Troublemakers
Your Questions Answered
[hopefully]
Some of us have revenue stamps in our collections which are not catalogued; we maybe unsure just where they belong. Are they even of revenue status? In the world of revenues we call these 'Troublemakers'
The society has set up this link to help solve some of the problems these Troublemakers can cause.
If you have one or more of these Troublemakers please send me a graphic 300dpi and I will put it up on this page for our members input to: Dave
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From member Dave Elsmore of Queensland Australia:
GB Playing Card Troublemaker
September 10th On eBay a couple of playing card lots were described as: "18th Cent Playing Cards Full Wrapper w/ UK 6d embossed revenue, some small faults and closed tear in the margin, Scarce item. The embossed revenue is of the kind used from 1765 to about 1799. The manufacturer is I. Hardy , Card Maker to his Majesty and the Prince of Wales, and the embossed revenue is sharp and clear. The paper is laid and watermarked. A treasure for both the playing card collector and revenue specialist"
and: "18th Cent Playing Cards Full Wrapper w/ UK 6d embossed revenue, Excellent condition, Scarce item. The embossed revenue is of the kind used from 1765 to about 1799. The manufacturer is Hardy and the embossed revenue is sharp and clear. The paper is laid and unwatermarked. A treasure for both the playing card collector and revenue specialist" respectively. Unfortunately they sold for US$86.00 each.
Here are the two accompanying eBay pictures:
1.
2.
The trouble with these two lots is that they were modern reproductions done in America by a company selling modern reproductions of medieval artefacts, for people who wish to recreate battle scenes and village life. They are selling the reproduction packs of cards, which I must say are quite a remarkable resemblance to the original issued items right down to the impressed duty stamps.
I have an unopened pack of these in my possession which I myself brought on eBay as original a while ago. Once I had received them I contacted Mike Tanner well known committee member and specialist on GB playing cards stating my concerns, Mike put me straight on this repro and after contacting the vendor he refunded my money and told me to keep the pack.
I believe the tell tale mistake is that the modern reproduction pack was for export only, there would have been no duty to pay if exported.
Here is a scan of my repro pack:
Reply from member Mike Tanner:
The link to the maker of these cards is
http://jas-townsend.com/product_info.php?products_id=308 and they are
still selling them at US$10.00! Dave you are right that the tell-tale mistake
that gives away the pack as a modern reproduction is that a pack for
export did not pay tax, so they did not need the tax stamps. Nor did they
need the red tax wrapper as these were only for cards made and sold in the
UK. I have seen a couple of the packs at various times on
eBay UK. I think they only sold for about £10 - not the substantial US$83
that people paid for the ones you saw. I am pretty sure the sellers mostly
know what they are selling - the picture you put up on the website looks
as if there has been an attempt to "age" the wrapper to make it look more
authentic.
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Kenya Troublemaker
From member Taddeo Papi of Florence Italy:
Recently I found this East African embossed 1/- revenue, it is on thick card and since I have never seen one before it could also be some kind of proof.
It is dated (19)27 and since similar "lion design" embossing was used from 1928 circa onwards it could be that this kind with value denomination was discarded in favour of a unique undesignated type.
Obviously I only imagine all this since I have never seen another one, but the "normal" ones are quite common, maybe someone out there has some more info.
Note: 'The Impressed Duty Stamps of The British Colonial Empire' by Barber 1998 mentions nothing on this revenue. A note states that in 1922 the decimal rupee currency was changed to the decimal shilling with 100 cents to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound.
Taddeo UPDATE to above Feb 08
I had supposed the above was some kind of proof and probably unissued being unrecorded in Barber's book.
Recently I bought a lot of East African Revenues and found out that I was at the same time right and wrong, in fact I found two more proofs made the same day on the same thick card (same quality as used for many other proofs for other colonies) plus one properly used copy cut from a document dated 1954! 27 years after the proofs were made!
In fact Barber lists a 50c and a 1/50c values, but it is quite unrealistic that a 1/- die was never produced.
One of the proofs has a pencil "tick", I suppose in order to have at least one good impression to use as a specimen the printer had to make enough embossing's to choose the perfect one from, the result of the embossing never being the same.
In fact you can compare the "proofs" print quality with the "used" copy which is much poorer.
Best regards,
Taddeo Papi
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Australian State Troublemaker
From member Dave Elsmore of Queensland Australia:
I have several Queensland Cypher's which were used to hold in place the silver 'staple' used to tie a base paper to a velum [animal skin] instrument.
I have viewed a 5 frame exhibit [excepted and shown in the Revenue Class at FIP level] of Cypher's from the UK. My opinion is they do NOT belong in the Revenue Class as they were supplied at no cost, they have no value and they did not pay a fee for a service although they were part of a service.
Do you have an opinion on this? if so, then let us know.
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