Some uses of the Effets de Commerce revenues

1.  The classic or 'long' design
   (beginning in 1867)

 10c

(for bills of 100F-200F)
Internationale Bank Luxemburg
24 Jun 1875

Bill of exchange for 108 Reichsmarks, issued in Reims, France,

29 May 1875, to Monsieur Lambert, negotiant tanneur,
in Nieder-Wiltz.

2.  The second or 'short' design 

   (introduced in 1875)

 

 Proof

3.  The third design

 (introduced in 1928)

20c
(for bills of 100F-200F)
Banque Générale du Luxembourg
 13 Jul 1935

Bill of Exchange from Établ. Philippe Perre, Brussels,
dated 20 Apr 1935 for 185 Belgian francs,
drawn on the Banque de la Société Générale de Belgique – La Louvière,
payable to Monsieur Eug. Marx-Schmit, a negociant in Wiltz.

4.  The modern design 

(introduced in the 1950s)

500 F
(highest denomination of the 13-stamp set)
Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat 6 Nov 1985

Bill of Exchange
for 500,000 Flux
Issued 13 Jun 1984
(Échéance 30 Nov 1985)

Scarce WWII occupation tobacco bands

During the World War II occupation, tobacco bands were denominated in Reichmarks with ‘LUXEMBURG’ imprinted in the left banner.

‘6 Rm das kilogr.’

Interestingly, Luxembourg’s premier cigarette and smoking tobacco manufacturer imprinted its firm name on some of these labels.

‘8 Rm das kilogr.’

 

The company was founded in 1847 by Jean-Pierre Heintz, husband of Joséphine van Landewyck. He built the family’s first tobacco factory with a shop in the rue de la Porte Neuve, later settling in the Grand-Rue. 50 years later, his son Joseph Heintz established a state-of-the-art factory in Hollerich, on the outskirts of Luxembourg-Ville, next to the train station.Up until today, this venue remains the company’s headquarters.

As a non-smoker, I collect these tobacco-related revenues with trepidation--second-hand smoke kills!

The 1 FRANG documentary stamp error

In 1920, the old 50-centime documentary tax stamp (Timbre de Dimension) was surcharged to 1 FRANC.

1 FRANC

However, in the Luxembourgish language the French word franc is written as frang.  That’s why you often see old Luxembourg currency and coins denominated in frangs.  And that’s also why the typesetter for this surcharge presumably inadvertently spelled FRANC  with a final G -- FRANG -- instead of with a C  for at least one position of the surcharge setting.  Lacking multiples of the surcharged stamps, that’s all I can say.

1 FRANG

The error probably was corrected early in the surcharging process, as this is one of the scarcest Luxembourg revenue stamp errors.

Here’s an example of Luxembourg currency with the denomination shown as “Frang”:

1943 20-frang GD Charlotte bank note

 

ZWANZEG FRANG

Export Certificate Franked with 51 Belgium-Luxembourg General Goods Statistics Revenues

On this export certificate, the exporter has used 51 five-centime Belgium-Luxembourg general goods statistics revenues to pay the applicable charge.  Each stamp bears a serial number. Linen goods were being exported from Liège, Belgium, to Holland.  The cancel is that of the customs office [douane] at Poppel, Belgium, April 13, 1948.

 

An amazing multiple use of the five-centime general goods statistics stamp!

Belgium-Luxembourg Joint License Revenues

Joint License Revenue Stamps

 

Luxembourg revenue philately – little appreciated by most Luxembourg aficionados – remains a fertile ground for original research and new discoveries. Like postage stamps, Luxembourg revenues paid government fees. They are undeserving of the philatelic discrimination they suffer!

For example, here you see the Belgium-Luxembourg joint license revenue stamps, which were used by Belgium and Luxembourg to document payment of import permit charges.

 Type 1

 5F BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSCHE
COMMISSIE 

Denominated ‘Fr-‘ 

 

Type 2

 
BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSCHE
COMMISSIE

Denominated ‘Frs B.‘

 
10F BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSE
COMMISSIE

Denominated ‘Frs B.‘

Cancel:  Office Central des Contingents
 License D'Importation, 17 December 1974. 

Type 3

20F BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSE
COMMISSIE

 

 

Type 4

 

2.50F BELGISCH-LUXEMBURGSCHE
VERREKEMINGSDIENST BRUSSEL
(OBLC logo design)

Type 5

 

10F Belgisch-Luxemburgsche

Commissie

'Licences' below center ornament

John Barefoot’s Benelux Revenues [2nd ed.], lists only four of the Belgium-Luxembourg Joint License revenues.

• My Type 1 -- 5-franc shown here (denominated simply in francs rather than Belgian francs) is unlisted in Barefoot.
  
• My Type 2 -- 10-franc with spelling LUXEMBURGSCHE is the only denomination Barefoot lists with this spelling.
• Barefoot lists 5F, 10F, and 20F Type 3 denominations with the spelling LUXEMBURGSE.
• My Types 4 and 5 are unlisted.

You can help by sharing your research. I would like to know:

• What stamps were issued? When? In what format?
• Who printed the stamps?
  
• What quantities were printed?
  
• What were the import license tax rates?
• What are the pertinent laws and regulations?
  
• On what documents were the stamps used?
• Why are some denominated in francs; others in Belgian francs?
  
• Has the use of license revenues been discontinued (if so, when)?
  
• What is known about the Commission Belgo-Luxembourgeoise?

You can be the first to do the research and publish your findings, if you like, as a guest blogger on this website! Email me at arsdorf@gmail.com or post a comment on this blog.

Luxembourg’s ‘Fishy’ Revenue Imprints

Fishing License Tax Imprints

Permis de Pêche
3F Revenue Imprint

Fishing, like other sporting activities, has long provided governments with an opportunity to tax sportsmen. Luxembourg was no exception, as these early twentieth-century fishing permits (“Permis de Pêche”) demonstrate.

The 1914 example seen below bears the albino embossed ‘Timbre Grand Ducal’ and a 3-franc revenue stamp imprint on the back showing the Grand Ducal coat of arms.

3F fishing permit issued at Luxembourg-Ville,
4 April 1914, to J.P. Flammant, valid for two years.

Apparently the fishing was good, as the licensee obtained a new two-year permit shortly after the permit seen above expired. His two-year permit for 1916 to 1918 is shown below.

3F fishing permit issued 4 May 1916

In 1983 the Permis de Pêche revenue imprint (now denominated 80 francs) was still in use, as seen on the Permis de Pêche Touristique license shown below, issued at Rambrouch on 16 August 1983.

In addition, the license indicates that a 70-franc “taxe piscicole [fish tax]” was charged plus a 20-franc fee paid by a communal revenue stamp on the back, nicely canceled with the Rambrouch commune’s Permis de Pêche cds.  The fishing license fee in 1983 cost 57 times more than it did in 1914 and 1916!  But the fish, as tax beneficiaries, undoubtedly were appreciative.

A multi-national collection of fishing and hunting tax revenues would make a fine thematic revenue exhibit.

5-centime Timbres pour Affiches pays Poster Tax in 1888 for an auction held in Esch-sur-Alzette

Poster Tax - Timbre Pour Affiches

 

Back:  Posted locally within Esch-sur-Alzette on July 13, 1888,

franked with a strip of three of the 1882 one-centime Allegory.

While many of the low denomination poster tax stamps were saved, very few survive on posters.   Thus for most of them, we have only the  bold printing with which they were typically cancelled, having been affixed to the paper before the poster was printed.

This poster is a giant, so large that only about half fits on my oversized scanner bed, so what you see are two scans spliced together!

5-centime Timbre pour Affiches paying the tax on an Eschdorf auction poster in 1905

Poster Tax - Timbre Pour Affiches

 

 

 

Back:  addressed to Eschdorf with one-centime G D Adolphe
sole franking paying the domestic business paper rate.