Worldwide Training School Stamps And Test Stamps

It would be nice to get an idea of the kind of material used to train Post Office staff in different parts of the world and also where to find information.

In the UK, Allan oliver of Shropshire had a very good website about the GB Training School stamps but I believe there were some problems and it has now gone [at least my links are all dead-ends].
He does have a Book about the stamps in his Web Store.

http://stores.lulu.com/allanoliver1937

Here a few examples, I'll post more later.



The scan above shows GB Machin Definitives overprinted for use in PO Training Schools.
There are many examples and varieties. The three 29p examples all have different overprints: Thick Bar, Thin Bar and Dry Print.
All are Vertical, but Horizontal overprints are also used as well as two bars and plethora of varieties that brings.

I would like to see examples from other countries, should they exist.

Londonbus1

A mixed watermark Wilding set with Thick [mostly] and thin bars.

Australian Stamp News circa 1976

20100919 coil test pair for auction...reserve $200

How times have changed since 1976. These are seen everywhere in the UK now, on dealers lists, stands at shows and auctions.
They are just as plentiful as Errors and forgeries which are also 'illegal'.

I wonder what they'll be selling next....the Post Office I mean ! ....Oops!

Londonbus1.....I'll post the KGVI examples tomorrow

Link to the world's greatest stamp forum, with similar material.

http://goscf.com/t/9565

"poached egg" testers.

acknowledgement Blair rcsd.

The Sanitary Postage Service Corp. was founded in New York around 1920 with the concept of vending dispensed sanitized postage stamps to fight the spread of contagious disease from licking stamps. Never progressed beyond the test stages.

US (no scans available, sorry) text Only.

Dummy Testing Coils with Defacement Lines

Black dummy For Testing Purposes Only (FTPO) coils were produced by the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing (BEP) using both the Cottrell and B presses. These dummy/test coils were used by
USPS personnel to set up coil vending machines and were also used by large mailers to set up coil
affixing machinery.

The FTPO coils printed on the Cottrell press are known with and without tagging.

Some of the tagged Cottrell FTPO coils are found with various color defacement lines. While the
purpose of these defacement lines has never been fully documented, many collectors feel the lines
were added as a further precaution so that the coils would not be used as postage: Their taggant
could activate a canceling machine just as the taggant on a regular stamp would.

It is also unknown if these defacement lines were added by BEP, the USPS or others.

Shown here are five different colors used in defacement lines. Examples are shown at 300%,
scanned at 75 dpi and saved as jpgs at 90 quality.

Rod, the black (more correctly grayish black) was the most common color.


Black


Blue


Red


Purple


Orange


Dummy roll of 3000

Excellent Russ,
I presume you were the author of that one.




Not so silly really, Lb,
On May 17th 1938
The marquess of Bute, sold half of Scotland, Oops typo Wales
actually he sold half of Cardiff for 20 million pounds
which included 20,000 houses, 1000 shops,
250 pubs and theatres farmland and villages.

Lord Bute was descended from Robert 3rd, King of Scotland
in the 14th century.
Lord Bute signed up in WW1 as a private.

Here is an envelope bearing a strip of three of the green 'poached egg' stamps, apparently postally used with the CDS for Muswell Hill (London) dated 9.15am, 20th July 1937:



The envelope has been slit at the left edge to open it so it appears that it did once contain a letter - or perhaps just someone in the post office creating something unusual? Chris Wren

You might find the Dummy Stamps Study Group of interest. On this site you can read issues 1-23 of its newsletter Dummy news and views:

http://www.usstamps.org/dssg.html

The Olivers' book can be accessed here:

http://www.philatelicsannex.org/ref.../oldbook.pdf