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U.S. Revenue stamps - continued Proprietary stamps Early series
Battleship series
The plate number is inverted - the bottom of the plate number should be toward the stamp image as on all other issues.
Brown Numerals
Blue Numerals
Semi-Private Proprietary stamps The law requiring the use of the "battleship" proprietary stamps took effect July 1, 1898. The stamps had not yet arrived at the Binghamton, NY, revenue office, home of one of the largest mailers of proprietary medicines, Dr. Kilmer & Co., by the deadline for their use. The Kilmer company was unable to persuade local revenue agents to allow them to ship their goods and pay the taxes by sworn statement and a lump sum, and no other source for the required revenue stamps was available. Faced with huge losses if their goods could not be shipped, or huge penalties if they shipped the goods without the required tax stamps, Kilmer improvised by overprinting the 1¢, 2¢ and 3¢ regular postage issues of the day with one of two types of private overprints - in effect, creating "semi-private" proprietary stamps. The overprints are on the 1¢ green Franklin, Scott 279; 2¢ carmine Washington, Scott 267a; 2¢ red Washington, Scott 279Be; and 3¢ Jefferson, Scott 268. Eight types of stamps, Scott RS307 through RS315, are known canceled with dates ranging from July 5 to July 15, 1898, after which presumably the required Battleship stamps arrived in Binghamton and were used thenceforth. Single examples of these overprinted proprietary stamps are rare enough in themselves; plate number material has not been seen by this writer. If you know of examples of plate number singles or blocks of these overprinted issues, please submit them to our web site so we can illustrate them for all collectors.
Comments? Suggestions? Email the Webmaster at secretary at apnss dot org. This page last updated June 1, 2007. Web site content Copyright ©2003-2008 American Plate Number Single Society. All rights reserved. |
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Scott RB1a,
1¢, pair with right plate number 1C 
Scott RB1b,
1¢, used, righ plate number 1C.jpg)
Scott RB2P4,
2¢ proof, pair with plate number A3 L.jpg)
Scott RB2a,
2¢, pair with plate number A3 L
Scott RB4a,
1¢, plate number 7 B
Scott RB4P3,
1¢ proof, plate number 7 B
Scott RB7P4,
10¢ proof, plate number 4 B
Scott RB11a,
1¢, plate number 4 T.jpg)
Scott RB11b,
1¢, pair with plate number 4 T
Scott RB12b,
2¢, plate number 6 T
Scott RB14b,
4¢, plate number 12 T
Scott RB20,
1/8¢, Plate Number 8135 T
Scott RB20p,
1/8¢, Plate Number 11911 L
Scott RB20r,
1/8¢, rouletted, Plate Number 8265 T
Scott RB21,
1/4¢, Plate Number 7962 T
Scott RB21p,
1/4¢, Plate Number 11199 R
Scott RB22,
3/8¢, Plate Number 7979 B
Scott RB22p,
3/8¢, Plate Number 9414 R
Scott RB23,
5/8¢, Plate Number 9357 L
Scott RB23p,
5/8¢, Plate Number 11448 L
Scott RB24,
1¢ green, Plate Number 7928 B
Scott RB24p,
1¢ green, Plate Number 11594 R
Scott RB24r,
1¢, Plate Number 7928 T
Scott RB25,
1-1/4¢, Plate Number 8046 T
Scott RB25p,
1-1/4¢, Plate Number 11444 R
Scott RB25r,
1-1/4¢, Plate Number 8044 T
Scott RB26,
1-7/8¢, Plate Number 8375 T
Scott RB26p,
1-7/8¢, Plate Number 8365 T
Scott RB27p,
2¢, Plate Number 9464 R
Scott RB27r,
2¢, Plate Number 7956 B
Scott RB28p,
2-1/2¢, Plate Number 9400 L
Scott RB28r,
2-1/2¢, Plate Number 8047 T
Scott RB29,
3-3/4¢, Plate Number 8363 T
Scott RB29p,
3-3/4¢, hyphen-hole perf 7, Plate Number 8357 T
Scott RB29r,
3-3/4¢, Plate Number 8357 T
Scott RB30r,
4¢, Plate Number 7949 T
Scott RB31,
5¢, Plate Number 8014 B
Scott RB31p,
5¢, Plate Number 9439 R.jpg)
Scott RB36,
1-1/4¢, pair with hand-entered left Plate Number 260
Scott RB44,
1/8¢, single with hand-entered right Plate Number 267
Scott RB48,
5/8¢, Plate Number 268 L.jpg)
Scott RB51,
1-1/2¢, pair with hand-entered left Plate Number 256.jpg)
Scott RB54,
2-1/2¢, pair with hand-entered left Plate Number 270.jpg)
Scott RB65,
1¢, pair with Plate Number 3623 T
Scott RB66,
2¢, Plate Number 9783 T.jpg)
Scott RB67,
3¢, pair with Plate Number 4786 T
Scott RB68,
4¢, Plate Number 3720 T
Scott RB69,
5¢, Plate Number 4007 B
Scott RB71,
10¢, Plate Number 3926 T