The No Fee Fish and Game Stamps of California
Pheasant Stamps
The final series of stamps to be overprinted “No Fee” was required for pheasant hunting starting with the 1970-71 season. In 1957 the DFG began to sell pheasant tags to raise additional revenue. There was a line printed on the hunting license validating stamps for the pheasant tag number to be written in (see Figures 47a and b).
Figure 47a. California generic hunting license with resident validating stamp affixed. Pheasant tag number 168 has been filled in on the stamp.
Figure 47b. 1964 California Pheasant tag holder (top) and tag number 168 (bottom). The validating stamp number (301) has been filled in on the first line of the holder. Note the license and tags were issued to E. L. Vanderford.
Section 1201.3 of the code was amended by Assembly Bill 616 to read: “Any person who possesses a valid hunting license may, upon payment of two dollars ($2), procure the number of pheasant tags corresponding to the number of pheasants that may be legally taken by one person during the then current license year” (Statutes of California, 1957 Regular Session).
Starting with the 1970-71 pheasant season, the sets of tags were replaced by stamps. Each stamp conveyed the right to shoot ten pheasants (Vanderford, 1973 and 1993). Hunters intending to shoot pheasants were required to purchase both a hunting license validating stamp and a pheasant stamp (see Figure 48).
The 1970-71 pheasant stamp was designed by Paul Johnson and featured a pheasant in flight. The stamps were printed in blue ink on yellow paper. They were die cut, mounted on a protective backing and issued in fold-out booklets containing ten stamps (see Figure 48).
Figure 48. Centennial license issued to E.L. Vanderford with 1970-71 validating and pheasant stamps affixed.
The 1970-71 pheasant stamp was designed by Paul Johnson and featured a pheasant in flight. The stamps were printed in blue ink on yellow paper. They were die cut, mounted on a protective backing and issued in fold-out booklets containing ten stamps (see Figure 49).
Figure 48. 1970-71 unexploded booklet (left) and page of ten stamps from inside a separate booklet (right). Note moderate gum migration on stamps with original paper backing.
The same design was used through 1974-75, when pheasant stamps were discontinued. 1971-72 through 1974-75 stamps were die cut and issued in booklet panes of five (1 x 5) with a tab at the top (see Figure 50). Two panes were stapled to a book. All pheasant stamps measure approximately 45 X 25 mm. For descriptive information on pheasant stamps from specific years, see Table VI.
For each year of issue, pheasant stamps were overprinted for disabled veterans. Section 3036 of the 1971-72 code read: “A veteran, having 70 percent or greater service-connected disability…is entitled to receive, free of charge…a pheasant stamp…. Proof of such disability shall be required and shall be by certification from the Veterans Administration or, if the veteran is over 55 years of age, by proof that he was issued a license under this section in the previous year.
E. L. Vanderford recalls that once every season DFG personnel would take disabled veterans on pheasant hunts near Fairfield, California. The veterans would be driven through fields in jeeps and were allowed to shoot pheasants from the vehicles. Normally shooting from vehicles was illegal.
According to Vanderford, pheasant hunting steadily declined in the 1970s. This was due in large part to farming practices which had a destructive effect on the pheasant habitat and ultimately led to the stamps being discontinued.
No Fee overprint Types II and III which were used on the hunting license validating stamps, were also used on the pheasant stamps (see Figure 49). All overprints that have been recorded on the pheasant stamps are in red ink (see Table VI).
Figure 49. No Fee overprint types II and III that were used on the hunting license validating stamps, were also applied to the pheasant stamps.
It was not possible to obtain the numbers issued for No Fee pheasant stamps, How ever, the DFG memo previously cited for the No Fee hunting license validating stamps provides a point of reference. It indicates that 121 sets of pheasant tags were issued to disabled veterans in 1969, down one from 122 in 1968. Since stamps replaced the tags the following year, the number of overprinted stamps issued to disabled veterans may have been approximately 100-150 per year.
Unused copies of No Fee pheasant stamps from 1971-72 and 1974-75 are known to exist. As with the No Fee hunting license validating stamps, they were given to Vanderford by Lawrence O’Leary (see Figure 32)
Figure 50. Pane of 1974-75 Pheasant stamps with Type III overprint.