ABOUT THE BINDER

Of course we know that in 1862 President Lincoln signed into law the war revenue act that resulted in the taxation of hundreds of items to help pay for the ongoing U.S. Civil War. In that same law was the precursor of The Internal Revenue Service, and a fellow named George S. Boutwell was appointed that year to become the nation's first Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Bidding determines that the firm of Butler and Carpenter of Philadelphia will produce the tax stamps to be used in the collection of revenue. They do, until 1875 when the contract is awarded to another company not in this story. In January of 1874 Joseph Carpenter, of the firm, presented Boutwell with a gold tooled binder.

In a letter with the binder he (Carpenter) states that it contains "proof specimens of every internal revenue adhesive stamp, public and private, engraved and printed from the date of your appointment as first Commissioner of Internal Revenue until after your resignation from the distinguished position of Secretary of the Treasury of the United States". Wolfeld told the author that he had come into possession of the binder after his father-in-law, a collector of various items, saw it coming to auction and advised he should bid on it. He did, and was successful. In 1998, he put it up for auction through Robert Siegel and it was sold for more than $60,000.00 to an unknown buyer. We knew it would be appreciated for its uniqueness. According to the Siegel catalog, the binder: Measured 22 by 15 inches and weighed almost 40 pounds, the album displays some 40 pages with approximately 400 proofs, including First, Second and Third Issue revenues, proprietary issues, and the private die issues for match and medicine companies. Many of the proofs are mounted in pairs and blocks, and every page is artfully arranged.
Recently, we were notified that it resides in The Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum. It was donated by W. Curtis Livingston in late 1999. The binder is available to researchers by appointment only.

WHY A $5,000.00 TAX PROOF, BUT NO TAX STAMP?

Well it's like this.... you see there were several transactions which historically took place and used thousands of dollars of tax stamps because they were so large a transaction, and accordingly had a high tax to pay. So the stamp was ordered designed, in anticipation of some very large tax payments. Legend has it that the Union Pacific Railroad had a mortgage coming up for which the stamp was being designed. This mortgage was going to be in the millions of dollars, an astounding amount in those pre-billion dollar days. Well, there is no proof (pardon the pun) that this was so, and certainly the usage never came about, and within a few years of the Proofs' approval, the tax ended in this form and so the stamp never was issued. And yet...there is no revenue collection which is not enormously enhanced by the addition of this most fabulous of proofs, all the more pure because it never went into common everyday production, but remained a pristine proof, a never-to-be-called jewel, of tax collection.

The Facts of the Matter

Designed by the Joseph R. Carpenter Company, the successor to the Butler Carpenter partnership, the $5,000 Revenue Proof of the 2nd Issue may well be unique in its overall special factors.

It has, a huge denomination (for its time), a very large size (70mm X 116.5mm), and a very limited number of existing copies (only 26 known). It also has the distinction, as described elsewhere in this article, of being officially approved, on June 24th 1872, yet never issued! The Boutwell copy is without imprints. Such imprints were present in 5 of the known copies, one of which is pictured below. These are Turner Type IV on the right of the proof (denoting use of the Earle & Steel Patent), and a modified Type VI imprint on the left (denoting the use of the Jones and Wilcox patents). This imprint differs from the Turner-listed imprint in that the two lines of type are centered one above the other. (See Turner, p.116).

The approved colors for this proof are red orange, dark green and black. According to my research, there are 7 which appear to have these colors, three in private hands. This newest addition to the previous 25 known copies, the Boutwell copy [Kingsley #5M-26], is said to be Orange, Slate and Black, so it does not add to the number of approved color proofs, entering instead the rolls of the trial color proofs of this item.