Cancel Questions

Morning all.
I've been delving into mounting my covers into an album and have been trying to put information on each page where I can (the transition from collector to philatelist is happening, I guess).
I'm unsure about cancels and the proper terms to use for the different types. CDS, hammer, kill, slogan (ok, that one's pretty easy).
Here's an example.



I think this is a duplex. What is the right hand side called? I think the numbers refer to the city/town. Is there a list?
This is an American example, of course, but I'm assuming the terms are global.
Is there an online source? Has this been discussed here on SCF? I can't find it.
Help!
and thankyou.

Here's a good link on the basics of cancels/postmarks:

http://www.linns.com/howto/refreshe...rcourse.aspx

Your example is a duplex cancel. The right side is typically referred to as the "killer". The number typically indicates the machine number or station at which the cancel was applied.

Here's a previous link on SCF that also refers to other illustrations:

https://goscf.com/t/11471

James,
That's a good question. I'm not aware of any comprehensive listing online.

Your example is a duplex cancel. I'm not sure the sub-classification terms are standardized among collectors but generally they are called oviate bar cancels. The date stamp is circular and the killer is a type of bar. That's your typical 4-bar killer cancel.

Your example is a vertical ellipse cancel. They were generally issued to third and fourth class post offices. Class is based on the office's revenue.

Larger post offices (first and second class) generally used a barrel duplex. This is an elliptical cancel with the number (or sometimes a letter) in a barrel shaped hollow center.




Just to make things interesting, not all elliptical cancels have numbers.

There is also some discussion about the numbers (or letters). It could be a clerk number, a station number or a device number. It isn't settled.

If you are interested in postmarks, check out http://www.postmarks.org/

Hope that helps!

Dan

Excellent. Thank you both for the terrific reference sites. Hopefully this will begin my education and my listing can be a little more comprehensive.
Cheers!

Here's an excellent overview in a Powerpoint-type slide show but in pdf format for downloading. It takes a minute or two to download as it's a relatively large file) but you'll find it interesting, I'm sure:

http://www.hamiltonphilatelic.org/p...ostmarks.pdf

This is so cool! I have been meaning to look at my stamps from the cancellation angle and now I have some references to get me started.

Thanks jamesw for starting this thread!

And thanks wt1 and danstamps54 for the great references!

K

Greta topic. I like cancels.

Yours is a duplex (Latin for two parts)(also meaning, in this case, applied together at one time), part one being the Circular Date Stamp (CDS), and part two being the killer or obliterator part, which is,as mentioned , an ovate ellipsoid-shaped barred numeral cancel.

The numberr of bars to count I was thinking was the total number top and bottom but I was also coming from counting obliterators with just bars and no numerals or letters involved.

I have found that sometimes local names prevail for certain cancels or parts thereof.

The barred obliterator (shortened to killer) in yours might be also called a football-shaped or football cancel or a boorheel (maybe but not often).

Anything with a number then has the 'numeral' word attached.

Technical worldwide jargon usually uses kind of scientific or French or Latin names for things but usually everyone understands what you are talking about if you use enough words to describe it.

Just make sure to describe every part of the cancel.

So, following that 'rule' yours would be a

Duplex CDS and 4-barred (?) ellipsoid numeral (1) cancellation.
OR

asuming the CDS part is taken to be there all the time, a duplex 4-barred ellipsoid numeral cancel.

Something like naming flora and fauna scientifically. You name the family, order, phylum, etc first and then down to the genus and species.

And then when you get into other languages you use their terms and translate as best you can, just knowing what it is, even though the words seem to describe something slightly different to you.

I prefer the use of "Postmarks" rather than "Cancels"

The British in India also used duplexes, of CDSs and killers. This one is from Mount Road, Madras, to Calcutta in 1886:





The 'M' in the killer standing, of course, for 'Madras' - the Madras (Postal) Circle. (For postal purposes, India was divided into a number of Circles, based on the main cities in the regions).

The two halves seem to have been easily detachable. More often than not, you find the killer part cancelling the stamp, and the CDS part somewhere else on the item, if at all:





Here the 'L' stands for Lahore, the main city of the Punjab Circle. The CDS part appears on the back for Umballa City (now Ambala City, in Haryana State).

There was a further refinement of the killers. Numbers were added to identify the post office within the Circle:





Here, the 'A' identifies the Bengal Circle, based on Calcutta; the '37' identifies the main post office under Calcutta, and the '7' identifies the sub-post office under Main Office 37. The CDS on the back shows that A-37-7 was apparently Sambhal, in modern Uttar Pradesh State.

Edit: To add that, for those who become confused and irritated by the difference between US and English (and Australian) date formats - whether MM-DD-YY or DD-MM-YY - it's instructive to look at the dates on these covers. Calcutta was still using the old-fashioned (ahem!) MM-DD-YY format, but out in the provinces, they were using the new DD-MM-YY pattern.

thanks for the reference wt1 - again :)

WT1 I used the link to the cancel/postmark PowerPoint. It is very informative. It will be a resource going forward. I definitely have a better understanding of the different types of cancels and the origins of such.

Thanks again for adding value to the forum!

BT