Taxation

Compiled by a Harvard Ph.D. and a retired Air Force Colonel (both avid stamp collectors), this handbook contains lists of cancels used on wine tax stamps. A cancel is short for cancellation. The French word for it is obliteration. It is a postal marking applied to a stamp or envelope to deface it to show it has already been used. Because cancels come in all shapes and sizes, they have created a frenzied following among philatelists. Cancellations can actually increase or decrease the value of a stamp collection.

Signed by the author, this thin 40-paged booklet is full of tables, charts, and black and white images depicting wine stamps. Stamp collecting is frequently referred to as "the king of hobbies and the hobby of kings." Men and women worldwide strive to achieve a complete set of stamps. There is a stamp for every type of interest. This book is about wine revenue stamps. Wine revenue stamps were used to pay tax duties on proprietary goods such as alchohol and tobacco. These revenues helped fund the war effort during WWII.