For sale is an original 1898 DUKE COMPANY SIGNED BANK CHECK from the FIRST NATIONAL BANK of NEW YORK, Wellsville, NY. The check is made payable to Thomas Dahill in the sum of $5.62 and is dated August 9, 1898. The check includes a red two cent US Internal Revenue Tax Stamp. Duke company was a dealer in Hemlock, Lumber, and Timber. A great ephemera collectible.
In 1864, the Fourth National Bank of New York was organized to demonstrate the utility of the National Banking System and would banks existing under the State system to take out charters under the National Banking Act. The Fourth National Bank was founded by many of New York’s most eminent citizens. In 1914, the Mechanics and Metals National Bank purchased the Fourth National Bank. In 1926, after a number of mergers and acquisitions, the Mechanics and Metals National Bank consolidated with the Chase National Bank.
To pay for the civil war, the Revenue Act of 1862 created a tax on virtually every document along with proprietary items including matches, perfume, and medicine. Each of the taxable items required a Proprietary stamp with the denomination based on the article’s retail price. Failure to use a stamp on a document was punishable by a $50 fine and having the document declared invalid. Purchase of the Revenue stamps amounted to the prepayment of the applicable tax. After placing the tax stamp on a required document, the purchaser who used the stamp was required to cancel the stamp by writing the date and initialing the stamp. The majority of the taxable documents that spurred tax collections were bank checks.
