Puerto Rico Re27 Typewritten Overprint

Anybody know if this is legit?

Never seen one before. No way to prove it, given a lack of a readable cancel. Anyone can use a typewriter.

Absolutely legitimate! The 40¢ is recorded with the RECTIFIED SPIRITS is black and the 4¢, 40¢, and 60¢ is blue. If you look carefully, I think you will find that these were made with ditto stencils, not straight typewriter (yes, the typewriter was used to produce the stencils!). These are from a fairly extensive list of provisionals used in early 1938 by rum producers in Puerto Rico, thus related to the Puerto Rico RE listings. I have about 19 different local provisionals. They are erroneously listed for Puerto Rico. They are a U.S. tax on rum produced and bottled in Puerto Rico and shipped to the mainland U.S. The tax was rebated to Puerto Rico (jobs bill for Puerto Rico in today's parlance). If the rum produced in Puerto Rico was sent by bulk shipment to the mainland U.S., the rectified spirits tax was collected upon entry, but was not rebated to Puerto Rico!

There are similar stamps for Puerto Rico cigarettes and cigars and Philippine cigars. These stamps are overprinted Puerto Rico and Philippine Islands and again the tax is a U.S. tax, but it is rebated to the Commonwealth where the product was manufactured.

Following are five images of early provisionals of the Puerto Rico Rectified Spirits Stamps. They certainly are legitimate and their use preceded the Bureau of Engraving & Printing provisionals RE17-RE32, which came into used in mid-1938.












Scott Puerto Rico RE1-7 were also locally produced provisionals used in the San Juan area. There must have been two printings of these differing in intensity. One printing the red is deep red and the other printing is a brighter red. We do not know if all denominations were present in both printings.

Scott Puerto Rico RE8-16 were another locally produced set of provisionals used in the Arecibo area.

In my list of provisionals which I am hoping will eventually be added to the Scott listings and moved to the U.S. revenue section there are 30 listings, about 18 of which I own examples. As you can see from my previous post, the canceled examples are not always pristine. But then they were used on cardboard cases and were subject to sometime harsh conditions.

Thanks Ron. A veritable encyclopedia of knowledge.

I ran it through retroreveal and the date appears to be 30 JULY 1938.

That is a perfectly believable date for provisional use, towards the end of the use of the provisionals. We still have a lot to learn about these provisionals.

Were the Scott listed PR RE7-RE32 mint stamps issued with gum or no gum as issued?

Were they then glued or shellacked on if no gum?

They were glued for the most part.

Ron, Scott cat. states that the listed PR RE1-RE7 exist overprinted in red and carmine. Is this also your opinion?

Redwood Randy - Yes, I think I was responsible for that footnote. If you look at the acknowledgements in the front of the Scott U.S. Specialized, you will see my name. If you look at my April 15 post at 3:19 in this thread you will see that I described them yesterday as deep red (Scott's carmine) and bright red (Scott's red). I have not yet acquired all denominations in both shades, but certainly some denominations I can document in the two different shades. Again I underscore that RE1-7 were used in the San Juan area rum distilleries.