Our Stamp Den

A Brief History of stamps
               China
                    Falkland Islands
                    Heligoland
                    Manchukuo
                    United States
Download Programs to Inventory Your United States Stamps
 Mourning Stamps
Nicknames of famous stamps
Scott Catalogue 1896 Book Review
 Stamp Glossary
TASCO Educational Booklets
TASCO Non-booklet items: advertising covers, cinderellas, approval sheets, etc
 TASCO Album Pages
Ten Low Cost Ways to Start Collecting Stamps
Tips for the Beginner
World Records in Stamps
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Albums - Glassine Interleaving
Acid_Paper_and_Album_Pages
Buying Stamps - Kiloware and Mixtures
Buying & Using Sheet Protectors
Buying Stamps - New Issues
Great Deals are Often Not What They Seem
 Glues, Gums, and Adhesives
How to Tell a Revenue Usage When You See One
Inventories or Keeping Track
Learning About Your Hobby
Mount Stamps
Not Your Run-of-the-Mill Cancellations
 Problems and a solution
Select An Album
Soaking Stamps
Soaking II
Sort Stamps
Save Time
Tools of the Trade
Tools -Cleaning Up
Tools - Stockbooks, Stockpages and Stockcards
Tag Stamps --Safety
Watermark Stamps 
What Condition Your Condition Is In
Specializing and Specialty Groups
What are and How to -Perforations
What is My Collection Worth?
 “Unlisted Watermarks” and More
Used Catalogs and Stamp Books

More Articles
Artcraft FDC's
My Other World
U.S. Revenues - I Love them!
What to Collect

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Other terms for branches of philately

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How to Tell a Revenue Usage When You See One

Many higher face-valued stamps from certain countries were used more often to collect taxes than to pay the fee to transport mail. Stamps used to collect taxes are called revenue stamps and are usually completely different looking than those stamps used for mail. In some countries, postage stamps were also used as revenue stamps. This practice is most found in the area of British Colonies. For many high-value stamps, postal usage was a lot rarer than revenue usage; and from a collecting stand point, a revenue cancel on a stamp is considered a defect and it affects its value greatly in a negative sense. Stamps with revenue cancels are usually worth less than one tenth of catalog.

Telling revenue usage is mostly a thing of experience. Listed below are things to look for that can indicate revenue usage: -Purple cancels on British Colonial stamps usually indicate revenue use. -Oval cancels in purple usually indicate revenue use. -Mute cancels (ones that do not contain a town and country name) usually indicate revenue use. However, some parcel cancels can look like revenue cancels. -Cancels that say Stamp Duty or have the name of a government office in them indicate revenue usage. -If the cancel is embossed or is “printed” or is in an odd color, it may have seen revenue use. If you are looking at a higher value stamp or even a lower value for that matter that has one of the above characteristics, be suspicious that it may be a revenue and don’t buy it unless it is at a significant discount from the regular price. Stamps from the Straits Settlements are notorious for having revenue cancels. Be aware also that many dealers don’t care if the stamp has a revenue cancel when they sell it, but be assured that they do care when it comes to buying.

Ken Stewart