Saturday 6 August 2011

postal used bar cancels


My study of NB bar cancellations is getting more interesting. This bird stamp of 1892 appears to have a 11 bar cancel which should exclude a CTO which is normally made of 14 bars. It is also not placed at the corner of the stamp as most CTOs tend to be. However I can find no further information on this 11 bar in oval cancellation at present which makes it even more intriguing. Is it a fake cancel? If so there should be more of it around. And also why bother to CTO a stamp that is worth very much more in mint. The other possibility is that this is a partial 14 bar cancel but the there seems to be a single longest bar in the middle whereas the 14 bar cancel is symmetrical in the middle portion.
Update Having examined it more carefully in comparison with a similar partial 14 bar strike, I am not so certain of my original hypothesis. It is probably a 14 bar but ?postally used. I have been advised to get Ted Proud's book on postmarks, make a tracing on a transparency and then superimposed to compare.



This 1888 3c violet is unfortunately a much faded copy with 3 different cancellations. It has a pen cancel of a date in red, possibly fiscal. There is part of a thin bar type cancel on the left margin, possibly and very speculatively, the 8 bar cancel of Labuan which is rarely seen. It also has a thicker bar cancel at the left top margin. Difficult to estimate how many bars there should be in total but it appears to be rectangular in shape rather than oval. A 4 bar rectangular cancel was recorded for Labuan. Possibly this stamp was used there. Unusual and I hope to find out more about it. A very very interesting item indeed.



This 1888 5c stamp has a full on 14 bar chop. It would very unusual for a CTO to be placed centrally as it would be quicker to try to frank 4 stamps at a time as they were doing whole sheets. Also the stamps with postal used 14 bar on envelopes that I have seen tend to have this franking placed centrally.


This 1888 1c has 16 bars visible is probably a 17 bar cancellation. Unfortunately, no sharp ends are accessible and it is not very "eye" shaped. Perhaps those features are more typical of the 18-19 bar cancels. 


This 1888 3c violet has a full on cancel with 15 bars visible is probably an 18-19 bar postally used item.
 

This 1886 4c stamp is again a rather faded item. There is a 13 bar oval cancel with 2 Sandakan postmarks in red even though this bar cancellation is more associated with Kudat and Elopura..


This 2c 1888 stamp is more uncertain. I was drawn by the unusual shape of what seems to be a 14 bar cancel. The bars are irregular in thickness and direction. It looks like a worn chop. Would that make it more likely that it was applied in a busy post office rather than the clean pristine appearance we tend to see with a CTO? But then it is a corner cancellation. And also with stamps of this issue, one wonders whether the stamp itself is a clever forgery with a fake cancel.
Update Anon, I think you are right. It is a Fournier probably.


A thick bar cancellation which corresponds well with the 9 bar cancel of  Labuan. This stamp was probably used in Labuan. The 7 bar Mempakul cancellation is a possibility but I think the bars are thicker.

1 comment:

  1. The 2c brown looks like a Fournier/Caremel but the bar cancel is not typical.

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