R26c First Issue Foreign Exchange Revenue Stamp, Nathan Fenn’s Matches printed cancel

Nathan Fenn was born March 15. 1824 in Wallingford. New Haven County, Connecticut. He was considered very bright with an affinity for mechanical things. 1848 saw a boom in the production of friction matches that seemed to be centered in New Haven County which inspired Fenn to embark upon a match manufacturing venture of his own. Having some success, he moved to nearby West Meriden in about 1860 and expanded operations. His factory was called the Mountain Home Match Works. It was located in what had been a bowling saloon on the grounds of a resort hotel known as The Cold Spring House.

The tax on matches took effect September 1, 1864, and while Fenn like all manufacturers similarly situated had the option to order a stamp printed of his own design and specifications. Perhaps the $350 price tag for engraving the plate put him off. All we know is that he chose to use the regular government die stamps to pay the tax. Being mechanical, he chose to use a letterpress with which to imprint his name and the date on his stamps.

The Type 1 Fenn precancel is the only recorded example and features his name and the year printed horizontally on a 1 cent Express stamp. The Type 2 precancel reads vertically in three lines. All are dated 1865 and are known only on the 5 cent denominations. Why this is so is not known. The Type 3 precancel is identical to the Type 2, except the final digit in the year date is missing. Perhaps the original intent was to fill that in by hand, however none have ever been found with a manuscript numeral added. The Type 4 precancel eliminates the dateline altogether, simplifying it to a two-line arrangement.

Fenn not only produced and sold matches, but also sold match machinery. There is no evidence that Fenn had any patents for machinery, but that surely is not dispositive of the issue of whether the machinery was of his own invention, or that of others.

While not conclusive, the values seen with Fenn cancels tends to lead to the conclusion that he packed his matches in boxes of 100, 200 and 500. Naturally, he may have had other size boxes stamped with more than a single stamp in order to make up a particular rate. Fenn continued to make matches into the 1870’s, even though he relocated to Granville, Massachusetts in 1873.

Printed Proprietary Precancellations on first Issue U.S. Revenue Stamps 1862 – 1872. Michael J. Morrissey