An excise stamp is a type of

revenue stamp A revenue stamp, tax stamp, duty stamp or fiscal stamp is a (usually) adhesive label used to designate collected taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration ...

affixed to some exciseable goods to indicate that the required

excise file:Lincoln Beer Stamp 1871.JPG, upright=1.2, 1871 U.S. Revenue stamp for 1/6 barrel of beer. Brewers would receive the stamp sheets, cut them into individual stamps, cancel them, and paste them over the Bunghole, bung of the beer barrel so when ...

tax has been paid by the manufacturer. They are

securities A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any for ...

printed by the finance ministry of the relevant country.

Security measures

Excise stamps are often as detailed in their design as banknotes - usually made from the same type of paper and containing

holograms Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other applications. In principle, it ...

and other anti-counterfeit devices. The reason for such measures is that excise duty is extremely expensive, in most EU countries accounting for around half the

market price A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, the price of production has a different name. If the product is a "good" in the ...

of the product.

Usage

Excise stamps are most commonly found on

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

and

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

products, which reach the consumer in neatly packaged units (namely packets and bottles) to which the adhesive stamp is easily affixed.Unlike petrol, for example, which, despite being subject to excise, has no packaging to which a stamp may be affixed, nor is it exposed to the same dangers of counterfeiting as are alcohol and tobacco. Since

counterfeit To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

alcohol and cigarettes are extremely common in many countries, the presence of a genuine excise stamp also goes some way towards guaranteeing the genuineness of the product, as only certified producers may legally buy excise stamps. (However, illegally obtained or counterfeit stamps are common in some countries.) Manufacturers will buy a certain quantity of excise stamps from the government at their excise value which they are then obliged to affix to every packet of

cigarettes A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opp ...

or bottle of spirits produced. The excise stamps are ideally affixed with strong glue over the cap of a bottle or across the lid of a box of cigarettes (and underneath the plastic/foil wrapper on the bottleneck or the cellophane of the cigarette-box) in such a way that they are destroyed when the product is opened. This is so that they cannot be reused, since this would constitute

contraband Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") refers to any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It is used for goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes o ...

. In countries where excise stamps are required, all cigarettes and alcohol produced legally will bear a stamp. Some countries have separate stamps for domestically-produced and

import An import is the receiving country in an export from the sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial transactions of international trade. In international trade, the importation and exportation of goods are limited ...

ed excisable goods; others require separate stamps for products destined for duty-free sale, which are still subject to excise but not VAT; some countries do not require stamps for

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented grapes. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different ...

s, while others do.

In the United Kingdom

In the UK, excise stamps have been in use for spirits since 2006.(view image)
/sup> While these are usually printed on the back label of the bottle by the manufacturer rather than being a special security bought from the government, they still have to adhere to strict specifications, such as containing UV-visible inks.UK Duty Stamps Scheme
June 2006, retrieved Feb 2009. UK law does not require such physical stamps for cigarettes, either - instead, the words "UK Duty Paid" are printed in bold on all packs as part of the manufacturing process, while other forms of control are implemented by HM Revenue & Customs to verify that this is indeed the case. Meanwhile, foreign-bought cigarette packets bearing revenue stamps can be widely seen across the UK, mainly due to the comparatively high price of British cigarettes, leading people to (often illegally) import them from abroad.

Gallery

Russian excise stamps (2000s) File:Cigaretteakciz2002.jpg, Cigarettes (domestic) File:Cigaretteakcizimport2008.jpg, Cigarettes (import) File:Russia. Excise stamp, 2005.jpg, Spirits File:Aktsiznaja marka.jpg, Wines

References

{{reflist Philatelic terminology Revenue stamps Excises

Security measures

Usage

In the United Kingdom

Gallery

See also

References