1 Cent - Cigarette Tax New York

New York introduced dedicated cigarette tax stamps in the 1940s as the state moved to enforce collection at the retail level rather than relying on wholesale reporting. The 1948 1-cent denomination reflects the incremental per-cigarette rate structure in use before the state consolidated its tax schedules in the early 1950s. At 18 x 14 mm, these are among the smallest fiscal paper items in any American state tax series — closer in scale to a postage stamp than to conventional revenue paper.

High attrition rate: affixed stamps were destroyed with the package, making intact unaffixed examples genuinely uncommon.