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Recent Significant Acquisitions : 1999
1999 Significant Acquisitions
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First Adhesive Postage Stamp
The 1831 Greek 40-lepta charity tax stamp—the first adhesive stamp ever issued—is rarely found on cover.
Only four instances are recorded. The Museum now has one. It is a fragile folded letter with a Piraeus, June 17, 1848,
cancel and a handwritten rate of "40" to be collected from the recipient at Chalkis. The stamp is on the back flap.
Recent research led to speculation that it is really either a postage due stamp or a local issue.
Purchased at auction with non-federal funds.
1999.2013
Image (at left, top):
1848 folded letter from Piraeus to Athens, Greece
Image (at left, bottom):
Reverse side of the folded letter bearing the 1831 Greek 40-lepta stamp
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Boutwell Presentation Album
George S. Boutwell received this glorious album of proofs and essays of U. S. federal revenue
and private die proprietary stamps (ca 1862–ca 1874) from the Philadelphia printing firm of
Butler and Carpenter when he resigned as Secretary of the Treasury in 1873. As the first
United States Commissioner of Internal Revenue during the Lincoln administration (1862),
Boutwell sought bids from security printers for the design and production of revenue stamps
which generated tax dollars to help finance the Civil War.
The black leather-bound album with gilt embossing and central silver presentation plate
contains 21 double-sided pages of sink matted objects—50 blocks of four, 79 pairs and
252 singles of first, second and third general revenue and proprietary issues and private
die issues for match, perfumery and medicine companies.
Donor: W. Curtis Livingston
1999.2031
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