Did Abnc Print Proprieteries For Its Own Playing Cards?

American Bank Note Company was well known for its high quality playing cards and used the Ace of spades as an advertisement with their signature screaming eagle. They also printed a small dummy stamp with the same eagle, in miniature.





This left me wondering whether ABNC might have engraved a playing card revenue stamp for their own decks. I don't own a M&M catalog -- can anyone provide an answer?

No they did not. They did print Private Die Proprietary stamps for a while.

Yep.

Jim

Jim
I think both answers are correct. they did not print or issue their own private die revenue stamp during the taxation period. there is nothing to indicate that the specimen stamp shown ever got beyond that stage.
the item you show would have probably been used in the period after 1883 repeal until the 1894 reinstatement and issue of new stamps. it also could have seen simultaneous use as an outer wrapper seal during either period.

That is a label, not a revenue stamp. It's very pretty, but it is just a package seal of some kind.

The green specimen stamp was not for playing cards. It is a salesman's sample decal to show the various states what ABNC could produce for cigarette, tobacco, liquor, and wine revenue decal stamps.

Here is an image of a Rhode Island tobacco stamp printed by ABNC.

eric thanks for the clarification.......

This is all great info -- thanks everyone! Eric, I suspected that stamp might have been made to demonstrate ABNC's capability to produce small size revenues. I should have mentioned this is a tiny one. Here's a size comparison:



I think the eagle head on this may have been reduced even further than the card box seal that Jim posted.