Transvaal Pakketpost Cancel...help?

Anyone know what service this applied to?



Google let me down, so I'm left to assume it is a parcel service, and not a ship-mail cancel...?

This looks like a match...



This cancel is only seen from Johannesburg, and the J of JOHANNESBURG can be seen on the example posted by Cjd.

The cancel is found both with and without year slugs, and appears to have been in use during the early to mid-1890's.

I assume it is a parcel stamp of some kind, as Ian B. Mathews' Transvaal Philately is silent on the purpose of the PAKKETPOST cancel.

Thanks! I'd say it is a match.

This is a tough nut ! My wife googled it in Dutch....there is one Society that has information on the stamp..but its not free..you have to join the organization ! Hmmmph !

i meant the postmark not the stamp !!

Pakket is the Dutch word for parcel.

Ok..so when they sent something pakketpost or parcel post they used a special canceller on a regular stamp !

I have no idea how they did in South Africa, but in British India, letters and parcels were carried by two different systems outside the cities. Letters were carried by runners in the 19th century (and well into the 20th in many places, where there no roads), while parcels were carried by horse or bullock cart.

The British Indian post office used distinctive cancels for the parcel post, and so did some of the Indian States. This example from Jammu & Kashmir only shows the bottom of the (rather large) cancellation but with PAR indicating PARCEL at the base



on the 2 Anna yellow on deep green of 1883-94. (The basic letter rate at the time was ½ Anna.)