What Kind Of British Cancel Is This?

Does anyone know what kind of cancel this is? I think they're both Birmingham (1938/1939), but they don't look like any other British cancels I have. Does anyone know what kind of cancel this was?





Thanks for looking!

Nothing in my box of tricks.

Perhaps a "skeleton" postmark of Birmingham?

It occurred to me today that as both cancels are on brown paper, perhaps this was a special parcel cancellation.

I read somewhere that as parcel packaging is not often preserved, such cancels are not often seen.

Would this make sense?

Hi, just had a look through Whitney 7th edit. The only things similar are the Blackwell type rubber handstamps of this period. Handstamped because the impressions are slightly blurred. If the paper is slightly thicker than what you would expect for a normal envelope then its a good chance it was off a larger type or a parcel.

Except that 1 1/2d postage is the standard letter rate from 1923 to 1940, and on the second the 4 1/2d is too low for a parcel which had started at 6d since 1935. Probably they are from larger envelopes with a rate fixed by the weight of the contents, maybe for printed papers.
Regards.

Parcel hammers were indeed rubber,
they were often preserved, I have squillions
Rubber parcel handstamps generally are concentric rings
with 2 horizontal bars with the name of the office
no date included.

It would seem that these aren't parcel cancels, certainly not regular ones anyway.

Thanks for the comments, rod222, bayman52!

One can never be dogmatic in Philately
there are just about always exceptions.

Takes this bouquet-garni of Parcel ephemera

there are parcel postmarks similar to yours.

On the Guernsey page, yes.

Interesting.

How about this one? What kind of cancel was this?



Also on cancels: wasn't the era of KGVI a bit late for numeral cancels? Or did their use linger on in many parts of the country? This one would date from 1938/39:

The first NPB = Newspaper Branch
the second a duplex 84
I'll have to look up the number for corresponding town.

84 = Cantebury Kent
(although I would defer to Nigelc for confirmation,
I am not entirely confident of my records)


Yours is type 48
half the alphabet was apparently used
so "O" seems very late

Thanks re the NPB.

I haven't been able to find out what the duplex 84 was - all the references to this number I can find online are to a much earlier period.

The question for me is whether numeral cancels were much in use by the end of the '30s. I would have thought their use was very uncommon by this date.

Rodney's spot on, 84 = Canterbury. Some of these old postmarks can be found on QEII stamps as well as GVI ones.

Yes, Nigel, I am currently mounting Canada
and noted a barred mute killer on a 1955 issue.
Looked kinda out of place.

NPB postmark Fernau 48 as Rod has said, and similar to 49. Pictures for basic info only. Trying to find the rest.






84 is Canterbury, a 4 barred postmark (4 bars above and below the number) is listed as late as 1949, so your 3 bars is something of a rarity!!

Thanks for the info, bayman52!

Another question regarding British cancels: was there a reason for the adoption of a duplex cancel with smaller numbers inside a diamond shape? This is the only such cancel I've got in my collection, so I'm a little curious.

Just the evolution of a process.

What you have is
London : Inland Section
Horizontal oval with a number in a diamond
numbers range from 1 to 107
CV $1.75
datestamp with double circle CV $4.50

Type number 106
Your numeral 105 is Bracknell in Berkshire I think.