State of Colorado Half Barrel of Beer Tax Revenue Stamp
By Vanya Scott, Curatorial Assistant
The Museum recently acquired a fine example of a 1935 State of Colorado Half Barrel of Beer Tax Revenue Stamp. This tax stamp was among the first of the liquor tax stamps issued by the state. Prohibition ended in Colorado in 1933, and then-Governor Edwin C. Johnson created the first State Liquor License Authority in April 1935.
What makes this tax stamp interesting is that it was signed by James H. Carr, Colorado Secretary of State, who also headed the newly created Authority. By September of that year Carr and others were caught up in a scandal involving the shakedown of a liquor firm, as well as the unlawful destruction of files and records pertaining to liquor licenses.
There was much moral and political outrage directed at Carr, not least because the tax revenues were to benefit old-age pension funds in Colorado. Governor Johnson impeached Carr, who resigned as Secretary of State just hours before his senate trial was to begin. He did not entirely escape justice, however. In March 1936 he was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the state by the Denver District Court, fined $400, and sentenced to a year in the Denver County Jail.
Tax stamps signed by James Carr are thought to be rather scarce. In the wake of the scandal, Carr’s resignation and later conviction, unused tax stamps were destroyed, and new stamps were printed with the signature of Carr’s successor, George E. Saunders.