted book wine stamps, Scott RE107A-107D. Only the $50 and $100 continued to be printed after the switch to perf 12 ½, the Rossback perforator. Brett confirmed to me personally that he had seen the Rossback perforator in use at BEP during the 1930's.

Finally I should add that I, too, have a top plate block of six of RE31, the 2¢ perforated 11 series of 1914 wine stamp that was introduced in 1919. I also have a strip of three of the same plate number 3503 from a bottom pane. Of greater personal interest is trying to track the use of this stamp. In 1937 George Sloane reported dates of 1930, but I can confirm a date four or five years earlier. I also have two delightful uses during in 1933, the Partial Repeal period, perhaps used on 3.2 wine, at the time derogatorily referred to as McAdoo wine, for the California senator who without consulting his winery constituents, agreed to the legalization of 3.2 wine, matching the percentage of alcohol allowed for beer. The 2¢ would have been the tax on a pint of 3.2 wine.

Good stuff Ron. Looking forward to the scans. The "in-between" series you refer to -- don't you think they should be entitled to a catalog listing? Would they not be considered as reissues?