Precancels?

I am not sure for the 1st and 3rd stamp.

4th is an usual oval postmark?

Numbers 1 and 3 strike me as parcel post cancels, especially because both are higher denominations than "letter" rate. Number 4 is a normal oval "New York" cancel, circa 1870s and 1880s.

only the 4 cent is a recognized precancel... the 5 cent is listed in the 'not precancels' catalog as a 'provisional'.... the other 2 are contemporary post cancels.

What does this mean? A local postmaster improvised the use of a handstamp so he could precancel stamps at a large volume mailer's request?

Interestingly, I was just in the town of Hudson, Mass. the other day. In its heydey, it was a bustling shoe manufacturing town, with up to 17 shoe manufacturers producing goods from the 1850s to the 1960s. Today, it's little more than a bedroom community to the larger cities of Framingham and Worcester.

thanks chasa, thanks doug2222.

wt1, I also don't know what "not precancels" catalog means? is there a special catalog for stamps which looks (at some point) like precancels, but they are not? or "no precancels" could be every catalog which doesn't lists precancels? chasa?

filipo - Yes exactly, there is such a book, authored by William Cummings.
wt1 - PrOvisional in the precancel context means a device not originally designed or authorized to precancel stamps, used to precancel on an emergency basis. Typically, devices not born as precancellers and usually used as postcancels are denied catalog status. They are still collectable but the catalog gatekeepers are careful and consistent about this issue.
[written from the precancel convention in Albuquerque NM where I have added about 2500 precancels to my collection - fun!]

is this also a precancel??

Yes! here is the listing from the new PSS Classics catalog [recommended!]:


Yours is the 1898 UP.

thanks chasa! very interesting early precancels... I like when there is so many combinations...

The last "i" looks like an "l" on the stamp. Is it just overinking that gives it that look?