$200.00 Internal Revenue, Perforated (R102c). Vertical strip of four and vertical strip of three, used with two $50.00 U.S.I.R. (R101c) and cancelled by March 6, 1866 manuscript cancels on "Lease and Contract between The Morris and Essex Rail Road Company and The Atlantic and Great Western Railway Company", dated Nov. 1, 1865, also with manuscript from New Jersey Collector's Office in Jersey City "I hereby certify that I have examined the annexed instrument and determined that the same is subject to a stamp duty of fifteen hundred dollars..." and also stipulating a penalty was paid in cash of $36.40 in interest since the stamps were not affixed at time of delivery of the instrument, stamps with few flaws

VERY FINE APPEARANCE. AN IMPRESSIVE DOCUMENT CONTAING $1,500 IN REVENUE TAXES, AND ONE OF THE LARGEST FRANKINGS EXTANT OF THE $200.00 FIRST ISSUE REVENUE STAMP.

The Morris & Essex Railroad Co. (M&E) was incorporated in 1935 to build a line from Newark to Morristown N.J., which was later expanded. Other expansions, made M&E a serious competitor to the New Jersey Railroad (N.J.R.R.). In 1865, the Atlantic and Great Western Railway (A&GW) leased the M&E as part of their plan route to the west. The document offered here is this lease. Shortly after this lease was signed, the A&GW went bankrupt (in 1867) and the lease was cancelled. M&E continued to operate as a separate railroad until 1945, until after a series of mergers it became part of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad.

The $200.00 First Issue Revenues were issued in sheets of eight. The payment on this document represents $20,400.00 in today's dollars, which is a hefty tax bill for a lease. According to http://thecurtiscollection.com , this is the largest recorded multiple on its original document.

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