Gold Coast Help - Oval Cancel On Victoria

Any ideas about this cancel on the Gold Coast 1884 two-pence gray?



(Scott 14, SG 13)

I assume it is a revenue use. I don't recall seeing this particular negative, or reverse, cancel before. I assume the center says "Gold Coast" and the top looks to end in "Office" but that is all I can guess at.

Ideas?

ok I will go out on a limb and go for INA in the bottom last three letters.

If I were to guess at the bottom, I'd guess "Elmina" as the likeliest candidate. But that is completely unfounded...

Bigger images would be good, but I know the limitations of the board

I can go much larger with it this evening. It seemed to lose some readability for me when enlarged, but we'll try it...

I would say it is a postal cancellation, albiet irregular usage of a post office "seal". It may have been used due to no CDS or BN canceller having been issued, or they were lost, returned for repair - any number of scenarios.

The "seals" would normally be used to impress seals on post office articles, including mail bags.

Here is an example on cover. Now this is a poor scan (a copy of a copy, I am afraid), but you can see a similar usage of a "seal" as a canceller at Addah.

Superb, plateflaw. Just superb.

Now all I have to do is find where I put that stamp.

It's times like this that I think perhaps Rod is serious about sneaking around with a flashlight and crowbar (or a "torch and jimmy", or whatever it is he goes about with in the dark of night).

When I find it, I'll put in a larger scan for anyone that is interested. I may be resigned to not deciphering the bottom "frame" wording.

Indeed, I had heard of people using mail bag seals for cancellation but have never seen an example. Thanks!

Here is a better scan, along with a detail, just in case anyone cares to take a stab at deciphering the cancel...







(Thought I was losing my mind...)

The top word is Office I think, so a fiscal cancel

To me, the top word(s) look like ET (?) FISK, possibly a French company ?

If you put the the words POST OFFICE.
And then under that put ... ELMINA. . . .
And if you expand the letter spacing in the town name slightly more than in the words "Post Office" you end up with the A directly underneath the I.

ELMINA is good,
but I'd risk BeeSee's Tuvalu collection that
it is not Post Office.
The last two letters have to be "ON" surely?

Yes, smauggie, I think the spacing is there for Elmina. I checked -INA, -IBA, -IDA, etc., against a list of Gold Coast post offices, and I think Elmina is the best choice...if the bottom is a town name. I've been looking at plateflaw's cover, above, and trying to make out anything in that bottom "ring."

Thanks to all for looking.

I am staying with office in the top and gonna do CHINA on the bottom. That's my story and I'm stickin to it. (maybe) :)

Top letters magnified and sharpened a bit.



Not an SK at the end but I do not think it is ON either.
Last character seems like an C or K with the upflung arms and the second last seems too convoluted to be an O. An S maybe or a number 5?

The black bits that are part of the stamp itself underneath make it confusing.