CRIME: Stamp Soaking

Smokers who tear off the corner of a pack of cigarets to open it seldom damage the blue 6¢ U. S. revenue stamp, bearing a grumpy likeness of New York's canal-digging Governor DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828). When they throw the emptied package away, they provide an occupation for untold numbers of scavengers who hunt not only for cellophane and tinfoil wrappings but for untorn revenue stamps. These stamps are not canceled. They can be steamed off, used again. Federal authorities well know that there are crooked, tax-dodging cigaret manufacturers who pay ½¢ for...

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