St. Helena Remainder Cancels

I was looking for information on this St. Helena cancel, and found some slightly conflicting information, so I thought I'd post what I found.



Both Scott Classic and SG British Empire have notes, but no pictures, regarding the remainder cancels applied in or around 1904, when stocks of older stamps were sold off to the philatelic community. The cancels spanned two stamps, and were made up of purple/violet diagonal lines forming a grid (or diamonds, if you prefer). Both catalogues say that these remainder stamps have little value, and they don't count as used examples.

Where the catalogues differ is that this stamp appears to be Scott 7/SG 44, and Scott doesn't include this stamp in the list of stamps with the remainder cancels. So, if you've never seen the cancel, you might think Scott's note doesn't apply, and that this is a postal usage.

I think I'm reading the catalogues correctly. For what it is worth, both catalogues also note that the cancel was easy to remove, and that this was often done.

Now, every cloud has a silver lining...these early St. Helena issues have been extensively forged, so you'd think that if you have a remainder cancel, you have a pretty good chance of having a genuine example of the stamp printer's craft. I trust no forgers were forging the remainder cancel, too, but I suppose you never know...

I had never heard of this. Thanks for sharing!

There are two types of diamond grille cancels for these St. Helena remainders. One has 4 bars, the other 5 bars.



The cancel with 5 bars is the scarcer of the two. The cancel is found in varying shades of violet. Apparently two different coloured cancels can sometimes be found on one stamp.

The numbers of remainders cancelled with the diamond grille are as follows:

Perkins Bacon 6d. overprints
2½d. 76,460
3d. 53,882
4d. 68,216
6d. 47,650
1s. 7,090
5s. 3,015

Key Plates
1½d. 49,409
2d. 58,394
2½d. 29,229
5d. 39,588
10d. 43,376

It is important to note that the cancel was only applied to the remainders still held by the Crown Agents in 1904. These stamps are in the range SG 40 to SG 52 .

In 1904 they were sold to a dealer (Messrs Healey) at a fraction of face value.

The stamps cancelled with the diamond grille have the status of being neither mint nor used, but some dealers continue to try to pass them off as used. Although they are a significant part of the philatelic story of St. Helena, resist the urge to pay too much for them. Here is an example of why you shouldn't pay much for them:



Of the 60,600 10d. brown of 1896 (SG 52) printed, some 43,376 were remaindered.

Interesting thread,
great information.

St Helena, a remote island in the atlantic 1200 miles
off the south coast of africa, made forever famous,
as the place of exile of Napoleon Bonaparte.

An important coaling station, which brings me to
the thought, that is a subject I have not seen addressed
on stamp forums, the world's early coaling stations.

I know of only 2, St Helena and Obok in Djibouti.

I think the list is going to grow considerably.

Gibraltar, Malta, Halifax and Bermuda were the great "fortified" coal ports of the British Empire.

Aden, Ascension, Port Said, Colombo, Singapore, Hong Kong, amongst many others were important coaling stations.

A philatelically fascinating but little heard of today coaling station was Perim Island.

http://www.peterpickering.com/Perim/

The other colonial powers developed networks reflecting their naval ambitions.

The USA established important coaling stations in Hawaii, Pago Pago and the Philippines.

Maybe start a new thread PF?

Recently, Philb posted a postcard of the coaling by hand at
Nagasaki Japan...
There's another.
Perim...great yarn.
That's 3 stations just servicing the red sea traffic.