In my teens and early twenties during the Seventies, I worked as a stockboy at a liquor store. In those days, every bottle of distilled spirits had a paper tax stamp sealing the bottle cap. Now that I actually buy distilled spirits, it occurs to me that I don’t see those any more.
Anybody know where they went? Don’t need answer fast.
TIA
Last time I saw those was when I was bringing liquor from Mexico and had to pay duty at the Texas border.
I don’t have the answer but my SWAG is that with electronic inventories its easier for the government to monitor production and assess tax that way.
Hey, I found something that says 1984 laws made the stamps unnecessary
Thanks very much, BubbaDog. Interesting article.
I guess some of those bottles I have sitting around are a lot older than I thought.
They do still have them on cigarettes though.
It occurred to me to wonder if bottles with stamps might enhance their eBay value, but most people who know their aged spirits would probably realize that glass doesn’t really add anything to the aging process.
It might could increase their value simply because people like old stuff. I’m sure plenty of people would buy old bottles of booze even if they never intend to drink from them.
I have a bottle of Maker’s Mark that’s something like 50 years old. If I decided I wanted to drink some, I’d probably go buy a new bottle before I’d open that one.
If you haven’t drank it in 50 years, what makes you think you’re suddenly going to have a hankering for it now?
That’s in the US. Do other nations still require tax stamps on containers of alcohol? I was going to ask if tax stamps were applied to other products but I see such have been used to collect taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, and many other things.
Physical stamps dont appear to be required here; presumably electronic taxation is deemed good enough.
You used to have to display the tax stamp on your auto windshield here, and it was a crime not to, even if you could prove you had paid the tax, but the requirement to display the paper stamp was dropped some years ago, probably because desktop printing and color printers were proving more than equal to the challenge.
Tax stamps on tobacco are definitely still a a thing in the EU; each country has its own tobacco tax, which is paid by attaching a pre-paid stamp to the pack. I don’t smoke myself but I know people who do, so every now and then I get to see a pack of cigarettes with a tax stamp from another country on it.
I haven’t seen tax stamps on bottles of alcohol in a long time, so I suppose that for that product, tax is levied differently nowadays - presumably because the value-by-volume density of alcohol is lower than with cigarettes, so smuggling is less of an issue. I could imagine, however, that the famously restrictive alcohol retail monopolies in Scandinavia (Systembolaget etc) might use stamps to indicate that a bottle has been properly sold through its stores, but I don’t have first-hand knowledge of that.
Since spirits don’t “age” (or deteriorate) in an unopened bottle like wine, it should taste the same as the day it was bottled.
In the UK, playing cards were taxed and a sealed wrapper was added to the outside of the unopened pack.
Stamp duty was first introduced in England on 28 June 1694, during the reign of William and Mary, under “An act for granting to their Majesties several duties upon vellum, parchment and paper”, for four years, towards carrying on the war against France". Like many of these things, it was not repealed but extended during the 18th and early 19th centuries, to cover a whole range of things like newspapers, medicine and perfume.
The argument over stamp duty contributed to the outbreak of the American War of Independence - "No taxation without representation".
To be clear, I meant I’d buy a new one, not because I was concerned about the quality of the old booze, but because I’d want to keep the old bottle. Years and years ago, I emailed someone at Maker’s Mark for help dating the bottle. I wish I could remember what we decided on. I guess at this point it’s something like 55 years old.
I very, very rarely drink. Not for any particular reason, I’m just not a drinker. And, I still have that bottle…
I vaguely remember a few liquor bottles in the late 80s or early 90s that had fake tax stamps just for decoration. I guess some marketing person thought they were cool.
Texas still has tax stamps, but they are small stickers on the side of the bottle, not the old paper strap-over-the-cap type. They are attached by wholesalers for liquor sold to retailers such as bars and restaurants, and bartenders are required to deface the stamp when the bottle is empty to prevent re-use.
I guess I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. There are some people. probably not on this board, who think that whisky improves with age, even after it’s bottled.
Side topic re: Maker’s Mark
Maker’s Mark released in May 2025, the first new product out their distillery in over 50 years: Star Hill Farm American Wheat Whisky, 7 year aged 106.5 proof
It’s really good. They only sold a few thousand bottles at a retail price of $100. Secondary market has seen prices run up to $299.
