Need Your Help: Post Your Skull Fancy Cancels Please

After reviewing Cole's 1995 book on Bank Note era fancy cancels I realized how many were missing, mislabeled, and poorly illustrated (not to mention his rarity gauge is questionable).
I decided to try my own hand at classifying a style of fancy cancels, specifically skull and skull and crossbones cancels.

If you have any in your collection, please post them here to aid in my research. Note, I may put my findings online at some point so I could reuse your image (credited to you). Thanks.

Ill start with one of my own:
Waverly, NY 1886 (SK-8)
Cole states it was used Feb. 15-26, 1886 but I've found earlier uses (Feb. 9th). I am also of the opinion that the cancel was crudely carved as most "good" strikes share the same qualities.

I realize that it's not part of your focus directly, but it might make for a nice ancillary bit of information:

Information courtesy of Bruce Baryla: This 'Skull and Bones' handstamp was known to collectors of fancy handstamps by its appearance as a 'sender's mark' on covers mailed in 1857 by the 'Society of Twenty-Two,' a Yale University based fraternal group associated with the famous Skull and Bones Society.

This same handstamp was used years later as a stamp canceling device. As it turns out, the secretary of the 'Society of Twenty-Two' in 1857 was Robert A. Beckwith. He became a photographer and co-owner of the Whitney & Beckwith studio — and he repurposed the handstamp from his college days to cancel revenue stamps.

The exhibit page from Bruce's "Cvil War Sun Tax" exhibit:




The example from my personal collection:

I am jealous. My collection of 19th C USA is small enough and now I find a whole new and positively adorable field I haven't even heard of before. The emptiness torments me.

Thank you so very much Revenuecollector. This is invaluable information. I am attempting to write a brief summary of the skull cancel similar to work on the Devil with Pitchfork cancel done by W. J. Duffney (http://www.ctpostalhistory.com/CtPP...pril2012.pdf).

What I am now curious about is why so very few postmasters utilized the commercial cancel if someone like Beckwith had developed a superior skull design by the 1860s. The only commercially produced cancel I have been able to find is the one shared by Coleville, PA Gardner, MA and Columbus, NJ (all used in the 1880s).
Seen here:


I've read Richard John's book and know that the postmasters were aware of others fancy-cancel work, hence the proliferation, but if Beckwith just used his design for proprietary marks it could've gone unnoticed? Fascinating.

I also get the "skull and bones" college club crossover to Beckwith's profession but believe most postmasters thought it was a visually-literal way of "killing" the stamp. Then tie in William Jackson's addition of KKK to the skull and x-bones for Union Mills cancels and the meaning turns to promotion/propaganda.

Pic for those interested:


JanS: Fancy cancels are my passion. From the geometric "garden path" to the straight forward N/S handshake after the war. I see it as art upon art, if preserved well providing truly rare gems. It just shows you how stamps don't need to be "mint" to hold beauty or value.