Japanese Stamp

I found this stamp in amongst many others. It was in a little sleeve with the words "1888-92 Japan, 25s blue green". I don't have my Scott Catalogs yet (they are on the way) so I was hoping one of you could tell me a little about this stamp. Condition is not grest, there's paper stuck to the back, the cancellation is so dark, and the paper it is made of looks fragile. Of course if it's really that old, maybe it should be. Anyway, is it old? What can you tell me about it? Thanks.

I don't know the first thing about Japanese stamps, but I've been meaning to tell you that every time I see your user ID I think . . .

Stamp Dog Millionaire!

good one

stampdog and thank you for the pic!

What I do know about japanese stamps is when I see the word "Imperial" then it's old, I mean pre-WWII. I am greatly impressed by it's very nice clear cancellation nice stamp!

The stamp shown is Japan's Scott #82, first issued in 1888. To some people your cancel is a killer, to others it is a well center very clear imprint. The real question now is it a postally used copy or a telegraph or even telephone office cancelation. Since I can't read Japanese, I can't tell you. Postally used stamps are worth more then the telegraph & telephone cancelations. Scotts used price listing is for a VF, postally canceled copy.

Keep collecting!

I am not an expert in the field, but this looks like a normal postal cancel for mail inside Japan. International mail had to go through the international post offices that had special cancellers. This is a stamp from the new Koban series, as it is called.
Cannot really read the Japanese dates (I think it's in the character below the horizontal line), apart from the last row, which seems to mean 20th day.

Jan-Simon

Well maybe the notation someone made in the little sleeve it was in was right (1888-92 Japan). Should I leave it as is, with the paper still attached? Looks like someone just cut around the perfs as close as they could. Might end up being one of my older stamps. At any rate, I'll consider this another nice gem. (Need to work on my pictures though, they're always too dark).

The lines on the postmark read:

Buzen (old province, now part of Fukuoka Prefecture and Oita Prefecture)
Moji (old city, now part of Kitakyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture)
27th year, 9th month
20th day

Assuming Meiji era, the date would correspond to September 20th, 1894.

Tom previously provided a chart to match the traditional Japanese year of reign.
https://goscf.com/t/6258

k

Thanks for the chart, will print and keep for future use. I assume the date was in Japanese, since I don't see what you are referring to, datewise.

I love the postmark. Very clear.

Dianne

Below is a basic chart for Chinese/Japanese numbers. Remember, in the postmark, the script reads from RIGHT to LEFT.



There is a special character that is in the postmark, but NOT shown in the chart, because it is only for a few specific usages. That is the rightmost character in the third line of the postmark -- it is the special character for "twenty". Normally, the actual number "twenty" is written with 2 characters, just like in the very bottom line of the postmark. For numbers 21-29 on calendar dates, the special single character is used.

k

Great info KHJ:

But I still don't get it...the numbers under the line would be ...

------------------
? 9 ? 7 20
? 10 2

I see how you get the 3rd line 20+7 gives me 27th year and 9 for the month.

On the bottom line, wouldn't 2+10 give me 12?

Kirk

[EDIT: you will need to have Chinese language font installed and enabled for your browser to read this post properly.]

Good questions, Kirk! I pilfered that number chart, so let me clarify...


Yeah, that's the tricky part. The symbol for "10" � is only a number if it is by itself; otherwise, it means "tens". therefore that bottom line means 2 tens, not 2+10. If there is no number in front of the �, then it defaults to 1 ten (i.e., 10).



Filling in the question marks are the characters for month 月 / year 年 / day 日. The rightmost character 廿, is the special character for 20 (an abbreviation for 2 tens), but is only used for dates 21-29.

therefore, literally...

month 9 year 7 2-tens
day tens 2

Of course, must read from right to left, with makes it
27 year 9 month
2 tens day

Which translated means
27th year, 9th month
20th day

I'm pretty sure I've succeeded in making it harder than it is.
k

Cool. You explained it very well. Makes sense to me -- no small feat --Kirk

Thanks for the linguistics lesson Kim.
Kirk, that stamp was cancelled on my wife's birthday (not the year).Very cool stamp.

OK, I've done my part. I'm a numbers guy, so the rest of the Japanese language will be your part. I will await your posts for Japanese 101...

k

thanks for the ref number symbols khj. surely will come in handy