A revenue stamp for "AMERICA" - photo 1
A revenue stamp for "AMERICA" - photo 2
A revenue stamp for "AMERICA" - photo 3
A revenue stamp for "AMERICA" - photo 4

A revenue stamp for "AMERICA"

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$ 11 340
Auction dateClassic
17.01.2024 11:00UTC -04:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
USA, New York
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Archive
ID 1119250
Lot 100 | A revenue stamp for "AMERICA"
A revenue stamp for "AMERICA"

1765

STAMP ACT – Embossed revenue stamp reading "II • SHILLINGS VI • PENCE" below the Royal seal headed, "AMERICA."



The Stamp that "started it all." A rare survival—an original embossed stamp intended for use in North America but never used in light of the widespread protests that greeted the announcement and attempted implementation of the Stamp Act. While ordinary paper could be impressed with an embossed stamp, vellum, commonly used for land deeds and other like instruments required a more elaborate approach. For these documents, a small piece of paper, either beige or blue gray, was embossed and then affixed with a staple to the vellum with an adhesive stamp affixed to the verso. Rare. As most of the stamps intended for the British colonies were never used and often destroyed, very few examples survive. The Smithsonian National Postal Museum traces only 42 extant examples of these free-standing vellum stamps, of which only 11 are known to be on blue paper.



41 x 41mm, on blue-gray paper stapled to a slightly larger sheet of vellum (58 x 54mm) with an adhesive stamp affixed to the verso bearing a printed revenue stamp reading "GR 296." (Linen mounting hinge affixed to one margin on verso.) Provenance: Dr. Charles E. Clark (his sale, D. F. Libbie & Co., 15-17 January 1901, lot 141) – Alfred T. White – by descent to the consignor.



[With:] A piece of Continental currency for $60, numbered ("253000") in manuscript and signed ("Jno Graff" and "Jacob Masoner"), Philadelphia, 26 September 1778. 71 x 96mm. (Linen mounting hinge affixed to top margin on verso.)

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