Precancels With The Rockets

Hello, I was curious if any of the pre cancels with a rocket on them are of any significance or is interesting to buyers. I have alot of dif ones. Most all have a number in the center but I just came across this one which was new to me. Does anyone know what it stands for?

RMS stands for Railway Mail Service. Nothing to do with rockets here, unfortunately.

Your stamp shows only the top portion of the killer. It is not a precancel (generally meaning a stamp canceled before application to the mail piece), but rather a regular cancel applied after mailing by the sender. As noted by hy-brasil, the RMS means your stamp was on a letter canceled on a train or at a station, similar to this example, which also shows the entire killer, often referred to a "barred oval":


Here is an older style with the year date outside the town mark. It also shows the curvature of the oval killer designed to match the larger circle of the entire device's base plate:


As you have found, this type of handstamp device comes with a variety of letters and numbers. The town mark and the killer are "duplexed" together as a pair, so you will also see this called a duplex cancel, coming in many types over the past two centuries.

Here are some with letters, likely designating a station. The GC being from Grand Central Station in New York City:


Here are some with numbers, typically designating a device number, or less frequently a station number. Most will be a "1" as their only device.


A use from Warm Springs, Georgia about a month before Franklin Roosevelt's death here.


They are the standard handstamp postmark at intermediate- and large-sized offices. With perhaps a few very rare exceptions, they add nothing to the value of the stamp.

Ok I do recall reading something about railway mailing service. Normally the rockets all stand for that or just the ones with the RMS? Sorry I'm only about 8-10 months new to this so just getting more into learning this area more but so far I'm more off page then I thought lmao..the more I try to learn, the more my head spins with the complexity of collecting these dang things lol.. Appreciate your info, its been helpful. So is there truth to there being value when it comes to this sort of stuff or is it basically just based on the stamp itself?

Hi,

Very good questions. I find this area of collecting very intriguing: U.S. cancels, esp. railroad cancels, and true precancels.

I like to buy select US kiloware (off paper) in volume at a price of around 3-10 stamps for a penny (say 20,000 stamps for $50) and then pull out all the unused stamps with full gum, precancels, perfins, chevron type cancels as you have shown, circular town/state cancels, fancy cancels, slogan cancels, and earlier stamps that catalog in the $0.50 and up range (used) and convert them all into separate collections. It's amazing what you can find. You wont get rich, but it's not uncommon to find catalog values much greater than your investment. The rule of thumb is: "Whatever floats your boat". It is also excellent therapy for cold winter days/evenings.

Hopefully, you'll enjoy expanding on what u have.

Good Luck

Greg