Saturday, March 28, 2009

Railroad Cancels and The 2 Cent Documentary of 1898 - 1901 - Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway



Welcome to 1898 Revenues. I have a special interest in used One and Two Cent Documentaries, and used Proprietaries. Please join me and add comments if you have similar interests. I will highlight the 2 Cent Documentaries, especially cancellations and the companies that made them.

This stamp has printed and handstamp cancellations from the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, commonly known as the Milwaukee Road. At the time this stamp was cancelled the Milwaukee Road did not extend its lines to the Pacific coast. Eventually it would, and would make extensive use of electric powered locomotives in the west.
About two years ago I succesfully bid at auction for a collection of 2 cent Battleship documentaries in the form of a calender that tracked each day of the tax period for the use of these stamps. The stamp above, for example, was in the calender blank for May 21, 1901. Put together by Henry Tolman, this calender was a minor part of one of the better US revenue collections ever assembled. But while a minor part of Tolman's great collection , the calender is a marvel. Most days of the nearly 3 year tax period have been competed by stamps cancelled by railroads or major US industrial concerns.
For the next few months I will use images from this calender, and some from my general collection, to highlight railroad cancels on these 2 cent stamps.

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