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Revenue
Stamp Mutilators
According to a 1915 product announcement, "In accordance with the ruling of the
Internal Revenue Department [on the War Tax Revenue Law], all revenue stamps to the value
of ten cents or more must be mutilated with three parallel incisions, cut through the
stamp after being affixed to the document. This is in addition to stamping the same with
the initials of the user and date of use.” This legal requirement
created a demand for devices, known as revenue stamp mutilators, that cut
three straight or undulatory incisions through both the revenue stamp
and the document to which the stamp was affixed.
The photograph above shows an unmarked cast iron
revenue stamp mutilator. Attached to the underside of the end
of the pivoting arm are three parallel vertical steel knife blades about 1”
in length (measured side to side) and
1/8” apart. When the knob on top of the device is pushed down, the blades fit
into three slots in the base or anvil. If one inserts papers under the head and pushes
down, the device makes three parallel incisions. A photograph of an office at the Tradesmen's Trust Company in Philadelphia taken in July 1907
shows this identical revenue stamp mutilator on a desk (The Hoskins
Company Catalog, Philadelphia, c. 1910).
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