Revenue and Fiscal Stamps
Also called duty stamps, tax stamps.
Period: 1850s onward
Genuine government issues that were never valid for postage, and a substantial collecting field in their own right. They turn up constantly on old documents and get mistaken for postage stamps.
What you are looking at
Stamps used to show payment of a tax or duty rather than postage, often larger than postal stamps and frequently with a written or punched cancel.
What to check
- Text naming the tax: 'documentary', 'stock transfer', 'inland revenue', 'consular', 'tobacco'.
- Manuscript cancels — a signature or a date written across the stamp — are typical and would be unusual on postage.
- Larger formats than contemporary postage stamps.
- Some countries used dual-purpose 'postage and revenue' stamps, which are valid for both.
- Still attached to a document is common, and the document is often worth more than the stamp.
What it is worth
Mostly modest, with active specialist markets in some countries. Do not soak them off documents — the document usually carries more of the value than the stamp does.
Confused with
Revenue stamps name a tax rather than a postal service, and carry manuscript rather than postal cancels.
Questions about this
How do you identify revenue and fiscal stamps?
Text naming the tax: 'documentary', 'stock transfer', 'inland revenue', 'consular', 'tobacco'. Manuscript cancels — a signature or a date written across the stamp — are typical and would be unusual on postage.
Are revenue and fiscal stamps valuable?
Mostly modest, with active specialist markets in some countries. Do not soak them off documents — the document usually carries more of the value than the stamp does.