New South Wales Stamps With A French Cancellation

NSW
Franking 2d
French Pmk.
Could it be, a nick of the blue registration wax crayon.

Possibly. It's a close match to the colour of the stamp. Hopefully Bobby De La Rue will be able to provide a high resolution scan of the area.

I'm guessing that he can see a difference in the surface in the flesh if he says it looks like it is a pencil or crayon mark.

Scan below.

Opinions & thoughts appreciated. Could it be both a printing artifact and the registration crayon?

Registration crayon. Indubitably.
The 3 dark blue nicks ?

Bobby De La Rue,

It's a very good colour match for the stamp ink.

What do you see when you hold the stamp at an angle to the light and observe the surface with a magnifying glass? Smooth continuity of surface sheen near C or obvious foreign deposit on surface?

fairdinkumstamps,

I'm seeing a smooth continuity. There's certainly nothing like any foreign matter stuck to the surface of the stamp.

I've put two arrows on the image. I think these may be minute plate scratches. What do you think?

Bobby De La Rue,

These stamps were surface printed (a.k.a typograph, letterpess), so colour flaws are not from scratches but generally due to a build-up of material (such as dried ink) or other abnormality on the plate, providing portions of newly raised surface which the applied ink could adhere to and be transferred to the stamp, along with rest of the raised design on the plate.

Cracks, voids and scratches would produce white areas on the design.

Yes of course! Silly me

In my feeble defence, I'm spinning a few plates at the moment.

Thanks fairdinkumstamps. Holding the stamp at an angle is valuable guidance for the future

I've got hundreds of these stamps so I will have to have a look to see if I can find another one, as time permits of course.

@rod222



A registered cover cannot go uncanceled at the office of booking in Australia and subsequently receive paquebot cancel aboard an MM steamer.

Ah! nice one Joy.
Sage advice, thank you.
The silly emoticon, in this case, spoilt my joy of learning.
It felt condescending.

Edit: "Silly" twister emoticon removed so that Rod's "Joy of Learning" does not get spoilt further.

Might the crayon have been applied on the Salazie mailboat that Joy alluded to in April last year?

I don't think France or its colonies or Fr. Sea POs had the practice of marking registered covers with cruciform lines in blue crayons.

One hypothesis could be that the cover on which the stamp was affixed, was underpaid and the remnant of blue crayon on the stamp is the part of the postage due amount entered on the cover. But that is purely speculation.

Thank you Joy.
I remain with the opinion it is blue wax crayon.
but accept Joy's approach.

How it got there, we shall probably never know.
Perhaps it doesn't matter in the scheme of things.
If it cannot be registration, and is not part of the stamp production.

The thing is,I am totally ignorant of Registration routines between countries. I do not recall any discourse on this, in this forum.