Tasmania - Interesting Cancels

A Tasmanian 1d pictorial with Ridgeway cds is selling rather well on ebay - it's up to $127.50 with nearly two days to go:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Tasmania-Ridgew...em2eb2cc79ec

This inspired me to dig out some of my Tasmanian pictorials, including this one with Lilydale cds.



If anyone knows much about Tasmanian cancels I'd be interested in learning a little more about the following. The first one has a (presumably) Hobart bar cancel:



I wonder how common bar cancels were on the pictorials - this is the only one I have without regular cds.

The other one is a numeral bar cancel, '24,' wherever that is:



Does anyone know which post office was no. 24?

Nice scans jimjamtwo

The barred obliterators are relatively scarce on the pictorial stamps because in August and September 1900 they were replaced by circular datestamps. The pictorial stamps had, of course, only been issued in December 1899. For most post offices, there was less than 12 months in which the barred obliterators could be used.

No. 24 was used at Cullenswood and then moved along the road a short distance to St. Mary's. For this stamp, being a later issue, I would guess St. Mary's.


Alex
In Tasmania

318 - Lymington South

Thanks for the info, Alex! I'm glad you like the scans.

For those interested in this subject, the following Tasmanian Philately and Postal History forum thread is a great place to learn more:

http://www.tps.org.au/bb/viewforum.php?f=9

Nice to have a Taswegian amongst us!

Great information.
Ridgeway has a "4R" scarcity rating






A nice littel one.........

Another one

This seems to be a nice early use.

The 1d rose-red pictorial with the Hobart bar cancel has turned out to be an interesting stamp indeed.

I received my Morley Bright watermark detector in the mail today and this was the first stamp I used it to check.

To my great surprise, it's turned out to be interesting on three counts. First, the watermark appears to be w11, which makes it SG 250 (1905). This means the Hobart bar cancel was used well into the first decade of the century.

Second, the watermark is inverted, making the stamp is a variety which is not listed in the SG Commonwealth catalogue. If anyone knows the CV for this stamp with an inverted wmk I'd greatly appreciate it.

Third, the watermark is A over crown, not crown over A. Although this would make you think that it might be a V - and thus SG 240d - it's actually pretty obviously an A not a V. This is presumably due to paper misplacement.

All in all, a very intriguing result from my first use of my Morley Bright!

For the CV of inverted watermarks on Australian States issues, you need to refer to the general note at the beginning of Gibbons' Australian listings: 'Some stamp printers in the Australian colonies paid little attention to the position of the watermark ... Reversed, inverted and reversed ... watermarks are frequently encountered, especially on the stamps of New South Wales, and the later issues of Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. In such circumstances it is impossible to provide adequate prices for such items so only those watermark varieties occurring on stamps printed in Great Britain are included in the following listings.'

Interesting, tonymacg!

I wonder if there is a specialist catalogue for Australian tate stamps that deals with such matters?

No idea, I'm afraid. I just recall that warning in Gibbons. From the sound of it, compiling a specialised listing would be a pretty daunting task - which isn't to say that noone has attempted, or done, it. It looks like you'd need a fairly deep States specialist to answer the question about your stamp, though.

K.E. Lancaster in The Pictorial Stamps of Tasmania 1899-1912 discusses watermark varieties at length. The Crown over A watermarked paper is found vertically, either upright or inverted, almost exclusively. A small prining was made on the unsurfaced side of the paper in late 1910, providing a rare reversed watermark, all perforated 11 with watermark inverted. These stamps have a blotchy appearance due to the rougher surface.

Thanks for the info, Plateflaw.

Does this all mean that stamps with inverted watermarks are worth the same as ones with normal watermarks?

Yes, as the numbers made are essentially similar. Keep an eye out for the reversed ones though: they are not listed by Stanley Gibbons, but are rare and definitely collectable.

Thanks for the tip, Plateflaw.