China Red Revenue 'Small One Dollar'

A tax stamp pressed into postal service

In January 1896 a Qing government censor, Chen Pi, petitioned the Guangxu Emperor to introduce revenue stamps, the small adhesive labels used to show a tax had been paid. The proof went to Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector General of the Chinese Maritime Customs, for approval. Only part of the order was ever produced: a run of 3-cent stamps, engraved and printed in London by Waterlow & Sons and shipped to Shanghai, where they sat in the Customs Department's stores. They were printed in red, a color associated in Chinese tradition with luck and good fortune.

On March 20, 1896, the government approved a national postal service under the supervision of Customs. When the service opened in February 1897, the new Coiling Dragon postage stamps ordered from Japan had not arrived. Rather than wait, officials took the idle 3-cent revenue stamps and overprinted them with new values. The result, the Red Revenue surcharges, came in five denominations: 1 cent, 2 cents, 4 cents, $1 and $5.

The base stamp is a piece of fine security printing. Chinese-language sources describe the design as carrying only English wording, "CHINA REVENUE 3 CENTS," with no Chinese at all, printed in intaglio on a thick, unwatermarked white paper. Intaglio, in which the design is engraved into a metal plate and the paper is pressed into the inked recesses, gives the lines a slight raised feel that collectors prize.

Too small to read

The $1 value was the first to be surcharged. The overprint read, in Chinese, "Qing Dynasty postal service, one dollar," with the figure "1 dollar" in English. Postal officials complained that the Chinese characters were too small to make out, and work stopped after two panes of 25. A new surcharge with larger characters replaced it. The first version became known as the "Small One Dollar."

How many were made is not settled. Most accounts give two panes, or 50 stamps. A report by Juan Mancarini, a Spanish official in the Customs service, recorded only 40, and one Chinese reference says ten of the 50 were spoiled in surcharging. The rejected stamps were not destroyed. Some sources say they were quietly sold alongside the large-character version; others argue they were never sold over a post office counter at all, but official catalogs in China eventually listed them as a regular issue because genuinely used examples exist.

The specialist Huang Guangcheng numbered every surviving example and published a census book in 1976. The accepted count today is 32: a single block of four, a single horizontal pair, and singles, of which only one is used. That figure has been repeated by auctioneers selling the stamp, who describe it as China's rarest regularly issued stamp.

Specialists distinguish types by where the surcharge sits on the stamp. One American auction description in 2022 identified type A, with the "1 Dollar" partly covering the word "Revenue," and said types A and B came from one surcharge plate of 25 and type C from the other. Chinese references also record plate varieties, including a single stamp missing the period after "dollar."

The block of four: "the rarest Chinese stamp in the Eastern Hemisphere"

The most celebrated survivor is a block of four kept by R. A. de Villard, a foreign employee of the Customs service who, by the English-language account, took it directly from the office where he worked. Chinese sources describe him as a draftsman in the Customs printing office who supervised the surcharging. He never mentioned it. After his death the block stayed with his widow.

In 1924 the Shanghai dealer R. E. Scatchard told the collector Chow Kin Kok, known in Chinese as Zhou Jinjue, about it. The widow at first refused to sell. After about three years Chow bought it in 1927. Sources give the price as CN$3,500 or as 2,500 taels of silver. Owning it earned Chow the title of China's "stamp king." When he failed to buy the full pane of the Large Dragon stamp owned by the American collector James Starr, he took to calling his block "the rarest Chinese stamp in the Eastern Hemisphere," and Starr's pane the rarest in the Western.

In 1947, as his family's fortunes declined, Chow sold the block to the Shanghai collector Allan Gokson. One source gives the price as US$20,000; Chinese accounts give 330 taels of gold, about US$21,000. Gokson moved to San Francisco in 1948 and later sold much of his collection, but not the block. Before he died he asked his wife never to sell it to a foreign buyer or put it up at auction.

In February 1982, through Gokson's son-in-law, the block went to the Hong Kong banker and collector Lam Man Yin for US$280,000 (some Chinese accounts say US$300,000). That year it was shown in Taipei at the National Museum of History, and Lam later displayed it in Beijing, including at the China 1999 world stamp exhibition, beside the Large Dragon pane he had bought when Starr's collection was sold in 1991.

Lam then sold both pieces to the Shanghai property developer Ding Jingsong. The English-language account says the sale was reported in 2009 at 120 million yuan, or US$18.8 million, for the pair of items; Chinese accounts say 2010, after three years of negotiation, at 130 million yuan. Ding is reported to have made the same promise the Gokson family had demanded: not to sell to a foreigner and not to auction it. He showed both pieces at the Asian stamp exhibition in Wuxi in 2011.

A broken block, a lost pair and a museum copy

There was once a second block of four. Chinese sources say the American collector H. Ackerman owned a block from which one stamp had been removed, leaving three. The dealer Eugene Klein later reunited it with another single and, on July 19, 1935, cabled Chow from Philadelphia offering the rebuilt block for US$3,000. Chow already had a block and declined. Klein then split it again into a pair and a single. The pair went in 1936 to the Chicago collector Saul Newbury and was sold at auction in New York on February 6, 1962, against a US$4,000 estimate, to Dr. James K. Senior for US$2,700. By the time Senior's collection was sold in Switzerland in 1971, the pair had been divided once more, and the left-hand stamp has not been traced since.

The surviving horizontal pair has its own line of owners. Adolphus Diercking, a British employee of Customs, acquired it after the 1897 issue along with two singles. It failed to sell when his collection was offered in London in November 1956, passed privately to Sir Percival David, and then to Philippine Chinese collectors: Huang Tianyong, bought at the 1969 sale of David's collection, and Chuang Shun Cheng. Chuang's Red Revenue collection was sold at auction in New York in 2001. One Chinese account says the pair alone brought US$500,000; another gives US$5.5 million. The sources do not agree, so neither figure is used here.

The only used example bears a bagua (eight-trigram) postmark. It, too, traces back to de Villard, passed through a series of Shanghai and Tianjin collectors, and was bought in July 1944 by Ma Ren-Chuen, who donated it in 1956 to China's national postal museum. That same year another specialist, Wang Jize, donated an unused example to the same museum.

At auction

Singles appear only a few times a decade. Chinese accounts record a mint example selling in London in September 1991 for £132,000, one in Beijing in 1996 for 1.8 million yuan, and one in China in 2003 for 2.2 million yuan, a record at the time. In September 2009 a single brought about HK$2.59 million in Hong Kong, and in September 2010 another brought HK$3.91 million, well over its HK$2.5 to 3 million estimate.

In the summer of 2013, a single sold at auction in Hong Kong for HK$6.9 million, reported as US$889,765, against a published estimate of HK$6.5 million to HK$8 million. Reports of a Beijing sale the same spring differ: the English-language summary gives 7.22 million yuan, while Chinese sources give 5.773 million yuan.

In November 2022 an unused type A example was offered at auction in Danbury, Connecticut, with an estimate of HK$4 million to HK$5 million. A standard American specialized catalog then valued a sound, very fine unused example at $900,000, in italics to show that it trades too rarely for a firm figure.

The numbers

Issue date

1897; the postal service opened in February 1897 and the small-character $1 was the first surcharge made

Quantity surcharged

50 (two panes of 25) by most accounts; 40 in a contemporary Customs report

Quantity known

32: one block of four, one horizontal pair, singles; one used

Base stamp printing

Intaglio, Waterlow & Sons, London; sheets of 100 (10 by 10), cut into panes of 25 for surcharging

Paper

Thick white paper, no watermark

Perforation

Gauge 12 to 16, including compound perforations, on the base stamps

Size

Design about 18.5 by 22.5 mm; stamp about 21 by 25 mm

Timeline

1. Jan 1896

   Censor Chen Pi petitions the Guangxu Emperor to issue revenue stamps; Sir Robert Hart reviews the proof.

2. Mar 20, 1896

   The Qing government approves a national postal service under Customs supervision.

3. Feb 1897

   The postal service opens. With the Coiling Dragon stamps from Japan delayed, stored 3-cent revenue stamps are surcharged for postal use.

4. 1897

   The $1 surcharge in small characters is made first; after complaints that it is unreadable, a larger version replaces it.

5. 1924

   Collector Chow Kin Kok learns from Shanghai dealer R. E. Scatchard that de Villard's widow holds a block of four.

6. 1927

   Chow buys the block after about three years of approaches.

7. Jul 19, 1935

   A Philadelphia dealer cables Chow offering a second, rebuilt block of four for US$3,000; Chow declines.

8. Jul 1944

   Ma Ren-Chuen buys the only known used example.

9. 1947

   Chow sells the block to Allan Gokson, who moves to San Francisco the next year.

10. 1956

    Ma donates the used example to China's national postal museum. In November, the Diercking pair fails to sell at auction in London.

11. Feb 6, 1962

    A horizontal pair from the broken second block sells at auction in New York for US$2,700.

12. 1976

    Huang Guangcheng publishes his illustrated census of every recorded Small One Dollar.

13. Feb 1982

    The block of four is sold by the Gokson family to Hong Kong collector Lam Man Yin.

14. Sep 1991

    A mint single sells at auction in London for £132,000.

15. 2001

    The Chuang Shun Cheng Red Revenue collection, including the horizontal pair, is sold at auction in New York.

16. 2009

    Ding Jingsong reportedly buys the block of four with a Large Dragon pane for 120 million yuan (other accounts: 2010, 130 million yuan).

17. Sep 2010

    A single sells in Hong Kong for HK$3.91 million.

18. 2011

    The block of four is exhibited at the Asian stamp exhibition in Wuxi.

19. 2013

    A single sells at auction in Hong Kong for HK$6.9 million, about US$889,765.

20. Nov 2022

    An unused example is offered at auction in Danbury, Connecticut, estimated at HK$4 million to HK$5 million.

The world in 1897

• Apr 19, 1897

  The first Boston Marathon is run, with fifteen men competing.

• May 26, 1897

  Bram Stoker's Dracula is published in London.

• Jun 22, 1897

  The British Empire celebrates Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, marking 60 years on the throne.

• Jul 11, 1897

  S. A. Andrée's balloon expedition sets off to fly over the Arctic; the whole team dies within months.

• Jul 17, 1897

  The Klondike Gold Rush begins as the first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle.

• Oct 12, 1897

  The Korean Empire is proclaimed, ending the Joseon dynasty after more than 500 years.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, China Red Revenue 'Small One Dollar' is number 17 of 100 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 82 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (16 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The 3-cent stamp underneath the surcharge was never meant for mail: it was a tax stamp with only English wording on it.
• In 1935 Chow Kin Kok turned down a cabled offer of a second block of four for US$3,000 because he already owned one. The dealer then cut it apart.
• Allan Gokson's dying wish was that the block of four never be sold to a foreigner or at auction, a promise later repeated by its current owner.
• Only one used Small One Dollar is known, and it has been in China's national postal museum since 1956.
• A California dealer's 1983 catalog cover called the Small One Dollar "the world's most expensive perforated stamp."
• The left-hand stamp of a pair split in the 1960s has been missing ever since.