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Small Persian rug, $200

  • Description

    The highest values in the second issue of revenue stamps are 200-dollar (left) and the 500-dollar (right) stamps and are commonly referred to by collectors as the Small and Large Persian rug revenue stamps respectively, which are considered by many to be among the most colorful and elaborately engraved stamps in all of philately. Both the 200 and 500-dollar stamps were printed in very limited quantities. The 200-dollar small Persian Rug had a printing of 446 copies, with approximately 125 known surviving examples. The stamps were printed one to a 'sheet', with margins on all four sides with inscriptions on the two side margins. The only surviving full sheet of the small Persian rug, was used to pay tax duties on the will of Erastus Corning, Sr. in 1872. The 500-dollar large Persian rug is indeed larger, measuring 2+1⁄8 by 4 inches with only 204 stamps of this denomination ever issued. Because of their relatively large sizes and the subsequent large number of perforations on each stamp, and the fact that they were used on documents which were typically folded across the stamps, most examples exist with some sort of flaw(s) about the stamp paper. Printed by the Carpenter Printing company of Philadelphia, a 5,000-dollar design was also proposed and a trial color essay was printed, but it was never issued for revenue use so there only exist

  • Details
    Category: Revenue Stamp