Gast, August (c. 1892 - 1900)

August Gast (c. 1892 - 1900) was a printer and publisher active in St. Louis and New York in the late 19th century. Gast, though stylizing himself as a "map publisher" was mostly focused on bank note and revenue stamp lithography. Gast's business took off in 1893 when the Revenue Act of March 3 1883 repealed the two cent tax on checks and drafts. Consequently check and other bank notes no longer required an affixed revenue stamps, however, the public, familiar with such, proved suspicious of any such document that did not bear a official stamp. Thus a flourishing publishing business emerged in which bank and other documents were printed with semi-official "tax" stamps. Gast was one of the most prominent such publishers active in both New York and the Midwest.