'Servicio Sanitario' Stamps

Stamp columnist John Weigle writes on California's Ventura County Star website, "The current issue of The American Revenuer, the magazine of the American Revenue Association, reports on two German towns that are issuing revenue stamps to show a tax levied on street walking prostitutes has been paid."

According to Weigle, "The magazine says that Bonn and Dortmund issued the stamps for prostitutes who walk the streets rather than work in brothels or sauna clubs, where it's easier to collect the taxes."

"The article doesn't say," Weigle writes, "but I suppose stamp collectors who wanted samples for their collections could buy the tickets if they visited the cities, but I'm not sure what spouses might think of the idea."

Apparently this is not a new idea and several other countries around the world have issued similar revenue stamps in the past.

Shown above a 1920 Argentine servicio sanitario (medical service) stamp that was pasted into the prostitute's libreta sanitaria (medical booklet) and cancelled in a way that showed the result of the exam.

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