Banknote Era Cancels

I did look at the New York Foreign Mail Pocket Guide (thank you 51Studebaker), Bill, and thank you, for the reminder, and link.

I have had trouble finding this one, and reversed it, and wonder what the community opinion is, if it is a New York Foreign Mail? Looks like something on page 9, but I'm not sure, since all of it is not there, and I had to flip it around to see how it might have been applied, compared to what it actually is.





reverse image

I have been thinking, for some time, if I could ask 'Gramps', as my great-grandfather liked to be called, one question, in regards to the stamps I inherited from him, it would be "What is UP with all the red Georges and blue Bens?????"

I asked this question, over and over again, back in June, as I sorted through the different color variations, then, through the ones with triangles vs. no triangles, the lines through the triangles, the different ways the lines went through the triangles, and so on.

A family crisis has taken me away, for a couple of months, from organizing, and properly mounting what one person, on another thread, called 'an accumulation', (instead of a 'collection') of baggies, envelopes, and shoeboxes.

The answer was staring me in the face, via my own thread, and what I was looking at, when I finally had the time to come back to stamps, and began looking at really getting the ones I had placed in the stock book, in order.

Cancels

Gramps wasn't collecting for specific stamps and gathering all the red Georges in the hopes of getting the Lake color, (he did get a few) or the one with the cap over a 2, which, by the way, he did get one, it's a cap over the left 2...






That was a moment.

No, Gramps liked cancels. This thread is my answer, that and the stockbook. It was staring me in the face. The 'Rorshach' stamps. He obviously gathered the ones with the cancels that caught his eye.

I was so caught up in identifying the specific stamps, which thanks to this community, I am possibly 80% done, for the classics, I didn't see the forest for the trees, and realize it was cancels he was after, not the specific stamps in a series.

Now that I know there was a 'method to his madness', I can now share in the smile he might have had, when he first saw the 'Rorshach stamps', only he might have known what he was looking at. I'd like to learn, too, since he is no longer here, to pour over the books with me, and tell me, himself.

I have greatly appreciated all the help, thus far, and look forward to more posts here, and learning more, about the history, and any information, and photos, anyone is willing to share, regarding the almost uncountable different types of cancels.

Anyone else suffering from Stamp Shadowitis?

What my eyes saw, while having coffee on my porch this morning...






What my brain saw....

I think I've indentified a good many of these, thanks to the Cole link, and Bill's NYFM handbook. I do want to find other books to hand, I could use, as opposed to just looking on the web, if anyone has any to offer.

If anyone has the time to respond, I would like to ask, if a cancel appears to be the same as a NYFM cancel, but it's on a stamp that was issued after the last know usage of the NYFM cancel, is it considered just a 'fancy cancel'and not a NYFM cancel?

Another question, the cancel on the stamp on the fourth row, third from the left, is on the lower left corner of the stamp and not very dark. Would that be considered a CTO?

Thank you for your time in responding.

All cancels appear to be common....
Most are just "cork or wedge" cancels

cet_gg, that is very cool that you learned something about your grandfather. Also congrats on finding a "hat on left 2".

You mention the Cole book. There are two others:

United Stats Cancellation 1845-1869 by Hubert C. Skinner... APS Handbook series published 1980 available for free at http://www.uspcs.org/resource-cente...nic-library/

The newest reference that adds on to the other two is "Cancellations Found on 19th Century US Stamps" by Kenneth Whitfield

It's $60 and nearly impossible to find at a nearby library unless you live near the Smithsonian Museums.

My previous thread details my experience communicating with the US Cancelation club and has a link to their website provided by user littleriverphil.

https://goscf.com/t/39645

Thanks for the congrats, and thank you very much for the information, HistoricalDNACollector. I will look into those resources. I think I might have seen that cancel, on your thread, recently. Cannot remember where, for certain. For some reason, it brings to mind a seigelauction page I was looking at. I'll see if I can find it, and post the link, if I do.

If a cancel resembles a known NYFM cancellation but is on a stamp issued well after the usual period of use of NYFM cancels (about 1885), the cancel can *NOT* be described as a NYFM cancel, because it isn't. The period of use of the Banknote-era NYFMs was between 1870-1885 or thereabouts. Actually, after 1878 NYFMs are rarely seen. By then, the hand struck types of fancy NYFMs were being phased out in favor of more standardized oval and ellipse-type cancels. This being said, there ARE a few examples of genuine 1870-85 NYFMs used way out of period, but they are all the fancier types of stars or geometrics. Simple designs like grids, targets, circles, etc were used by so many different cities that they rarely can be assigned to any one town, so they surely are not NYFMs.

Thank you for your time in responding, Bill. That's the information I was looking for, regarding NYFM.

Scott 220? I'm getting the cities/state cancels from the stockbook organized. There are 14 states, with a number of different cities so far. I'm suspecting this is a San Fransisco duplex? If it were Wisconsin, it'd be printed differently, letters reversed, and appear to be on the bottom of the circle. Anyone know of any other 'ISCO's it might be? I don't have either Wisconsin, or California, on the list of states yet. I am 'operating under the assumption' I will never know for certain, but I do now know, from looking, what San Fransisco's cancel looks like.

SF....correct.

Thank you for the confirmation, kevin504.

Yup San Francisco, California duplex cancel.

Thank you I_Love_Stamps for seconding the confirmation.

It will be a year, tomorrow, that I started this thread. Thank you, to everyone who contributed to it. I have referred back to it, on more than one occasion, for reference, when researching the 'accumulation' I inherited.

I'd like to take a moment to express my own sorrow, and condolences, to all of you, who feel the loss of I_Love_Stamps. Though I only 'knew' him, for a little under a year, via this community, he was obviously a very special person, and contributed greatly to my knowledge in philately. I will miss his contributions, and his comaraderie, as evidenced here on this thread, and throughout this site.

I am 90% of the way to having completed ID'ing, mounting, and 'rescuing' the US Classics of the 'accumulation' and making it into a 'collection'.

As an update, if anyone is interested, and did not see it posted on another thread, the manuscript cancel I chuckled over, at the very beginning of this thread, is now my most prized stamp. It has been confirmed as my Great-grandfather's signature. I'm informed by my mother, he most likely, was chuckling with me, particularly since it took me almost a year, to realize I had another cover, with his handwriting on it, to confirm the signature, but it took me that long to figure out what I was looking at.

It is now my avatar, and front and center of the collection.




Of the one hundred and twenty eight Benjamin Franklin 219's, I am down to six I am stumped on. The cancels are not clear, or complete. If anyone recognizes something familiar about them, I would appreciate any help, narrowing down the possibilities. I don't think they are good enough to ID, but in the event someone does know what any of them are, I thank you, in advance, for a post about them.

This one I am unsure if it's a cancel or a precancel. It is only on the stamp, not on the paper the stamp is on. The ink runs right to the very edge of the perfs, but does not leave the stamp. It looks to have been inked first, then attached to a cover, hence, is it a precancel?

It looks like stars to me, in his hair, or some kind of negative cross or 't' with some other lines drawn there.



These are the other five cancels. Another set of eyes on them might help.















I wish everyone Happy Stamping.