War Revenue Tax of 1898
Written by William Bradshaw
In January 1898 serious disorder broke out in Havana, Cuba. The U.S. consul general in the city asked that a U.S. warship be sent to the harbor to protect U.S. citizens and property. The second-class battleship Maine was ordered to Havana. On the night of February 15, an underwater explosion destroyed the Maine, while at anchor in Havana harbor and 266 officers and men were lost. Exactly how and why the explosion occurred could not be determined at the time, but many people in the United States believed the Spaniards were responsible. “Remember the Maine!” became the national battle cry overnight.
A U.S. Navy study published in 1976 suggested that spontaneous combustion in the ship's coalbunkers actually caused the explosion. Newspapers across the country wrote editorials and called for immediate action against Spain. In April of 1898, president McKinley declared war against Spain. Just like during the Civil War, Congress met and enacted a special law titled “U.S. Revenue War Bill of 1898,” which was signed into law by the President on June 13 1898 and was to become effective July 1, 1898. The bill ended June 30, 1902. To raise the tax money, the United States established a tax schedule and issued
a series of Documentary and Proprietary stamps to meet these needs similar to a Civil Wartax bill.
There were several different types of stamps issued to help pay for these taxes and the most common were the ones designed with a picture of the Battleship Maine, hence the popular name these stamps are referred to as Battleship Revenues.

There are two types of these: Documentary & Proprietary As the name implies, the documentary stamps were used on legal documents such as wills, bonds, bills of lading, train tickets, stock certificates, checks, promissary notes, certificates of deposits and many other forms of money transfer. The proprietary stamps were used on proprietary items based on the price of the individual item. The example shown on this page would have been used on a proprietary item with a retail price of 5-cents. There were several forms of cancelling these stamps. The documentary stamps were usually cancelled with the initials of the person signing the document.

They could also be handstamp cancelled or cancelled with a precancel of the company using the stamp. This was a popular method and has led to a specialty collecting area of collectors trying to obtain examples from all the different companies known to use these precancels. This unpopular tax was finally repealed in 1902, after almost 4 years of use.

Although these stamps were only used for a short time, their use has left a popular topic for philatelic collectors, and the hunt for documents using these stamps is fun and rewarding when an elusive piece becomes available.

For more information on the Battleship revenues go to: