Canada - Clear Cancellations

One of the things that I love to have when I am upgrading my Used Canada, is a clear cancellation identifying the town. Hopefully, a period date and a Province would also be visible but, especially on small definitives, that's often a bit much to expect.

I sometimes will even choose a slightly flawed stamp for the visual appeal of the cancel but that's just a personal preference.

Right now, I am in the midst of documenting the "keepers" of the collection and it struck me that others might like to see the results as well. Nothing rare here, but I think the eventual impact of pages of these will be fantastic.

This segment covers the mid to late 1930's.

As a cancel collector, I've found it very difficult to find clear cancels from Canada. Since I collect by date, if I find some from Canada or not, it makes no difference. Most of my cancels have come from Western Europe.

Did you sort through a lot of kiloware or make purchases or do a little of both?

Certainly if I see something at a dealer's shop or at a Stamp Show, I jump on it. Same goes if I spot something on ebay or the like. Nevertheless, I would have to say that the majority comes from incidental finds.

Over the last few years, I have purchased quite a few general collections or accumulations. Kiloware, not so much. The percentage of good cancels in collections seems to be higher and those, be it Canada or world, are what I keep.

The remainder is traded or sold on. It isn`t something I ever intend or manage to make money at but I can usually get a respectable amount of the initial outlay back from resale.

Here are a couple of my Canadian stamps with clear cancels. I suspect that since they are special delivery stamps, an effort was made to ensure that clear cancels were applied:

Very nice! I carefully looked at each and every stamp displayed. I only collect (and definitely do not invest in) Canadian mint, but I always appreciate what others collect and proudly present.

I'll happily take both of those, WT, if they are just lying around collecting dust. They beat mine.

I just took a look at the Special D and while they all have decent cancels, I'd say there are only two that meet the criteria on Name and Date. And they aren't those two.

Some of those are excellent, especially on the small definitive stamps. Wow.

I love the New Brunswick ship stamp and cancel. I have never seen one so nice.

Have you done any research into fake cancels or does that bother you enough to go to the extra effort? I myself am interested but have not invested in the literature as of yet. Just curious.

Nice city cancels. Has there been any research regarding rarity of certain towns in Canada? I do like to see crisp cds. It gives a stamp its own little history.

I don't think the worry about fake cancels would kick in unless I was actively collecting very rare usages. I am just looking for the physical appearance rather than chasing First Day or rare towns. And by the way I collect most, from older collections or from kiloware, it would be very unusual to encounter one. I suppose when I buy say a $1.00 value, nicely cancelled, off of ebay, it should cross my radar screen but I have to admit that it has never entered my mind.




Yes there has. Most of what I have seen is by Province where someone has created a book listing all the Post Offices and attempted to assign rarity factors. Again, since I am not attempting to complete of all the Post Offices in an area, it is not something I have studied. If you were to Google search something like Post Offices of British Columbia (or Alberta or Saskatchewan or ...)you would most likely come up with something.

This link may have been posted on this forum recently so I must give credit to whomever posted this originally:

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/...index-e.html

"The Post Offices database documents changes of postmasters at individual post offices located across Canada. The data relate to open and closed post offices located in the ten provinces and territories."

Well done, Backroads! I'm a huge fan of this era from Canada, and the CDS cancellations are amazing.

People seem to be enjoying looking at this material so I will finish my scans of the ones I am satisfied with up to the Elizabethan period stamps. If I have the time, I'll also take it back to the beginning of the Century.

Thank you for all the comments and, by the way, that National Archives of Canada site posted by stamphound is a fascinating one to play with.

Do you pay special attention to the use of the stamps "in period?" I notice that all of the ones displayed are within what *I* would consider proper periods for each issue. Just curious, as I am beginning to collect the KGVI Peace issue and you have many examples shown above.

It is great to have something that is definitely in period but I am not religious about it. By that, I mean that I do not insist that the date fall within the period that the stamp was issued. I would not refuse something that was three or four years late. Might not buy it, but if it were to come my way, I would display it until something better comes along.

That's the nice thing about collecting by cancellation. There's ALWAYS something better out there.

I think these postings about cover the first 50 years of the 20th century. OK - I cheated and went two years either side. When you look at the low percentage of photographs, it kind of comes home to you just how difficult it is to find that perfect cancellation and even some of these are kind of iffy to a fussy mind like mine.

They will accumulate - slowly - but I shall persevere.

And by the way, I would welcome anybody's postings of their perfect one(s) from this period. I am tempted to start the last half of the century but it will be a while before I get to scanning those.












I rather like this one. It is Indian Head, a town on the CPR line east of Regina, SK. The ASSA at the bottom is short for Assinniboia which is what that part of the country was called before the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta were created in 1905.















Not Perfect. I have not identified the town. There is a (SN)OWDEN in Saskatchewan but the edge of the letter on the perfs of the stamp looks like an S or a B. Suggestions?

The 15c Champlain's Departure's cancel is BOWDEN, ALBERTA, founded 1887, incorporated as a village in 1904 (stamp issue date is 1908), possibly named after a railway surveyor's wife.