State of New York Stock Transfer Tax Stamps

267 varieties of the State of New York Stock Transfer Tax stamp

(Please note for 2008: Yes, the page takes longer to load now.
All images have been updated with higher resolution versions for crisper, cleaner, sharper looking stamps
with more detail than before. Thus, the file size of the entire site is much larger than it was before.)

Use this NAVIGATION BAR to move throughout this page - (Intro) | 1905 (1) | 1905 (2) | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1914 (1) | 1914 (2) | 1914 (3) | 1915 | 1916 (1) | 1916 (2) | 1922 | 1929 | 1930 | 1932 | 1940 | 1943 | 1943 (2) | 1943 (3) | 1975 Bond
- Different Styles of Stamped and Punched cancellations -
- CLICK HERE FOR THE SLOWER BANDWIDTH "DIAL-UP" VERSION -

Not all stamps were used for postage. These "revenue" tax stamps were used to pay tax imposed by New York due to the Stock Transfer Stamp Tax of 1905 which taxed the sales of corporate stocks and certificates. This threatened the movement of the Wall Street financial center over to New Jersey, but that never materialized (see image below). This tax lasted until 1981 although the use of the actual stamps ended much earlier. These stamps are considered "State Revenues" so you won't find them listed in a standard Scott Catalog. These were issued by New York State, not by the federal government.

a May 5th, 1906 NY stock purchase memorandum - paid under protest

Most of the main varieties are displayed here. (There are many more sub-varieties.) Some of the differences: 19 denominations, 3 design styles (with more variations than you can imagine), 5 styles of "overprint" ink (in multiple colors), and at least 6 perforation varieties.

This is an ongoing project so there will be constant changes to this page as it evolves. I would like to publicly thank Ken Pruess whose help was invaluable in the making and refining of this page. Make sure to check back again later - Thanks for stopping by!

If any of the many images do not load, Right-Click on image and choose Show Picture to force it to load

- NAVIGATION BAR - (Intro) | 1905 (1) | 1905 (2) | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1914 (1) | 1914 (2) | 1914 (3) | 1915 | 1916 (1) | 1916 (2) | 1922 | 1929 | 1930 | 1932 | 1940 | 1943 | 1943 (2) | 1943 (3) | 1975 Bond

1905 - no overprint - on smooth hard white paper - (rouletted 12)
red brown brown green light green orange light orange brown - type I corners deep brown - type I corners detail of Type I and Type II corners brown - type II corners deep ultramarine dim ultramarine blue carmine carmine - with fine shade line inside the "2" numeral

1905 - no overprint - on yellow rough porous paper - (rouletted 12)
Thanks to Ken Pruess for providing this image. carmine - grid background behind "2" carmine - solid background behind "2"

1906 - overprint of large hollow numeral of value - (perf. 12)
greenish gray blue gray pair - imperforate horizontally ultramarine - type I numeral "1" (curvy design) detail of numeral "1" Type I and Type II ultramarine - type II numeral "1" design (straighter lines) gray blue - type II numeral "1" design (straighter lines) rose orange red

Over the course of about 40+ years, these revenue tax stamps have changed form many times. Sometime the changes were very obvious to anyone, but other times they were minor enough to need a magnifying glass to see the slight variation. I hope this page is interesting for you and maybe even helps you narrow down or identify several of these state revenue stamps in your own collection. - Many of them are quite common, but a few are much harder to come by.

1907 - new design - overprint of large hollow numeral of value - Watermarked paper used: Watermarked paper of 1907 - 1915

(perf. 12) - Diamond shellac water soluble overprint
ultramarine pale ultramarine 20 dollars - olive with blue overprint - "ST38"

a 1907 NY stock purchase memorandum with both 1906 and 1907 tax stamps - Thanks to Roger Libot for providing this image.

1908 - overprint of numeral of value in checkered pattern of 8 (or 5) - (perf. 12) - Clear, vertical wavy line overprint: "digitally enhanced" EXAMPLE of the clear overprint
orange brown olive brown with double overprint - Thanks to Ken Pruess for providing this image. brown w/ green overprint dark brown w/ green overprint lilac purple ultramarine blue milky blue pale gray blue gray blue w/ violet overprint greenish black black greenish black with green overprint - Thanks to Ken Pruess for providing this image. yellow olive green olive yellow olive with red overprint yellow olive - violet overprint orange
Notice how these 50 cent denominations are
the only overprint designs in any of the series to use
the ¢ symbol. I have no idea why that is.

orange with green overprint orange with violet overprint rose red rose w/ blue overprint red w/ green overprint blue green yellow green yellow green with green overprint Thanks to Ken Pruess for providing this image.

The stamps shown on this page are in no way the only color varieties available. While some issues (usually the later ones / post-1930) have primarily one color type, there are multiple color variations for many of the early issues. Overprint colors can vary as well.

1914 - overprint numeral of value inside frame - both upper corners hollow (without solid dot) - (perf. 12)
olive brown dark red brown

1914 - overprint numeral of value inside frame - upper left corner has solid dot added - (perf. 12)
red lilac with green overprint red lilac with violet overprint

1914 - overprint numeral of value inside frame - both upper corners have solid dot added - (perf. 12)

What are these things? These are referred to as "Memorandums" although, as you can see, they go by many different names on the actual document. (Yes, Memorandums or Memoranda are the correct plural terms, not "memorandi".)

While most of the time these revenue stamps are found loose, sometimes it can be more interesting (and certainly more challenging) to collect them still attached to these Memorandums as they were originally used.

1915 - same as above but on heavy white paper - (perf. 12)
Thanks to Ken Pruess for providing this image.

This link will show you a close-up of the paper types used from 1907-1914 and the heavy 1915 type

New watermarked paper was used beginning in 1916 with the repeating phrase "State of New York Stock Transfer Tax Stamp" which can be either forwards, reverse, or inverted.

The watermark begins at a different spot on each line, but the entire pattern repeats every five lines.
digitally enhanced photo of watermark: "State of New York Stock Transfer Tax Stamp"

The entire length of the full phrase is about 19.5 cm (or 7.7 inches) in a font which is about 6mm (or .25 inch) tall.
another enhanced photo of the NYSTT watermark: "State of New York Stock Transfer Tax Stamp"

1916 - new design - overprint of numeral of value in checkered pattern of 5 - (perf. 12x11)
olive olive brown orange yellow olive yellow close-up of the original 1916 design of the "1" Dollar - wide top serif and shade lines that don't fade at the base orange red rose carmine pale red orange light tan deep red with green overprint grey orange brown deep violet brown greyish purple

1916 - same new design as above - overprint of numeral of value in checkered pattern of 5 - (perf. 11)
grey brown orange brown orange orange yellow tan orange red orange olive green green pale yellow green black blue black mostly horizontal lines on inner shield border - see closeup closeup of 20c with mostly horizontal lines on inner shield border yellow orange close-up of the original 1916 design of the "1" Dollar - wide top serif and shade lines that don't fade at the base carmine deep red w/ green overprint bright red w/ green overprint violet brown deep violet brown orange brown dark brown

1922 - same as above series but the ends of the rectangle panels below "CENTS" have heavy, thicker ends - (perf. 11) From 1922 on, the panels below CENTS have thicker vertical lines
brown pale orange brown deep brown orange reddish orange pale yellow green olive deep green black black - DOUBLE TRANSFER - see close-up <--- CLOSE UP OF DOUBLE TRANSFER of 112a type - notice the "shadow-like" double impression blue black yellow orange olive orange close-up of the redesigned 1922 "1" Dollar - narrow top, shade lines fade at base carmine claret red carmine - no overprint grey violet dark red violet puce orange brown deep brown close-up of the 1922-1940 re-designed "2" Dollar - deeper tip in elbow corner and base top shade line interrupted by curve
From this 1922 series on (until the completely re-designed 1943 series), these re-engraved versions of the "1" digit and the "2" digit were used on the 1 and 2 Dollar denominations.

A 1926 stock transfer certificate - containing both Federal tax stamps and State tax stamps

1929 - Only the "One Thousand Dollars" denomination was issued during this year
"One Thousand Dollars" with red serial number

This link will show you an attached group of 10 of these with sequential serial numbers

1930 - same as above series but additionally, the the inner frame line has an added heavy line - close-up of the added inner frame line
(perf. 11 - with a 4 cent perf. 12 exception)
orange orange - perf "12", not "11"

"PRINTING METHODS"
Here are some of the proofs used in the printing process for these stamps. (Proofs are used to inspect a printing plate for defects or for color selection.)
The two outer ones are overprint proofs.

These are what the printing plates looked like. These have been purposely defaced to prevent them from being used further (causing the dimples from the hammer strikes on the printing side).

From 1932 on, the overprint design changed from the earlier checkered pattern of 5 or 8 digits to a single numeral of value inside a large "C" (cents) or "D" (dollars) - except for the "100" Dollar denomination.

1932 - same design as above - overprint of numeral of value inside large "C" or "D" - (perf. 11)
w/ purple overprint

Margin markings found in the selvage area are always interesting to collect. Here are some date markings:

November 1920:

June 1930:

July 1930:

February 1932:

July 1941:

1940 - same as above - (perf. 12.5)
dark olive print extends over left "4" "100" overprint instead of "D"

"Quayle & Son" was the printer for the earlier series of NY Stock Transfer Tax stamps
Printing was done by "Quayle & Son" for 1905-1941

1943 - new design - ball added at base of shields, triple border line, 3 panels above "stock transfer tax" removed - same overprint - (perf. 12)
"100" overprint instead of "D"

"American Bank Note Company" was the printer for the later series of NY Stock Transfer Tax stamps
Printing was done by "American Banknote Company" for 1943 on

Same 1943 series as above as standard SPECIMEN
"100" overprint instead of "D"

Same 1943 series as above as Imperforate Specimens

1975 - same series as above with "B" Bond tax overprint

From the Roger Libot collection -

Roger Libot has been kind enough to take the time to scan and send me portions of his collection which he purchased from the original Hubbard collection. I found these items quite fascinating and hope you do too. Thank you, Roger, for sharing them with all of us!

This is an imperf pair of ST1 - not just an attached pair of them but an imperf pair fully attached in the middle:
Thanks to Roger Libot for providing this image.

This is a pair of ST7 with a margin marking below:
Thanks to Roger Libot for providing this image.

This is an ST29 and an ST39 both (strangely) with 1908 date marking in the margin:
Thanks to Roger Libot for providing this image.

This is a pair of ST34 with a margin marking below:
Thanks to Roger Libot for providing this image.

This is a pair of ST 36 with a margin marking below:
Thanks to Roger Libot for providing this image.

This is an attached "Mint" set of ST40 with margin inscription:
Thanks to Roger Libot for providing this image.

This is an attached "Mint" set of ST42 with margin inscription:
Thanks to Roger Libot for providing this image.

This is a block of ST63 with margin inscription:
Thanks to Roger Libot for providing this image.

This is a "Plate Proof" of American Bank Note Company's 1943 version of ST158:
Thanks to Roger Libot for providing this image.

Again - a huge THANK YOU to Roger Libot for providing all of us with these wonderful items!

Still want more? You can see all of the above listed revenue stamps on "Kaboodle" which is a collection sharing web site. The Kaboodle version contains more detail with higher resolution scans. It can be found here:

http://www.kaboodle.com/klange/state-of-new-york-stock-transfer-revenue-stamps.html?showAll=true

THEY ARE HERE!!! - I am now offering album pages for sale for this series - Read all about them here.

And a special treat for those of you who are diligent enough to have reached the bottom of the page - If you click here you can see what a full collection of more than 260 different New York Stock Transfer Tax stamps looks like. The images is a bit fuzzy to keep the file size reasonable because there's a screen-full and then some!

How to reach Kurt Lange - send me your thoughts, comments, suggestions, reactions, etc...

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NAVIGATION BAR - (Intro) | 1905 (1) | 1905 (2) | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1914 (1) | 1914 (2) | 1914 (3) | 1915 | 1916 (1) | 1916 (2) | 1922 | 1929 | 1930 | 1932 | 1940 | 1943 | 1943 (2) | 1943 (3) | 1975 Bond