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The Revenue Society
Hall of Fame
The Revenue Society is
proud to be able to show you unique revenues.
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I am predicting this page
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Canada
Canada Series 1883 Duty-unpaid Cigar Stamp
Christopher D. Ryan
Starting in 1883,
Canadian cigar manufacturers were allowed to have a limited number of
sample boxes of cigars open in their factories. These samples were of
two types: Duty-paid and duty-unpaid.
The duty-paid sample
boxes were affixed with the normal excise stamps and specially cancelled
by the supervising excise officer. These samples could be freely handed
out to visitors.
The duty-unpaid sample
boxes were affixed with a special yellow excise stamp to indicate their
status. Duty-unpaid samples were for display purposes only and could not
be consumed.
The first of the yellow
excise stamps were provisional 1883 overprints on a special printing of
a Series 1881 cigar stamp. These provisionals were lithographed and are
not shown here.
The regular issue of
Series 1883, duty-unpaid, sample stamp was printed by intaglio in a
reported quantity of just 1500. The item shown here (courtesy of
Fritz Angst) is a recent discovery as of March 2008 and the only
reported example of the stamp as issued. Prior to this one example, the
Series 1883 stamp for boxes of duty-unpaid cigars was known only as
proofs in green.
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£500 King Edward V11 Queensland
Australia
To start the ball
rolling, and as I am a Queenslander, we have the unique KEV11 £500 from
the Australian State of Queensland just magnificent, take another look,
this revenue has to be one of the most beautifully engraved revenues
Queensland has issued. Just
one single copy has come to light in the past 100 years. The £500 was
discovered on an agreement between a New South Wales registered company
and a prospective company manager residing in the State of Queensland for a
company yet to be formed.
For years speculation as
to the colour of the stamp was much discussed between revenue collectors,
the catalogues had the colour down as blue, until this document surfaced
in the late 1970's.
The most widely used
Commonwealth revenue catalogue is "British Commonwealth Revenues"
by J Barefoot Ltd of the UK, the 2002 issue has this stamp listed as being
printed black on blue-green paper, with preceding catalogues listing the
colour as blue. The 2008 edition has now corrected this and the
magnificent unique KEV11 £500 finally has been given the catalogue status
it so much deserves.
Two black master die
proofs of the £500 are known in private hands. Queensland archives hold a
perforated colour trial in blue on plain unwatermarked paper. No printing
records have survived.
To put this in perspective the
$500 "Persian Rug" from the USA
has a unique single copy known on document and up to 30 single
copies recorded off document The most recent bringing US$25,000. The Queensland KEV11 £500 shown below is truly unique!
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The Revenue Society also provides for
your enjoyment
'Revenue of the Month'
2006-2007 can be seen at this
link
or 2008 from this
link
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