Odd French Cancellation

Hi Everyone -
I have a France Scott #56 with an odd cancellation. The stamp itself is rather shabby, but the marking is something I have not been able to identify.

The numeral cancel is easy enough - it is 2240, the identifier of the office at Marseille. But what is the blue ALGER repeated down the stamp? A ship cancel? A roller cancel? A complete fantasy? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance -
Kris

Hi Kris and welcome.
The cancel isn't that strange. It is a 'losange grand chiffres' and 2240 is Marseille as you mentioned - http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblit%...ros_chiffres

The over/underprint is something else though. I'll check my Maury this evening.
Any chance of a larger scan?

There was an exact same thread on a less friendly forum recently

Might have something to do with Algiers, the capital of Algeria. In French it's Alger, and at the time Algeria was a French colony.

There is an item listed in this auction item 3717 - http://www.maison-timbre.fr/vo/docu...type=algerie

Also has GC2240 and an Alger CDS so not unheard of.

Thank you! I think that bateau a vapeur cancel from the auction site is a great clue. I know that Marseille was the primary port for ships serving Algiers, so now the trick is to figure out the usage of that blue ALGER marking. I was thinking something like a paquebot mark (which were not implemented until much later but they may have had something along those lines in use at the time to indicate mailed at sea).

I am reminded that Algeria was under French rule from 1830 to 1872. Perhaps this stamp was on a cover bound from Algeria to a location in France, and got cancelled as it came into port in Marseilles