National Currency Bureau
ca. mid-1860s
$295.00
Quite Scarce!
In the 1860s, the National Currency Bureau — the predecessor agency to the B.E.P. — created an experimental stamp backed with a percussion cap (a “bang cap” like those for toy cap guns). The concept was as simple as it was bizarre: cancel the stamp by hitting it with a mallet, exploding the cap. This example shows the aftermath, an example of a canceled stamp! Retains some of the original gum, tiny HR. A portion of the percussion cap is still affixed.