1895 Oval Flag Cancel Help ?

Hi Everyone,
I won I won, lolol...
(Ebay auction of old covers) and here is one of the old covers. I have seen the flag cancel with the 13 stars, but this one is new to me and thought I would see if anyone has any information on it, the name of it, etc.? Thank you,
SueStamps



I just included a close up view:

I don't have much information on specifics, but that appears to be one of the earlier flag cancels, as they only started using them in 1894 as this similar example suggests:



By the way, you should change the title of this thread, as your scan is from 1895 (not 1885)...they didn't use flag cancels that far back.

Hi wt1, sorry about that, I thought it was 1885, see what I know, ha ha. I did change the title. Thanks for pointing that out.

That's a great image, I wonder what the E stands for. I think if it was a number, that would represent the machine number?

Thanks again!
SueStamps

Yes, the "E" is a machine 'number' - the numbers in Boston ran from 1 to 14, and letters from A to N.
Boston has 445 varieties according to the Flag Cancel Encyclopedia by Frederick Langford. Yours appears to have a blank space between the parentheses: "( )". It is difficult to tell from your scan but yours is probably Boston #53 D-(blank) in the FCE. It is the machine that will have the number 10 added in February of 1896. It is scarce, but not much demand so not much value.

Wow chasa, thank you so much for mentioning the Flag Cancel Encyclopedia! Now that I know of its existence, I ordered one.

Yes, the scan is what was posted online and that is all I have, do not have the covers yet. Also some old checks from 1905 and other fun items. Oh I am going to have much fun when this box arrives!

Much appreciated!
SueStamps

SueStamps,

These links should help you identify some of the machine cancels.

http://www.machinecancel.org/exhibi...n/index.html

http://swansongrp.com/machtest.html

This type of flag cancel is called "ovate" due to the oval shape of the pattern of stars. There were 2 types of Boston ovate cancels with both shown here being the most common, the other has more pronounced curves in the killer bars. Both examples posted here were from American Postal Supply Co. Model D3. The example posted by Sue was probably from Machine C as this is the only machine known with the missing slug during 1895 for this style cancel.

Fantastic information!
Wonderful, I so much appreciate all the information and big thank you for the websites, they are great!
SueStamps