Can investing and collecting go hand-in-hand? Yes -- especially if you are collecting coins, stock certificates, bank notes, or other rare items of value. Larry Schutts, an expert in investment-related collectibles, will periodically review items of interest from his collection and answer your questions here.

In the summer of 1862, the rising costs of the Civil War prompted the U.S. Congress to enact a broad new tax program. The Revenue Act of 1862 created the office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and introduced Americans to their first progressive rate income tax. The Act also required that taxes be paid on documented business transactions and on the sale of certain proprietary retail goods. In order to prove payment, citizens and businesses bought government-issued revenue stamps and applied them to their documents and merchandise. On the documentary side, the inconvenience of dealing with stamps led many to order such paper goods as checks and stock certificates with government-approved stamp designs already printed on them. Retailers, on the other hand, quickly saw the advertising possibilities and were ultimately granted permission to obtain stamps bearing their own private labels.