Kansas

Marion County Duck Stamps

Marion County is located in central Kansas, with the county seat of Marion located approximately 43 miles northeast of Wichita. A recreational park, featuring a lake, was built 3 1/2 miles southeast of Marion in the late 1930s. These stamps were required to identify county residents intending to hunt waterfowl on the lake starting in 1941.

The 1941 stamps had "Water Fowl" broken into two words. For 1942, remainders from 1941 were overprinted "1942" and initialed by the Park and Lake Superintendent, Jerry Mullikin. In 1943, Marion County became the first government in the world to print true duck stamps. From 1943 through 1971 the wording on the stamps remained the same. On the 1972 and 1973 issues, the word "stamp" was replaced by "permit."

Through the years many different type styles and border designs were featured. Several errors in typesetting occurred over the years, resulting in constant varieties that are popular with collectors. The most famous of these occurred in 1969, when stamps from position eight had "DUCK" misspelled "DUSK".

All stamps were printed in booklet panes of ten (2x5) with a tab at the top. The panes were imperforate on all four sides. Some panes were perforated between the stamps and between the stamps and the tab, but most were rouletted. Rouletting varieties, including mixed gauges, exist for stamps printed in 1956, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1965 and 1970. In these cases the most common variety is given the main catalog listing. The listings for minor rouletting varieties are followed by a percentage indicating their frequency on the ten stamp panes. With a couple of exceptions, five panes were stapled together to form to a booklet. All stamps issued through 1968 featured shiny gum, with the exception of 1961 which had dry gum. After 1968, all stamps had dry gum.

Hunters were not required to sign the stamps. Therefore, values for used stamps are included in the unsigned column. Examples used with Marion County fishing stamps on combination hunting and fishing licenses sell for a large premium over the values stated below, which are for duck stamps used alone on hunting licenses. The Marion County stamps have the distinction of being the longest consecutively issued series of waterfowl stamps by any state or local government in the twentieth century. For more in-depth information, see The Fish and Game Stamps of Marion County, Kansas. For images of all stamps in this series see Marion County, Kansas Waterfowl Stamps.