RO10b American Match Co. Cleveland Ohio, Revenue Stamp

This firm first appears in the Cleveland directory for 1869-70. The members were Wm H. Newton, Edward H. Taylor and Enoch G. Selby at the address 2 Fifth St. This die was ordered by Selby & Taylor who became the American Match Co. The design is severely plain and altogether is keeping with the austere and even patriarchal features of the portrait it bears. The writer has been unable to ascertain who the portrait pictures but believes it must be none other than Mr. Enoch G. Selby. It is framed by an upright oval containing the firm name address etc. and the rounded corners of the stamp outside the oval bear U and S above and 1 and 1 below. Within the oval at the left is One and at the right Cent in small capitals. The whole forms an upright rectangle of the usual lc size. In many details the design greatly resembles the American Match stamp of Amsterdam which was last issued in the same month the Cleveland stamp first went into use. The centering of the latter is notoriously poor the old paper being worse than the silk. A few copies of the lc on old paper are known overprinted.

Christopher West, Mekeel’s Weekly Stamp News, nov 22, 1919