Banknote Era Cancels

I can't make anything out of the cancels in that last group cet gg, but the last stamp in the group is of some interest to me (if you ever think of selling any of these). The left numeral "1" appears to be the so-called "candle flame" variety. It is a printing anomaly mentioned and illustrated in Brookman (vol III). There is a trail of white on the right side of the numeral that rises up smokelike from the ball on that side. His illustrations include examples where both numerals show it, but also where it only shows on the left numeral, like yours.

Yours looks like a clear example.

Thank you, essayk, for your comments. I appreciate you pointing out the candle to me. There is already one in the collection, one with a candle on the left. There is also one with candles on both sides. I didn't notice this one. I'll let you know if my son, who is inheriting the collection, wishes to part with it.

For now, the others are mounted on an '1890 Series Cancels - Unidentified' page. Thank you for looking them over.

Right now, I am back at the 'Rorschach' phase, looking over the cork and fancy cancels we have. I've one I thought was a boot, but upon closer inspection, it could be a bison, it could be a mad mouse, or it could be .. a boot.

Another looks like a steamer, or maybe a submarine, or perhaps a locomotive...

Then, there's this one. I don't know if I should mount it in the Massachusetts state page of cancels, or in the cork, or fancy, cancels.

cork....

Thank you, kevin, for taking the time to comment. My apologies if my lack of a smilie emoticon was misleading. I was not seriously intending on mounting the above stamp on the Massachusetts state page.

My contemplation of the 'Rorscach cancels' (as well as my attempt at being facetious) continues.


Is it 'The man on the moon'?



A bison? (with chicken feet)




Buddy Holly? (or Stan Laurel)




Or a sinking submarine with two people aft, jumping ship?




Facetiousness aside, when I peruse the "Cancellations and Killers of the Banknote Era" it is impressive some of the images carved, and also easy to see how you can misidentify a cancel, when you have only one part of the image, but once ID'd with the other part, becomes a complete and impressive whole, particularly, those who attempted 3D images, and were successful at it.

Here are some nice SOTN fancies on #65 I picked up this weekend.

Those are nice, eyeonwall. Thanks for sharing them. I have one similar to the second one, I posted on the first page of this thread, but it doesn't look nearly as good as that.

I have two that resemble the first cancel you posted, eyeonwall.

This one, the stamp's edges, look like they've been through a shredder.



This one I thought was interesting because it doesn't pass the edge of the stamp, onto the paper. It looks like it should, even though the ink is faded. Perhaps that's why Gramps didn't soak it off.