The People's Transportation Company Stock Certificate

Hey guys, making my first post in a long time. I recently starting buying some Revenue material again after focusing on some postal history ( need to post that stuff as well)

Anyway, I got this in the mail a few days ago and thought I should share. There were 4 different certificates being auctioned on ebay and this is the one I was able to snag (beating out a certain Revenue dealer

Just a beautiful example of engraving! This one has a hand stamp cancel, unfortunately its faint. I found an example of another certificate for sale by a Scripophily dealer that has a bold cancel so I contacted him to see if he could send me a scan for reference/comparison.

The date on the cancel looks to read April 25 but the date written on the document is May 20. Was this this a case of the Secretary affixing stamps to a bunch of blank certificates just to have them prepared?

For what its worth of the 4 that were listed the 2 earlier ones had hand stamps and the 2 later ones were manuscript canceled.



Really happy I was able to win this!

Close up with some editing to try to bring out the cancel.

The stamps were probably cancelled as part of a large multiple when they were first purchased, and then used as needed. It was a common occurrence at the time.

Nice document, NeoRev. I like the steamship and train vignettes.

Great looking document. Here is another lifted from Wiki:

A minor point. This is not an engraved certificate, but almost certainly a lithograph printed by offset.

On NeoRevs post with the close up it looks like the stamp is tied to the document by the cancel.

Peter

Revenuermd, you are probably right about the printing technique, how would I determine that? Is it the overall look? The illustrations and border do have a sort of coarse look to them compared to the fine lines of engraved checks and other stock certificates.

Peter, you are also correct that the cancel is tied to the document.

I bid on two of the certificates and got neither. Wasn't willing to pay the freight, so to speak.

NeoRev, steel engraved (intaglio) certificates have very sharp fine lines in the images. This type of printing produces raised ink. The revenue stamp is engraved and you should be able to lightly run your fingernail across it and feel the ridges. Lithographs and letterpress printing feels smooth.

Thanks for the run down GregAlex, much appreciated.

I was taking a look at the certificate and there seems to be some light texture in the blue areas, could just be the ink. The red lettering definitely has some high and low areas, seems like the letters are pressed into the paper.
Theres also a light beige vignette in the background, again some light texture, I noticed some of the lines of the signatures "skip" over the lines of the vignette.

revenuecollector, yeah this was a bit high price for me but I really liked it. I only found one for sale online and the dealer was asking $700.00! A crazy high retail price for sure but the only price reference I could find.
The revenue dealer I beat out for this certificate won an earlier auction for another one so I'm curious to see how he prices it if he puts it on his site.

Dredging up this thread from 15 months ago...

I was outbid on the ones in this thread, but patience finally paid off and one showed up on ebay last week at a price I was willing to to pay... and with a fairly strong handstamp cancel rather than manuscript cancel, so huzzah!

FYI, current asking prices on the Interwebz that I was able to find:

Cigarboxlabels.com: $685
George Labarre Galleries: $700
Eric Jackson: $300 (BARGAIN!)