Number Cancels

I been wondering about the football shaped number cancels such as this one:




Was there any rhyme or reason to the numbers used?

Also, does anyone have an idea of how high the numbers go? The highest I have is 23.




I did find one with the letters "RMS" on it as well, would this be rural mail service?

Thanks,
Jon

Greetings!

You have what is called a duplex cancel. A duplex cancel has two parts, a circular date stamp and a killer. The "football" shaped number is the killer. A killer can be an arrangement of bars, letters or numerals. I don't know how high they can go but I've seen examples of some pretty high numerical killers.

"RMS" refers to the railway mail service. Sorting and cancelling mail aboard a train was a typical method of carrying mail over long distances. It was used from 1862 until 1977.

I hope that helps!

Dan

Jonnio:

I collect these types of duplex cancels on U.S. air mail stamps. I have number, in various typefaces, from one to 98. Often the number corresponded with a postal clerk or wicket number.

I also have cancels with letters in them (A, B, etc.). Some of the letters correspond with a postal station, like the "Y" for Postal Station Y in New York City.

I also have cancels with writing in them. "Air mail" is obvious. "Col. Cir." for the Columbus Circle Post Office in NYC, "Wall Street"., "C.A." for the Church Street Annex Postal Station in NYC, "HT" for the Hudson Terminal in NYC,, "GPO" for General Post Office, "GC" for grand Central Terminal Post Office in NYC, "Tremont" for the Tremont Post Office, in NYC.

Some I cannot identify where they are from are:

"KINGS BDG" (the CDS beside it says "Kings Bridge"
"TRINITY"
"MAIN"
"PTS"
"VAR"

I have seen, but do not have one that says "MAUI" from Hawai'i.

Lastly, one from Texas that is just a star.

David

Thanks Dan, you're post is quite informative.

I have wondered for many years at the purpose of the numbers. Did these numbers identify a postal employee, a postal station or other means to identify the route a piece of mail took in the delivery process?

Marty

Well, David, your post was not up when I started keying mine. (I should have clicked "refresh" before sending mine because you answered my questions before I posted them.

Thanks, Marty

Just to add a little more, this type of killer was designed to put enough ink on the stamp that it couldn't be washed out and the stamp re-used. The method used prior to this was grilling, whereby a grilling device was pressed into the stamps paper to break the fibers so the ink would get into it and not easily wash out.

This particular killer is called a barred elliptical (very similar to the barred numeral used in Victoria.) First used in 1875, apparently number 789 was used by the American Expeditionary Force in France in WWI.

Balf

Does anyone know of a stamp dealer which specializes in cancellations? I would think that a few of them would be quite pricey. Mmmmbalf mentioned number 789 for the AEF in France in WWI. I would really like to get one of those.

Thank you for all of the information on these!

I've started putting them into one of my stock books as a side collection, I'm trying to see how many different ones I have as I wade through the boxes of kiloware I purchased on ebay.

I bought WAY too much

Thanks,
Jon