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Hi,

here is a block of nine stamps,, 4 double lined watermark, fiscally used, perfs 9 1/2, dated 16/02/1866 On the back there is a kind of Hand stamp or embossed stamp, written for a part " commercial" I do not understand the significence of this Hand stamp.
Is it a from a private company?

have you see that before?
Other example?

Thanks for your help.

laurent

Hi Laurent,
Yes, its a private handstamp from some business, such as an insurance company or bank.
I see the word "Commercial" which could be "The Commercial Bank of Tasmania" which was a Tasmanian bank in business in the 19th Century and founded in 1829.
As the total is 3/- its possible the original document was a Bill of Exchange or Promissory note which would explain the Bank handstamp. Only a guess. Its not possible to be 100% certain

The 1863 Act required a duty (tax) to be paid to the Colonial Treasury on many commercial transactions such as Legal agreements, contacts, Bills of Exchange and promissory notes and insurance policies.
This duty could be paid either by postage stamps or duty stamps ( the George and Dragon series). The stamps had to be attached to the document and were often removed by collectors when the document was destroyed. Chalons were commonly used in the 1860s to pay stamp duty.
The date had to be written across each stamp to cancel it.
Sometimes the company would also apply its private handstamp to the document as has happened here.
Its not common to see the imprint of the privater handstamp but it does happen.
Whatever it is, its a very unusual use of a very large block of 4d Chalons. Nice item

Pete

Many thanks Pete
Always amazed by your knowledge.
One more question. What was the goal for the company to use this handstamp?
Thanks again

Laurent

The use of private handstamps by Banks was to officially endorse a deposit into the bank amongst other things.

Some of the most common forms of documents subject to Stamp Duty in the 1860s and beyond were Promissory Notes and Bills of Exchange.
These both involved a creditor and a debtor. A sum of money was agreed to be paid from one to the other and often it would be deposited in a bank. The bank would then sign on the note that the money had been deposited, and often apply its official handstamp .
3/- is a multiple of 6d, which was the base rate of duty on Promissory notes and Bills of Exchange and increased in multiples of 6d as the amount on the document increased. This suggests the document may have been one of these. I cant quite figure how such a large block would fit on the usual Note or Bill but maybe it was fixed to the back of the document. This might perhaps explain why the impression is seen on the back of the block of stamps . We cant be sure .

As it happens, history of Tasmanian stamp duty is something I have been collecting for some time and I hope to publish some research in the next Courier.
Pete

A couple of images of a Promissory note with a Commercial Bank handstamp, though not the one on the 4d block, above.