Excise Revenue

The Finance (New Duties) Act 1916, effective 15 May 1916, established a excise duty on “payments for admission to any entertainment” as a temporary war tax (it was finally repealed in 1960). The duty was paid by an adhesive stamp stuck on an entrance ticket. Stamps were usually cancelled by tearing the ticket & stamp in half, but some venues were reusing the stamp halves and so check letters were introduced in 1925.

Watermarks: Simple Cypher, Block Cypher, Block SO, Script SO

The stamps were initially printed by Harrison and Sons on the same Simple Cypher paper they were using for postage stamps. When the printing contract passed to Waterlow and Sons on 1 Jan 1924, the paper changed to Block Cypher and, when Waterlow’s contract expired on 31 Dec 1933, printing passed to HM Stationery Office using a Block SO paper. Circa 1950, the watermark changed to a Script SO. The duty was initially based on a scale as follows, with many modifications in the following years.

1916 Harrison and Sons

Ten stamps were registered in Apr 1916 for issue on 15 May 1916 (½d, 1d, 2d, 3d, 6d, 1/-, 2/-, 3/-, 4/-, 5/-). Three more stamps (4d, 9d, 1/6) were issued after the Finance Act 1917, effective 1 Oct 1917, added new duties. Two high values (8/-, 10/-) were added late in 1917, and a 1½d stamp was issued after the Finance Act 1919, effective 1 Oct 1919, introduced a 1½d duty on 4½d tickets (for a total of sixpence). The 1½d stamp was initially yellow, changing to bistre in 1923.

The four most used of these sixteen stamps (2d, 3d, 6d, 1/-) were issued in rolls in 1916, with a 1½d roll added in 1919. First printings were in sheets of 144 (24 rows of six). A new layout was adopted in 1921, with sheets of 120 (20 rows of six) for all values up to the one shilling. Hence, rolls were made from strips of six stamps. The 8/- and 10/- stamps were in sheets of 20 (4×5).

There were two dies. Die I was used in 1916 for the first ten stamps and has thicker values, as well as numerous smaller differences. Die I plates were numbered 1 to 22. Die II was used in 1917 onwards, with current numbers also starting at 1, causing some overlap. A Royal Mint report in 1926 suggests that Die I plates were “contractor’s plates prepared by an etching process, and not so satisfactory for stamp printing as nickel deposited ones”.

1924 Waterlow and Sons

The printing contract passed from Harrison to Waterlow on 1 Jan 1924, partially on the expectation that Waterlow was to print rolls by the continuous letterpress process established at Somerset House. Sheet stamps were to be printed on Wharfedale printing machines using the plates taken from Harrison. Continuous printed rolls required a new form of printing plate with two panes of 54 (6 rows of 9) for use on Grover’s reel printing machines. The watermark for continuous rolls could be at right angles to the vertical direction of the stamp (i.e. sideways). The number of rolls available increased to eight in 1926 with the addition of 4d, 9d, and 1/6 rolls.

The estimated annual requirements were given in reams of 500 sheets, and in rolls of 480 stamps:

* only ten of these values were printed on Block Cypher paper before the introduction of check letters.

1925 Check Letters

In an attempt to prevent fraudulent reuse of tickets, check letters were introduced in 1925 for stamps under 1/-; one pair of letters to the left of “Excise”, repeated to the right of the rightmost value. The letter “Q” and double letters, such as “AA” or “ZZ”, were not used, allowing for 600 combinations, the exact number needed for five sheets of 120 stamps. Thus, five sheets were lettered AB to EZ, FA to JZ, KA to OZ, PA to UZ, and VA to ZY.

Check letters were engraved onto the working plates by the Royal Mint, 22 plates in 1925, and 48 in 1926, for a total of 70 plates, i.e. two sets of five plates for each of the seven values then in use. A mix of Die I and Die II plates were used to print the 3d and 6d stamps.

The Finance (No. 2) Act 1931, effective 9 Nov 1931, expanded the scale of duties by adding a penny duty for each extra 5d, creating six new stamps: 2½d, 5d, 7d, 8d, 10d, and 11d. All six were available both as sheets of 120 and as rolls of 480. The ½d was issued at the same time (it had not been needed since 1924 rate changes).

The Royal Mint reported in 1931 that six master plates, 120 set, were made for these values, and a set of five working plates, each with check letters, were issued for each of the six master plates, 30 working plates total. Additionally, three ½d plates were made and, together with two ½d plates returned by the Post Office, were lettered to form a complete set of five.

There were now 22 different values available (14 with check letters: ½d to 11d, plus eight without: 1/- to 10/-), and 14 different rolls (1½d to 1/6).

1934 HMSO

Waterlow’s contract expired on 31 Dec 1933 and printing of excise revenue stamps was transferred to HM Stationery Office. HMSO continued to use flat printing plates on Wharfedale printing machines, printing the stamps in sheets on a Block SO paper, but did not use Grover’s reel printing machines, so no more continuous printings.

The 5d was changed from orange-brown to blue-green at this time, and the 6d was changed from vermilion to sage-green with the new colour registered on 30 Sept 1933 (Die I and Die II).

Rolls of 9d, 11d, and 1/6 stamps were no longer offered from 1936, then 8d and 10d rolls were dropped from 1937. No excise revenue stamps were offered in rolls after WWII, stamps were only available as sheets.

The Finance (No. 2) Act 1940, effective 6 Oct 1940, changed the first four duties to ½d, ¾d, 1d, 1¼d creating a demand for two new stamps: ¾d and 1¼d (three farthings & one penny farthing), although the 1¼d rate only lasted until 1942. Then the Finance Act 1942 and the Finance Act 1943 created demand for ten more stamps: 3½d, 4½d, 5½d, 6½d, 7½d, 8½d, 10½d, 1/1, 1/2, 1/4.

There were now 34 different values available.

1950 Script SO Watermark

The date of introduction of this watermark is not recorded, but it was around 1950. Stamps issued after this date were as follows, note the different position of the righthand check letters:

The Finance Act 1950 added a 1/1½d value, then the Finance Act 1951 added a 10¾d (ten pence three farthings) value, and the Finance Act 1952, added a ¼d (one farthing) value, for a total of 37 different values available.

The Finance Act 1954 added five new values: 9½d, 9¾d, 10¼d, 11½d, 1/0½d, bringing the total to 42 different values available. To avoid confusion with other values in similar colours, these were overprinted with a lozenge design. This image is computer generated as no issued examples are known; however, colour/overprint trials exist in yellow, orange, green, and pink (Andrew McClellan).

With the demise of the farthing (the Royal Mint stopped making them in 1956), all farthing stamps were withdrawn at the end of 1957 (¼d, ¾d, 9¾d, 10¼d, 10¾d). The 1¼d stamp had not been in use since 1942.

Entertainments duty was finally repealed on 9 Apr 1960.