R98A Plate Number 2000, Full Imprint, Rarity Against Condition?

Today, I got myself this at a local club meeting.

it is in a condition I would normally not consider but as I have never seen anything like this before, and could not find any comparison online, I took the plunge

now, I know we have some real revenue experts in our forum...would love to hear from them how rare it actually is and where I could find similar for comparison. not sure if I should have taken it even with all the condition issues.

also it seems the back has a lot of gum...witch I find strange as it seems manuscript cancelled on the front. anyone any idea?

That is a scarce item in reasonably nice condition for it's size and the way it was probably used. Certainly worth having.

Revcollector, thank you for your comment.
interesting that i, as a stamp but not revenue collector, find the condition far from reasonably nice condition. what way do you think it was used?
i do think usd 60,= in 1864 was a lot of money to pay taxes

Wowza!

That is quite sexy and certainly has great eye appeal!!!

Absolutely a case of "find one for sale in better shape"!!!!!

Congrats - great find!

thank you stateRevs

The higher values were often used to pay documentary taxes on railroad deeds, land purchases, and stock and bond sales. So they were put on documents which were always folded and often went through many hands over time. Of course they might have been used by other types of business deals as well.

I love this piece!

I realize that the "2000" represents the denomination of the stamp but what does the "M" stand for? Durland is clear as mud on this only indicating that the letter has to do with the type of revenue use. Conveyance and "M" fall under the Mortgage category?

Conveyance-the legal process of transferring property from one owner to another. I am not sure exactly why they chose M.

It is a wonderful item. I have been dealing in U.S. revenue stamps for more than 50 years and do not recall having seen this before. Yes, it has some condition problems, but so what. Until a better condition example comes along, this item would be treasured by many collectors as it is.

thank you all for commenting, it is more special than I originally thought, despite the condition.

Eric, as I found it in Europe it would make sense you didn't see it before

Rogdcam, I did check the plate number on Dons site, but it never clicked with me it was the domination that made its plate number

Revcollector, thank you for explaining how they were used, very interesting!

One of the major reasons that selvage on revenue (and postage) stamps is so scarce is that it was gummed paper and used for all sorts of purposes such as making seals, repairing torn paper, affixing stamps in albums, etc. etc. In other cases the selvage may have been removed by a well-meaning, but misguided collector in order to nicely fit a stamp into a defined album space.

An even more common reason was the available space on documents was often very limited, and the margins had no value for paying the tax, but did use up valuable space.

revcanman:
the selvage may have been removed by a well-meaning, but misguided collector in order to nicely fit a stamp into a defined album space

ohhhhh nooooooo

It is totally possible that no selvage was removed from the strip at all, and that this is all there was when it was printed.