Wheel Of Fortune Cancellations-New Publication

I would like to announce the availability of a new publication which should be of interest to postal history cover collectors interested in the various cancellations used in the 19th century.

I was one of the contributors.



Years of personal research by Larry L. Rausch of Rochester, New York have resulted in a new book dealing with "Wheel of Fortune" cancellations widely used throughout the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th century along with a handful of towns in Mexico and Guatemala.

"Wheel of Fortune Cancellation" is a 136 page work in full color that documents and illustrates over 1,050 town dater and canceller postmarks in state and town name order. Many markings were painstakingly redrawn to clearly and accurately reproduce their intricacy. Almost 300 covers are also shown to augment the listing.

In his introduction Rausch goes into detail about the seller of the handstamp devices themselves, the F. P. Hammond Company of Chicago, IL and later Aurora, IL that sold them to post offices. Covers from 1880 to 1917 have been found with the common petal wedge design.

"My interest in these cancels began from articles written by postal historian Roger Curran. Collector Arthur Beane intended to write a book on the subject but never did," says Rausch. "My engineering background drew me to their fascinating design and I wanted to learn more about them. I hope my book sparks interest and collaboration among other collectors of this cancellation. Updates will be made available as new information comes forward."

The author offers the book as a free downloadable PDF eBook from the Rochester Philatelic Association's (RPA) web site at www.rpastamps.org/wof.html. It is also available as a spiral-bound printed version at a reasonable price, with full details regarding cost and order information presented on the RPA web site to avoid conflict with rules on SCF. Any new discoveries or updates may also be sent to Larry at the email address provided on the RPA web site.

In addition to the publication, there are several checklists that can be downloaded and printed out and carried conveniently to shows and dealer's stores when hunting for new material.

Obviously, this would be something of interest to me. The extensive illustrations of covers and CDSs make it great, far better than the old style of just providing lists of towns.