What Is This France Purple Hex Cancel On A Sower Stamp?

I was thinking of bidding on this but wondered what it was, why is the cancel existing, what was it's purpose, it's use?

Not listed from what I can see with Guy Maggay

http://marcophilie.org/x/x-hex-i.html

It appears the stamp is rel modern 1907 sower

I am surprised the vendor dd not disclose the ID, Puzz.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...TRK:MEWAX:IT

Semeuse camée: 25c bleu rare obli hexagonale de facteur

which Google translates to

Cameo Sower: compulsory 25c blue hexagonal rare factor

which just seems to say that something is rare about something, possibly an inaccurate translation (to be somewhat expected).

Description says
RARE SEMEUSE CAMEE 25C BLEU AVEC OBLITERATION HEXAGONALE DE FACTEUR!!
Rare Semeuse Camée 25C Bleu Avec Obliteration Hexagonale Facteur!
Rare 25C Blue Cameo Sower With Obliteration Hex Factor!

Which sounds like the colour is a big thing (no proper catalogue here) with the hexagon adding some value.

It's well over 40 years since I last studied French in anger, but I still recall 'le facteur' - 'the postman'. (What in the translation industry we call a 'faux ami' )

False friend?

Maybe I just committed a "faux ami".

Hi puzzler
I have just had a quick flick through my SG France catalogue. There doesn't seem to be a shade of blue that is particularily rare in that issue.
I also had a quick look through to see if there are any overprints or precancels similar to that one, and I couldn't find one, under France or any of the colonies. The nearest I could find was a plain "V" for Vichy colonial overprint. Probably nothing to do with that.
Its a Puzzler, Puzzler!

Now, before we get in too deep here, Smauggie , a faux ami is a word that looks very like a word in another language, but isn't the same. So, 'facteur' isn't 'factor' here, but 'postman' ... And alright, 'le facteur' can also mean 'factor', but one of the first rules of translation is that, if your translation comes out nonsense, you've made a mistake somewhere.

Following the address Rod is giving about "marcophilie" , I read about those hexagonal mark the postman (yes, "le facteur") made on the stamp. These were apparently made when the obliteration was missing. That's why they are rare. One numeral a tell from which post office the letter is coming from ( the top one) and the other tell which postman deliver it. But I didn't see one with a roman numeral. Daniel

Puzzler

I think you would call this marking a 'carrier cancellation'?

Chimo

Bujutsu

The postman did it in the lobby with the cancelling device!

Fascinating. Had never run into this before now, nor read about it.

Thank you all.

Puzzler :

from a very knowledgeable colleague :

Hellow there, sorry I am a bit late in answering that one.

This small hexagonal cancel is no mistery by itself, it is a "facteur" mark (a facteur being a postman in charge of the mail delivery.)

This one is french, of course, and should be typical of Paris, with VI indicating the post office , and 3 pointing to the specific postman, while the overall shape (circle, square, etc.) points to the "brigade" (the postmen team in operation).

As a single cancellation on a stamp, it usually means late cancellation by the delivery postman.

Problem is, there is no Paris PO numbered VI at that time. Roman
numerals are used in that period, but not VI.

Hesitating between something more elaborated and a simple bogus...

--
Greetings, Bruno

Thank you Bruno and rod for passing it on.

The stamp and cancel does look very clean doesn't it? I wondered a bit. I may get it anyway (or try to) for an example of what not to get or further research.

Yep,
exactly what I thought, it looked engineered,
but what do I know? :)
So I didn't mention it, didn't want to rain
on your parade.

Further evidence toward the "doubtful" side Puzz.


Some Paris arrondissements or districts main PO's were attributed roman numeral denominations in 1901, but only for the outer districts (12th to 20th districts, or XII to XX PO's).

For the inner districts, the process was much more delayed. Paris VI was not created before 1954 (central PO for the inner 6th district, was PO 69 before 1954).

--
Regards, Bruno

So would this hexagon marking on a registration stamp (receieved from londonbus1) with France written in pencil, be an example of the Facteur" marking possibly? (I received it as is.)