Provisional Revenues

Hi, for the younger stamp collectors out there, there are provisional future delivery stamps that can often be had for cheap. A lot, but not all sellers do not realize these, and just sell them cheap.

Some stamp collectors are not aware of these, but you might be able to find some and add them to your collection.

Enjoy, I've enhanced these to better show the Future Delivery (FD) marking.

These FD stamps are easy to find. But hold out for a seller who does know what he has, bet you could get some real cheap! I did.

Stampmaster

Sometimes even major auction houses don't know. Look at lot 1313, no mention of what the block actually is.

https://siegelauctions.com/lots.php...er+1%2C+2015

Revcollector, Sir, I know what you mean, seen a few at the auction houses.

An on document would be nice to have. Have you ever seen on document usage?

Stampmaster

I seem to recall seeing a couple decades ago, but even future delivery documents with the printed stamps are not nearly as common as the stock transfer documents are.

Revcollector, right you are.

I have a few future delivery documents, but very few.

Now need to find a future delivery document with double transfer on it. I might as well wish for the moon.

Stampmaster

The only real possibility is the $500 value.

Would there a case to be made to convince Scott's to list these as provisional Future Delivery stamps? After all they do for Stock Transfers, Silver Tax, Narcotic, etc. handstamped on the 1917 documentaries.

I think they should be listed, or at the very least footnoted in the R section similar to the footnote following R239. I'll add it to my list of recommendations for the 2019 U.S. Specialized. It's far too late for the 2018 edition. I usually have to have my recommendations in to Jim Kloetzel by the first week of June.

I am not sure if Scott has ever been made aware of them, but these have been known about for decades so I suspect it has been tried before.

Here's an ad from the April 1963 issue of The American Revenuer:

Revenuecollector and Revcollector & 1Typesetter, sounds like a good idea, but I will not be holding my breath.

Stampmaster

Official word from Amos is that because the overprints were privately/unofficially applied, there would need to be sufficient evidence/justification to list these. Otherwise, they are inclined to merely reference them in a general sense in a footnote (better than nothing I suppose).

I'm a bit confused as to what the thresholds are for inclusion in the Scott Catalogue re: private/unofficial items. We went back and forth a bit, but I'm afraid I still don't fully understand the distinctions, especially when there are already a host of private/unofficial items already in the catalog (e.g., sewing machine perfs, private roulettes, Schermack perforations, postal counterfeits), some of them listed at length.

Looks like there's research to be done if a case is to be made for inclusion...

That makes no sense. Aren't all the provisionals "privately" applied until the actual stamps arrived for official use?

In fact I found a couple just yesterday in a batch of revenues I'd acquired. Thanks, I had no idea what it was.

Hi Jamesw, also look for Scott Illustration Number R22 with Parcel Post Cancels. If on piece or even tags with Washington/Franklin Head stamps.

Stampmaster

Probably the best method in determining the "official" status of questionable revenue stamps is to see what contemporaneous writers said about them at the time.

In this case, it turns out that the "F. D." (as well as the "S. T.") handstamped overprints on documentary stamps are entirely genuine.

They should be included in the Scott catalog as forerunners to the Bureau-overprinted stamps, exactly like the handstamped "narcotic" stamps precede the Bureau-overprinted stamps.

All that is necessary for proof of this is to go here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=DqhYtqLvD5YC

and then go to pages 63 to 66.

The above link is The American Philatelist, Volume 32, Number 3, December 1, 1918.

The handstamped varieties were originally intended to only be available from December 15, 1917 to February 1, 1918.

Of course, those handstamped stamps that are dated after February 1 were clearly items that were still in stock at the exchange location at the time, and were just not traded in for the Bureau-overprinted varieties.



The moral of this story is that, in addition to looking for documentary stamps that are handstamped "F. D.," also look for those that are handstamped "S.T."

And also, maybe now Scott will list these handstamped varieties?

Jim

Most of the following stamps were acquired from one of the Morton Joyce sales.