2 2c Trans-Mississippi Revenues

I found these 2 bank check revenues tied with 2c Trans-Mississippis. I had a lot of trouble finding information on their use as revenues, other than the Spanish American War shortage. I'm assuming that 1c and 2c trans-Miss stamps were the only ones used in bank checks...right? I can't find any others.

No it is not proper. Please read the rules on the top right hand side of the banner. You will see Search,FAQ & Rules & more. Thanks.

Subtle details are important in stamp collecting and participating in this forum. Stick with it. It will all work out.

RedwoodRandy:

Why isn't his post proper? He's just asking for information and has provided excellent scans.

These are what are termed "illegal" or sometimes "improper" usages. Postage stamps were not valid to pay stamp taxes except for a few officially sanctioned emergency overprints. If these checks had been needed in a court or government action they would not have been accepted as valid until a revenue stamp was applied. These are very nice items, with real value.

Thanks for asking Glen. Three of his posts asking to sell or trade were deleted or edited by the op last night. I was informing him of the rules specifically of reading the rules which he had not done. You are reading the now one way conservation.

Heh. I completely missed this thread before this morning, so I have no idea what's been deleted. At any rate, he apparently listed them on ebay the day before yesterday. I saw the listing, made an offer, and it was accepted, so they're on their way to me. Very nice items, especially as a matched pair, which you never see.

These are hard to pin down value-wise, as sale prices are all over the map. They appeal to more than just revenue collectors, so there's usually pretty strong bidding when these show up at auction.

When they get here, I'll post higher quality scans, along with examples of other improper usage "matched sets" I've acquired over the years.

The documents arrived today... very nice.




Some other groups of illegal/improper usages I've been able to acquire over the years:








This next group is especially nice, as the stamps are Scott 96, the F grill. Grilled improper usages are quite scarce. Neither the seller nor myself realized that the stamps were of the grill variety; it wasn't until I was scanning the documents that I noticed.