7 stamped brass tax revenue tags for cotton bales

1863/1864. As issued.. Very good.. Brass appx. 265 mm. long; stamped head is appx. 80 x 35 mm.

Bales of cotton were required to have marks or stamps affixed to show payment of federal tax. This was accomplished using unusual brass tags with long, harpoon-like shafts that were inserted into the bale. Tax legislation of 1862 included a tax of a half-cent per pound on raw cotton; the rate was increased several times until it was repealed in 1868. Undertaken during the Civil War these efforts were at best haphazard with a substantial black market and licensed trade in cotton occurring. Six of the tags offered here are date stamped; one bears the additional stamp of "Ohio".