The No Fee Fish and Game Stamps of California
Disabled Veterans Overprints
Veterans having a 70% or greater service-connected disability were entitled to hunting licenses free of charge. Previous to the new system, regular resident licenses were overprinted “DISABLED VETERAN / NO FEE” and issued to veterans (see Figure 40).
Figure 40. Previous to the self-issuing license system, resident hunting licenses were overprinted for issue to disabled veterans, free of charge.
With the switch to self issuing licenses, resident stamps were overprinted for disabled veterans (Vanderford, 1973). Once again, the 1962-63 stamps were prone to gum migration and many of the recorded examples have been washed in naphtha. The paper the stamps were printed on must have been very porous, as even used examples on license show some migration (see figures 41a and b).
Figure 41a. Clean unused washed example (left) and used example on license showing minimal gum migration.
Figure 41b. Unused pane of five with on original backing. All examples of the 1962-63 NO FEE stamp on original backing have serious gum migration to the face.
The No FEE stamps from 1964-65 have fared somewhat better over time. While migration can still be found on many stamps, there are examples both on and off license that are relatively clean (see Figures 42a and b).
Figure 42a. While gum migration can still be found on many 1964-65 stamps, some unwashed examples are relatively clean.
Figure 42b. This block of seven is the largest recorded multiple for any California NO FEE issue. Gum migration is minimal.
Four types of NO FEE overprints have been recorded on the hunting license validating stamps: Type I has “NO FEE” in one line of fancy capital letters measuring 3 mm in height. The length of the overprint is 14 mm. Type II has “NO FEE” in one line of plain capital letters and is identical to the overprint used to create the provisional No Fee sport Fishing license validating stamps in 1965. Type III has “DISABLED VETERANS / NO FEE” in two lines and is similar to the overprint used on the 1958 and 1959 No Fee inland fishing stamps. The only difference is that the earlier version is singular (see Figures 43 a and b).
Figure 43a. Type I (top) and Type II (bottom) NO FEE overprints used on hunting license validating stamps issued to disabled veterans.
Figure 43b. Type III NO FEE overprint used on hunting license validating stamps issued to disabled veterans.
Type I overprints were used from 1962-63 through 1966-67, Type II from 1965-66 through 1971-72 and Type III from 1971-72 through 1980-81 (see Figure 44 and Table V). Following the 1980-81 season the No Fee overprints were discontinued (Vanderford, 1985).
Figure 44. In 1971-72, both Type II (left) and III (right) overprints were used. An example has been recorded with two strikes of Type II (middle).
It is believed that the hunting license validating stamps were overprinted and issued to disabled veterans only at the DFG headquarters in Sacramento (Vanderford, 1993). The author has made every effort to obtain the quantities issued for these stamps with only minor success. Records pertaining to license revenue from the 1960s and 1970s were not saved. A single DFG memorandum was located at the state Archives which provides the number of hunting licenses to disabled veterans in 1968-69 and 1969-70. The numbers were 468 and 411, respectively. Each license would have had an overprinted resident stamp affixed to it.
Unused copies of hunting license validating stamps overprinted “No Fee” are known to exist for the years 1962-63, 1964-65, 1970-71, 1974-75 and 1975-76 (see Figures 45). E. L. Vanderford was given examples of the stamps by the license supervisor at the DFG headquarters, Lawrence O’Leary, with whom he had developed a friendship over many years (Vanderford, 1993).
Figure 45. Largest recorded multiple of the 1970-71 NO FEE Stamps. Formally in the Vanderford collection.
After this article was originally published, the same overprint used on the 1958 and 1959 fishing stamps was discovered on stamps from 1978-79 and 1979-80. Perhaps someone was cleaning out a drawer at DFG headquarters and discovered the old rubber stamp, which they then decided to use. For hunting license validating stamps, I have designated this overprint Type IV (see Figure 46). For a photo gallery featuring images of all recorded NO FEE overprints on hunting license validating stamps, click here.
Figure 46. The same overprint used on the 1958 and 1959 fishing stamps has been recorded on 1978-79 and 1979-80 Hunting License Validating stamps.