Westpex Retrospective
State and Local Stamps, Continued
Territory of Puerto Rico Hunting licenses with different revenue stamps used for validation. In 1916, Puerto Rico enacted a game law requiring hunters to purchase a license and affix a revenue stamp. The earliest recorded usages are from the 1950s and they utilized a $10.00 internal revenue stamp affixed to permits to carry a gun and hunt. These have long intrigued collectors for two reasons. First, the usage required the stamp to be torn in half with a portion affixed to the license and a portion affixed to record keeping copy. Second, these have historically been very difficult for collectors to acquire. For over thirty years only one example was recorded, until a second surfaced in the 1990s and was acquired by Jeannette Rudy. This exhibit includes the Rudy example and two more recent discoveries with stamp/permit combinations that were previously unrecorded (see Figure 55).
Figure 55. Puerto Rico hunting licenses and internal revenue stamps used for validation from three different years. Note that in each case a different Puerto Rico internal revenue stamp was used.
1973 Colorado North Central Goose. The Colorado North Central goose stamps were used for only one year, in a very small area of Colorado near Fort Collins. The stamp is quite long and although seven or eight examples have been recorded on license, most are badly creased or otherwise damaged. This has created a tremendous demand among advanced collectors for unused examples. Only two have been recorded. The stamp in this exhibit is the discovery copy, from the collection of pioneer revenue collector Ken Pruess (see Figure 56).
Figure 56. Unused 1973 North central Colorado Goose stamp.
1974 Maryland Migratory Waterfowl original proof sheet. Within the sub category of pictorial state waterfowl stamps, there exists numerous imperforate items that are ostensibly proofs when, in fact, they are nothing more than printer’s waste. Legitimate proofs are tightly controlled and very difficult for collectors to acquire. This proof sheet was given to myself by the License Section Supervisor of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in the early 1990s. I later traded it to the exhibitors so that it could be seen and enjoyed (see Figure 57).
Figure 57. The original 1974-75 Maryland Migratory Waterfowl stamp proof sheet.
1980 Delaware and 1981 Florida errors. Unfortunately, there are also many pictorial state waterfowl stamp ”errors” floating around the collector market that are nothing more than printer’s waste. Combined with a few states that sold non-required pictorial stamps to collectors in the 1980s and 1990s that were originally advertised as “required to hunt,” and the hobby took a serious blow to its credibility. There is no printer’s waste in this exhibit. Further, the exhibitor has carefully researched each pictorial issue and states on the exhibit pages when the stamps were not required to hunt. This is to his credit. The stamps that were not required are still a part of the story, in that they raised funds for waterfowl conservation purposes, and the decision was made to include some representative examples. Often their purpose in the exhibit is to help with context, as several states made their stamps required to hunt subsequent to those that were not. In these cases, the details are noted by the exhibitor.
Surprisingly, there are relatively few legitimate pictorial state errors. One sheet of ten of the 1980 Delaware waterfowl stamp has been recorded imperforate vertically. The plate number block from this sheet is included in this exhibit (see Figure 58). In this case, photocopies of the preceding and following serial numbered sheets (normal) are included behind the exhibit page.
Figure 58. The unique 1980-81 Delaware plate number block, imperforate vertically.
One sheet of 1981 Florida waterfowl stamps was printed with the red color missing, creating an outlandish greenish stamp (see Figure 59). The error sheet was in the middle of a quantity of 50 sheets ordered by a major U.S. stamp dealer. All sheets before and after were normal. I have personally seen the serial numbered sheets preceding and following the error sheet for verification purposes.
Figure 59. Normal (left) and error (right) on the 1981-82 Florida Waterfowl stamp.
1940 South Carolina Hunting License Button An entire hobby is devoted to collecting celluloid covered pin back buttons (sometimes referred to as badges). A subcategory of this hobby shares its collector base with a subcategory of revenue stamp collectors (and a fair number of coin collectors who seem to have some predisposed oval fixation). They are all avid collectors of fish and game license buttons. Licenses in the form of buttons are an important part of the license and stamp story. They were required to be worn on the hunter’s outer garment. Their immediate visibility made law enforcement more efficient. Once in widespread use, their use became uncommon after WW2. In fact, the majority of existing buttons at the time became a casualty of WW2 metal drives, thus explaining a relatively high difficulty of acquisition. Advanced collectors seek non-resident, alien and duplicate buttons. A picture of an animal or bird (referred to by longtime collectors as “Critter” buttons) increases the desirability and difficulty of acquisition.
The 1939 South Carolina button shown in this exhibit (see Figure 60), is the embodiment of a desirable license button. It is one of the Holy Grails of the button collector’s hobby and one of the very best waterfowl hunting licenses, of any kind, extant. It depicts ducks in flight, is overprinted “DUPLICATE” and has #1 printed over all of that. This means the holder of the first hunting license button issued in 1940 lost his button and applied for and received a replacement (at a reduced fee). That the button survived the WW2 metal drives and is in collector’s hands today, makes it all the more remarkable.
Figure 60. 1939-40 South Carolina State “DUPLICATE” button issued when license #1 was lost. All the hunting license buttons issued for the 1939-40 season are prized by collectors due to the canvasback duck motif.
1996 Hawaii Error. In 1996, Hawaii became the 50th state to issue a stamp that was either required to hunt waterfowl or raised funds for waterfowl conservation. For the conservation minded and philatelists who collect waterfowl stamps, this was a historic occasion. For the purposes of this exhibit, the issue brings to an end the fourth chapter and would otherwise be marked by an ordinary pictorial state duck stamp. By an incredible stroke of good fortune (for the exhibitor), one of the 1996 Hawaiian stamps was misaligned during the printing process and a legitimate major error resulted. The only example recorded and believed to be unique. In this case, both the preceding and following booklet type stamps (normal) are shown on the exhibit page (see Figure 61).
Figure 61. 1996-97 Hawaii Wildlife Conservation stamp. The center pane shows the error, while the preceding and following panes were printed normally.