[Pat R]

Originally Posted by Archive

Posted By: J Hull

Jon Canfield had an excellent, thoughtful post in the REA Is Up thread which raised some questions about this lot. I thought rather than follow up in a thread that’s hopelessly offtrack, I’d start a new one.

I agree that this Piedmont pack probably isn’t all it is purported to be. I’ve been researching tobacco/cigarette taxes and regulation, starting from 1879 (the year of an enormous tax and tariff act). I’ve currently researched to 1915. Over all those years, Congress dictated, through their revenue acts, the number of cigarettes that could be sold in a package.

The 1879 act limits packages to either 10, 20, 50, or 100 cigarettes. According to my notes, this was the case until August of 1909, when a revenue law was passed that authorized packages to have 5, 8, 10, 15, 20, 50, or 100 cigarettes. This was the law through at least 1915. Basically, the point is no package containing 12 cigarettes could have been manufactured or sold over the production years of T206s. So far as my research has shown. Tax stamps for 12-packs weren’t authorized or printed over those years.

As Jon said, I'd like to see someone offer an opposing argument, but something doesn't seem right here.

Jamie


http://bid.robertedwardauctions.com/bidplace.aspx?itemid=10075

Originally Posted by Joe_G.

I'm not a T206 guy but have studied domestic cigarette taxation. If the stamp is original to the pack, then the pack was likely issued 1918 or later, no earlier than 1917.

12 count was legal on "Class A" cigarette packs . . .
- prior to May 1st 1879
- Nov. 2nd, 1917 to 1945
- 1955 to ?

This particular stamp is considered a "Type III" design which for the 12 count pack likely wasn't adopted until 1918 although still considered a "Series of 1917" tax stamp.

For reference . . .
Legal pack sizes in 1910 were 5, 8, 10, 15, 20, 50, and 100 and would remain unchanged until 1917.
Legal pack sizes in 1917 were 5, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 20, 24, 50, & 100 with some change in late 1917/1918 with 16 count eliminated and adding 40 and 80.

I much prefer the simplicity of 19th century cigarette packs where everything from May 1st 1879 on was 10, 20, 50, or 100 (no exceptions unless manufacturer broke the law).

The reason I asked if someone could post the section of the law that specifies the legal pack sizes is I haven't been able to find it and some information in the old thread referred to the act of August 5 1909 but that law didn't actually take effect until July 1 1910 and the distribution of the Armbruster card in the REA pack began before that date, we know this from the ledger pages in the old journal. The portion where the dates of the packing and shipping would be is missing on the PD350 page but they were distributed before the American Beauty's and Cycles.

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Also in both threads it is stated that the T206 cards were only packed with the 10 count packs but the ledger pages show that they were packed with 20's too for Sweet Caporal. Some of the other brands do say to pack with 10's but they don't specifically say to only pack with 10's and some other brands just say to pack with (name of brand) cigarettes. I can't tell what it says before in 10's pkgs in the second line.

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