Cam. C. Postmark - Mystery Solved!?

This rather common stamp is advertised on ebay with the reference that it has an "interesting postmark". Can anyone identify the postmark?

Looks like Boston Mass Contract Air Mail station C

Clever seller. The sky's the limit on "interesting" cancels.

It makes mention of it on here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airmai...nited_States

It is definitely contract air mail. The question is what the "C" is for

Although it took a little bit of doing, I think I may have found the answer to my own question. I rotated the stamp. I also did some further research on the early editions of the Postal Bulletin and came up with the double over cancel reading:

In the outer circle: BOSTON, MASS.

In the inner circle: CAM. C

The reference meaning: BOSTON - CAMBRIDGE "C" BRANCH, MASS. as shown in this excerpt from a 1909 Postal Bulletin:



Seems to make sense, as back in the early 20th century many Boston suburbs were designated as "branches" of Boston. However, I haven't yet been able to find another illustration of that postmark to confirm it.

I'm not sold on that idea yet. I've seen plenty of Boston and area postmarks but not this one. The stamp looks like a perf 11 1917 issue. Unfortunately I'm not sold on the Contract Air Mail either. I don't have any comparable early air mail postmarks that were like this. Maybe the seller was right it is interesting. He couldn't figure it out and that is all he could say about it.

I still don't have an answer that I'm comfortable with but saw this today when going through an old album.

Interesting. Looks like your example could be Boston (Cambridge), Mass. As though double oval postmarks were most commonly used on certified and/or registered mail, I suspect that's where we need to look to find other similar examples.

I'm thinking the canceller was degrading or broken. It looks like it was a double oval but the lines in the oval were missing on the outside and the inner oval lines missing at the sides. I was thinking it was CAM B but it could just be CAMB (Cambridge).