page_title: Revenue stamps of the United States
section_title: Overprints of 1898
hierarchical_section_title: Revenue stamps of the United States / Overprints of 1898
caption_attribution_description: English: Revenue stamp 1898
context_page_description: The first revenue stamps in the United States were used briefly during colonial times, among the most notable usage involved the Stamp Act. Long after independence, the first revenue stamps printed by the United States government were issued in the midst of the American Civil War, prompted by the urgent need to raise revenue to pay for the great costs it incurred. After the war ended however, revenue stamps and the taxes they represented still continued. Revenue stamps served to pay tax duties on items that came under two main categories, Proprietary and Documentary. Proprietary stamps paid tax duties on goods like alcohol and tobacco, and were also used for various services, while Documentary stamps paid duties on legal documents, mortgage deeds, stocks and a fair number of other legal dealings. Proprietary and Documentary stamps often bore these respective designations, while in several of the issues they shared the same designs, sometimes with minor variations. Beginning in 1862 the first revenue stamps were issued, and would continue to be used for another hundred years and more.
context_section_description: On June 13, 1898, Congress passed the War Revenue Act of 1898 to provide badly needed funding for the Spanish–American War. The law was to become effective on July 1, 1898, leaving only seventeen days to produce the badly needed revenue stamps. In anticipation of the law's passage the Bureau of Engraving and Printing had already commenced work on the dies and printing plates for the new revenue stamps, however they were unable to issue the stamps when the law went into effect. To meet the demand for revenue stamps, existing stocks of standard postage stamps (issued in 1895–1898) were overprinted with the initials I.R. (i.e., Internal Revenue) for use as revenue stamps. Initials are faint on issues with denominations of 8, 10 and 15-cents.
  
  Because of shortages of revenue stamps two shipping firms operating along the Erie Canal used the existing 1c Trans-Mississippi stamp issue which was approved by the Federal District Revenue Collector who commissioned the Purvis Printing Company to do the overprinting. They were ordered by L. H. Chapman of the Chapman Steamboat Line, which operated freight-carrying steamboats along the Erie Canal, making stops at Syracuse, Utica, Little Falls and Fort Plain. Only 250 stamps were produced. In addition 250 were printed reading "I.R./P.I.D. & Son", for P.I. Daprix & Son, which served different ports along the same waterway. In each case five panes of 50 stamps were overprinted with the initials I.R..
caption: Trans-Mississippi issue overprinted IR
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