The No Fee Fish and Game Stamps of California
“VETERANS WIFE”
A fifth overprint is known to have been applied to the 1958 stamps: “VETERANS WIFE” is in one line of capital letters measuring 3 mm in height. The length of the overprint is 29 mm and the type style used is identical to the disabled veteran No Fee overprints (see Figure 17).
Figure 17. At least one pane of 1958 stamps was overprinted for issue to veteran’s wives.
No mention of the veteran’s wife overprint is made in the Handbook of Fish and Game Stamps. Previous to researching this article the author had assumed it to be a No Fee overprint. However, Assembly Bill 616 did not provide for sport fishing licenses and stamps to be issued to veteran’s wives free of charge.
Although not mentioned in any section of the code pertaining to sport fishing licenses, veteran’s wives were included in a section pertaining to hunting licenses. Section 427, subsection (e), read: “A hunting license, granting the privilege to take game birds and mammals, shall be issued to the wife of any veteran, as defined in sections 800 or 980 of the Military and Veterans Code, upon payment of the same fee as provided by subsection (a), even though she be an alien.”
Sections 800 and 980 of the Military and Veterans Code simply define a “veteran” and make no mention of veteran’s wives. Subsection (a) refers to resident citizens over 16 years of age and specifies that they pay a $3 fee for a hunting license. Section 427 was amended by Assembly Bill 616, entitling the wife of any veteran to a hunting license upon payment of the newly increased resident fee of $4. This still represented a substantial savings over either the non-resident fee of $25 or the alien fee of $50.
The DFG Progress Report for February of 1959 states that three hunting licenses were issued to veteran’s wives for the 1958-59 season, down from eight for 1956-57 and five for 1957-58. there is no record of sport fishing licenses being issued to veteran’s wives for any year. One pair of overprinted 1958 inland fishing stamps is known affixed to the lower half of a sport fishing license and is signed “Alis Means” (Bill Oliver Collection). By holding the license to a strong light, it can be clearly seen from the serial numbers that the pair of stamps are those missing from the top of the partial booklet pane shown in Figure 17.
It is, therefore, assumed that Alis Means, a non-resident or alien, successfully persuaded the DFG to issue her a sport fish license at the resident fee based on the precedent set by section 427, subsection (e) of the code. This would have resulted in a savings to her of seven dollars, as non-residents or aliens were normally charged charged a $10 fee.
The Veteran’s wife overprint would then be correctly classified as a “Reduced Fee” stamp. It is likely that only the one sport fishing license and pair of overprinted stamps was issued to a veteran’s wife during the same period of time based on the fact that the balance of the pane went unused and was saved for Bill Oliver by a friendly license clerk (Oliver, 1990).