A Revenue Collector's Blog

I wish this were still on the original document, as I’d love to know the context… The origins of the expression “like Sam Hill” or “What the Sam Hill?” are unclear. The best explanation I’ve seen posited: http://www.word-detective.com/080401.html The explanation of “Sam Hill” is actually pretty simple — it’s an early 19th century American euphemism for “hell” used as an oath. Perhaps due to our Puritan ancestry, Americans have always been especially creative when it comes to inventing linguistic detours…

Read More Read More

Discovered in an eBay lot I purchased last month. 1st issue silk papers are one of the areas I focus on, as they (1) are a virtually impossible set to complete, (2) are frequently misdentified, both falsely positive and missed entirely, and (3) are very “cherrypickable”, even from established and knowledgeable dealers. I’ve put together a reference page for identifying 1st issue silks. One of the things that adds to the difficulty of collecting silk papers of the 1st issue,…

Read More Read More

Just received today courtesy of eBay. While technically the stamps in question are damaged, they were done so in a very interesting and aesthetically pleasing manner. This document was originally written up in the February 1979 issue of The American Revenuer: A $2.50 Conveyance—Entry of Goods Provisional Illustrated here must be what would be called the only known example of a First Issue $2.50 Conveyance stamp (or is it an Entry of Goods stamp?). The stamp is on a document…

Read More Read More

It’s been a while since I posted some of my revenue pick-ups. While COMPEX was, comparatively speaking, a failure for me, I have been picking up items online. Excluding the items I picked up for resale purposes, here are some of the keepers for my collection. First, a nice mining bond. Apparently there’s a hoard of these out there, so they are not commanding the cost that mining bonds and stock certificates normally get. A nice bottom margin example of…

Read More Read More