Posted By:
Jon CanfieldTed,
Sorry for my late response! Unfortunately I have this damn NY bar exam to take in July so I've been preoccupied as of late. Congrats on the pick up by the way. To echo a few things that have been said, dating is not an exact science. One poster mentioned that 1909's were used until the 1920s. I don't believe that to be competely accurate - 1916 at least. However, it is important to remember that the series of 1910 was used much more than the series of 1909. I've always found that very few 1909 tax stamps appear late (1914 and beyond) and the vast majority have an overprint on them. That being said, I do want to point out your pack also has "American Tobacco Company" on the bottom front in the script. As most know, the ATC was split up in 1911 and one of the 4 companies that spawned off was Liggett and Myers. A few later series Piedmont packs have been discovered with the Liggett and Myers name printed on the bottom - one a few years ago yielded a 350 series T-206 and came from Factory 25 in Va. (article can be found on t206museum.com). So, I'm sure like any company, they would use their inventory of boxes until they ran out, but considering that 1910-11 packs have been found in Liggett and Myers packaging, from the same factory as your pack and bearing a 1910 tax stamp - I seriously doubt the supply of ATC printed boxes ran much past 1911ish - certainly not into the late 1910's. I think it is important that the pack with the Liggett and Myers branding came from Factory 25 because the boxes have the factory numbers printed right on them - not on the tax stamps. Therefore,it is a posibility that factory 25 ran out of "old" packaging years before factory 42 did for exaple.) That all being said, the 1909 tax stamp with the early box design makes me believe your pack is much earlier - 1909-1910ish. Is this a guess? - Yes - but I think it's at least reasonable.