[Archive]

Posted By: Jon Canfield

Here is one... Scott, in response to your question, most of the T-206 boxes, in general, had their tax stamps affixed to the back of the box as opposed to over the "slide" portion. This, of course, depends on the brand. However, even slide and shell boxes (such as Piedmont), usually have the 1909 date portion on the front panel as opposed to the slide section of the box. Subsequently, even a broken box would have a 1909 tax stamp showing, and there should be some overprint ink showing as well. Lastly, I want to point out that 1909 tax stamps are almost always found w/o overprinting. They are the "best" packs to authenticate. In 1910, the tax stamps were again updated and the 1910 stamp was used. Very few boxes 1909 were crossed over in later years and overprinted. On the other hand, a lot of 1903 tax stamped boxes can be found with '07 and '09 overprints, and 1910 tax stamps can be found overprinted all the way to 1919.