Provisional Revenues

Excellent! Thanks Jim.

Has anyone seen any of the S.T. overprinted stamps? I have not.

About the closest I get are the following, but since none are on document, they could be spurious. The third is obviously from a much later period, conceivably used due to a shortage of regular stamps, similar to scenarios where postage stamps were used when revenues weren't available... anything handy to pay the tax.

The problem with these is that the rubber stamped and typewritten examples are easy to fake. I have never seen a used example of these rubber stamp types with a clear provable company cancel or on a document.

The F.D. handstamps come in violet and black. The black handstamp was used in Memphis; the violet in New Orleans, both I believe on the respective cotton exchanges.

Look for the $5 on both the Series of 1914 and 1917 documentaries.

it would appear that there are several styles, probably used in other locations as well.

While I agree that listing by Scott is a distinct possibility, we need a definitive article on the different styles of handstamps with listings of color and denomination. I would be a willing collaborator.

I think that the stock transfer that are shown in this thread are a much more difficult sell to the Scott Specialized. I know nothing about their use or location. The stock transfer stamps were only used at the exchanges. If the sale did not take place on an exchange documentary stamps were to be used. The shown examples with complex "Stock Exchange" could be someone's idea of showing these were for the sale of stock but not on an exchange. would love to see someone disprove this hypothesis.

I'm trying to imagine a scenario where someone would take the time to create a fake handstamp for 'future delivery' or 'stock transfer.'

Sure, with the narcotic handstamps, you've had a stated, "premium" value in Scott since the 1970s, so there's some impetus for some financial reward, by some people with loose moral compasses.

But since these two handstamps (ST and FD) haven't ever been listed, who would pay a premium for them?

As the original poster stated, frequently the handstamps aren't even recognized at all.

I'm not saying that ALL examples are 100% genuine of course.

Just trying to figure out why someone would bother. Maybe a collector trying to fill holes in an album page?

And not to be pessimistic, but if a comprehensive, illustrated listing of provisional FD and ST handstamps is included in Scott one day, along with higher than "normal" catalog values, will that inspire a future wayward miscreant to start handstamping his documentary stamps?

Jim

here is the front and reverse of a New Orleans cotton exchange document showing one of the FD overprints, to wit, the 2¢ stamp in the upper right of the grouping of stamps. The violet handstamp helped to nail down that the violet handstamp was used in New Orleans, per my earlier post.

Narcotics were in the Scott catalog in the 30's, fakes go back at least that long. Anyone looking at the catalog knows that revenue provisionals generally tend to be valuable, and there has always been a market for them. Old time collectors had plenty of interest based on reading the old literature.

Minor point, but that's not entirely correct.

Narcotic stamps were first listed in the Scott 1920 Standard Catalog, then they were told to stop including them. This became effective in 1928.

Narcotic stamps stayed unlisted until 1973, when the tax was no longer in effect.

Jim

Here are the provisionals I found. Nothing extraordinary, just thought I'd share

Hi, Jamesw, I think your two examples are very nice.

Good show.

Cheers

Stampmaster

Speak of the devil...

Well, ok, at least some of the stamp with the provisional overprint is there.

Jim

http://www.ebay.com/itm/us-revenue-...AOSw6YtZW6d-

Here's another one that is available.

Jim

http://www.ebay.com/itm/nystamps-US...AOSw62VZyAUO

The future delivery stamps have a long history and provable provenance, but the stock transfer "provisionals" must be looked at with a large grain of salt unless found on a document.

Bart's point that there was a great interest in faking the narcotic stamps in the 1920's is absolutely correct. The Scott listing of an invert of the 3¢ (now RJA35) has been demonstrated to be forgery. The whole set of cents denominations were forged to fill album pages. They even added the forged overprint to the 50¢ denomination, which the Bureau never produced.

As to the collector interest in filling the album pages, I have seen a letter in the National Archives from the early to mid-1920's from a Senator to Internal Revenue on behalf of a stamp collector constituent who wished to complete his set of narcotics. Internal Revenue flat out refused the request.