[For those who got the reference, congratulations!… you’re old like me.]

The other day I was chatting with Denny Peoples, and he was telling about a great revenue stockbook he had gotten, some of the items he had pulled out to add to inventory, and that the remainder would be a great lot for me to break down for eBay. Since I would see him at Indypex on the 19th, I could see it then.

But if there’s anything I know about Denny, is that he never lets the moss grow under his feet. Inventory is fast in, fast out. In the intervening 2 weeks, who knows whom he mmight see, or which dealer during Indypex setup might express an interest…

So made an impromptu 2-hour drive to Denny’s place in Indianapolis, figuring the $20 spent in gas round trip was worth it, not just to get “dibs” on any of his current material, but more importantly to be able to look through things at leisure. Whenever a show opens, there’s a feeding frenzy at his booth and it always feels like there’s pressure to zoom through everything quickly to find the best stuff… I hate the stress of it all. He also had some items that he had set aside for me, which were quite welcome.

There were a couple of world revenue document box lots that would have been a whole lot of fun to go through, but would have put just too large a crimp in the budget, since they weren’t directly in my wheelhouse. The price wasn’t unreasonable for the quantity, but I couldn’t justify it.

After looking over the stockbook, I decided to buy it, along with a couple of the better individual items that he had pulled out of it.

Overall the trip was well worth it, and now I can dash to someone else’s booth when Indypex opens.

The items I picked up on this trip:

Not shown, a box of Ecuadoran small-format receipts and other documents chock full of revenue stamps, a wonderful mix of material.

Some non-revenue material…

A nice solo J68 half-cent due cover:

A very interesting teacher’s certificate dated 1858, that appears to then have done dual duty as a receipt in 1863, with a lovely 3c + 2c makeup of 5c tax.

An interesting broker’s call-buying privilege card. I have another from this same company, but unlike that one, this has a second stamp on the reverse. Was the tax owed based upon the number of shares, the dollar amount, or something else?

The other similar card I have:

A sachet envelope with somewhat mangled front, but nice on the reverse in that you have the adhesive label in full color and battleship proprietary with matching cancel.

This one is a bit of a head-scratcher, and it’s a shame it’s not the complete document: a fragment of a document with a 30-cent postage due stamp making up $2.75 in tax. The crude manuscript cancel is in the same hand as that of the revenue stamps, and the reddish scuffs tying the stamp are the same, so there’s no reason in my opinion, to think this is manufactured.

An in-period improper use of two proprietary stamps on a 1921 RPO cover.

Another in-period improper use cover from 1917, this one caught and held for postage.

Two items from Denny’s stockbook that he had pulled for inventory that I throught were lovely:

First, a corner block of 4 of R173, mint full gum with reversed margin marking and initials.

Next, an item that while not without its faults, may be far more scarce than initially appears… a mint full gum block of 4 of R187. The top left stamp has a fault at lower left and there are perf separations at right center, subsequently stabilized.

Scott lists, but does not value (dash for price) a block of 4 of this stamp. The Curtis census lists 3 blocks of 4 as the largest known multiple, but all are used… no mint recorded. Granted, Dan Curtis’s focus was on the earlier revenue material, so not as much effort or emphasis may have been made in obtaining information about these issues.

Has anyone ever seen another mint block of R187? Neither Stamp Auction Network nor the PF archive show any examples.

And lastly a wonderful document, even if not complete. An August 1863 promissory note with signature panel redacted (not uncommon) with a strip of 4 of R9b paying the correct 8 cents tax, but the more scarce imperforate vertical orientation of the part perf.