ROTHFUCHS, CARL FREDERICK

Copyright 2011-2025 John N. Lupia III

Carl Frederick Rothfuchs is one among the earliest stamps dealers in the United States beginning in 1859. Rothfuchs confesses that in 1863 he was counted among the dealers in recycled paper and rags (straccivendoli) who accumulated large caches of material and scoured through it looking for stamps and old mail correspondence "canceled covers"  for sale in the market. One of his sources was the wastepaper baskets from the old Post Office on Chauncey Street, Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1863, Rothfuchs published his first fixed price list of postage stamps. 

Sometime in the mid or late 1860's Rothfuchs says he was able to purchase a series of bulk lots of War Department stamps from a lady stamp dealer, and that over time he amassed over 500,000 selling them through the mail to other dealers and collectors.

In 1877, while conducting business in Washington, D.C., Rothfuchs acquired one sheet of the 3¢ Scarlet. We have substantial and compelling evidence to support the notion that he acquired this sheet from John W. Scott, who, it is reported, had obtained four sheets from a New Orleans postmaster sometime in the 1860s. These stamps arrived in New Orleans around late 1860 or early 1861, or possibly later in 1862, when there was a brief, indirect connection between the American Bank Note Company (ABNCo) and the New Orleans postmaster in 1861 during the lead-up to the Civil War. This connection arose from the production of “provisional stamps” in New Orleans, which were necessary to maintain mail service after the Confederacy seceded, as they rejected their current stock of U.S. postage stamps, including the Scarlet 3¢, which were shipped to the New Orleans Postmaster.

Jerome S. Wagshal, who has published a series of articles on this topic in the Chronicle (see Bibliography), disagrees and assigns “some 3¢ Scarlet stamps” acquired from the Post Office in 1893.

He was a charter member of the Rhode Island Philatelic Society, which was founded in Providence in 1882. 

In 1886, Rothfuchs purchased a hoard of old Revenue stamps from a retired postmaster from a southern state. At the same timeframe he purchased a stock book of stamps from a young woman stamp dealer containing some sheets of the 1857-1860 issue and sings and blocks.

Carl Frederick Rothfuchs, Washington, D.C., February 23, 1889, to Ernest Jordan, New York, New York. Duplex cancel, corner, R/C. This was the period when Rothfuchs purchased 25 sheets of $10 and $20 State stamps.  $400

3¢ Scarlet #74 TC6 with manuscript killer in four short parallel horizontal pen nib strokes in black ink. These distinguish themselves as the Rothfuchs Group of 3¢ Scarlets. This issue of Scarlet 3¢ is variably dated 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, since its origin is uncertain. With the official issue date of #65 on August 19, 1861, it is speculated that design and trial pieces may have begun a year earlier. Photo courtesy of Robert Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc., Lot 92 realized $3,000.

In 1893, Rothfuchs advertised the 3¢ Scarlet for sale as follows : The 3¢ Scarlet which I offer for sale are not used, They have four ink lines three quarters across each stamp. Otherwise they are in fine condition and have original gum. All are guaranteed as genuine original 3¢ Scarlet postage stamps. And are of the same sheet that I obtained some sixteen years ago while located at Washington. I have carefully examined some of the 3¢ Scarlet sold elsewhere at private sale and by auction. Some do not compare favorable with the undoubted genuine 3¢ Scarlet.”

Jerome S. Wagshal, in his interpretations of the evidence regarding Carl F. Rothfuchs, posits that he acquired a supply of the 3c Scarlet in 1893, likely from the Post Office Department in exchange for his assistance with the Columbian Exposition. He further asserts that Rothfuchs sold these stamps with pen marks and original gum. Wagshal contends that the Rothfuchs lot is not from the same supply acquired by John W. Scott in either late 1860 or early 1861, as mail service was officially suspended between the Union and the Confederacy in May 1861.

Wagshal acknowledges the existence of uncancelled and cancelled stamps from the New Orleans/John W. Scott cache, featuring a New York City Station D oval. However, he did not consider the possibility that the New Orleans Postmaster may have created either a full or partial precancel sheet. Additionally, one could speculate that around April or May of 1861, as a Confederate, he may have obliterated all or some of the stamp designs of Washington on the top sheet of a stack of four sheets of the 3¢ Scarlet. It is possible that this act was done in a manner similar to doodling during a rainy day, resulting in neat carefully made short parallel pen strokes on one sheet of a lot of four sheets all of which were now deemed worthless and unusable.

Others unkindly suggest that Henry George Mandel, a faithful employee of the American Bank Note Company serepitiously had taken a few sheets of these trial stamps out of the vault and sold them around the time of the Columbian Exposition, thereby besmirching Mandel's character and reputation.

Rothfuchs advertisement in The Virginia Philatelist, Vol. II, September 1898

Coin and stamp dealer and collector Joseph Burleigh, Govanstown, Maryland received a letter dated November 6, 1901,  from Carl F. Rothfuchs, Boston, Massachusetts regarding his stamp order and the balance owed him from what he sold to Rothfuchs. Virtually every dealer at this time bought obsolete corporate postal stationery which this one above demonstrates. $700

Reminiscences, Weekly Philatelic Era, Vol. XV, February (1901) republished in Weekly Philatelic Gossip (1924) :969-972.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jerome S. Wagshal, Chronicle, Nos. 56, 60, 61 and 62