R153 Or R154 Or ? Can't Find "Ir" Black/Dark Blue Scott Number

Request assistance (I feel a little silly asking) but I cannot find the Scott number for the pics. The closest I could find was the R153 or R154 red overprints?

Thanks in Advance!

Mitch

RS307 catalog value $175 (2020 edition). Dr. K. & Co. was the provisional overprint by Dr. Kilmer a private die medicine company using the stamps to pay the tax on proprietary medicines

Wow ... Thank you for the rapid ID! Excellent detail and I was thinking that out of the 100's of IR RED overprints I have ... I did not remember ever seeing a black one. (I don't know if I would have ever found it in the RS.... section.

Interestingly, in Philadelphia, the products of Dr. Kilmer with these "provisionals" created by the company were seized. They were being used because proprietary tax stamps were not available in Binghamton, NY (likewise from the Internal Revenue regional office in Syracuse). The line of reasoning in Philadelphia was that the tax was not paid. The cost of the stamps went to the Post Office, not Internal Revenue. As far as we know Philadelphia was the only area where these stamps were challenged and not accepted. Note that the company used a 1¢ stamp on packages where a #8541;¢ proprietary stamp would have been sufficient; similarly the 2¢ and 3¢ Kilmers also were overpaying the tax, only to the wrong government agency.

revenuermd,
Thank u for also adding to the thread. Quite interesting detail.

I would have "never found" that stamp in my Scott without SQPR and yourself taking the time to not just find it but provide excellent background info too.

Kilmer's are always nice things to find. There is a pamphlet about them, The Case of Dr. Kilmer
An Analysis of the Dr. Kilmer & Co. Provisional Proprietary Revenue Stamps Overprinted on the 1895 Postage Stamps of the United States by Morton Dean Joyce, one of the all time great revenue philatelists.