Sierra Leone Auxiliary Marking On Stamp?

When I first saw this, I assumed that the colored line was a crayon as a part of a registered envelope marking. I didn't really pay attention to the purple letters.



Now having scanned it, I wonder if the line is a part of a handstamped marking. It is at a strange angle to the purple letters, which look like a " V. L. " to me. I've looked at quite a few Sierra Leone registered covers online and in auction catalogs, and I haven't found anything that matches this.

Ideas?

Thanks for looking.

I'd assume that this is an example of fiscal use of a stamp. The black cancellation says 'Registered.' There is a second set of purple letters half way down the right hand side of the stamp, but a different purple to the line purple.

Without the registered cancel, I would have immediately thought "revenue" but I wasn't considering a combination of a revenue cancel and a registered-mail cancel on the same stamp...I don't know enough of the old system to know how that would make sense. Ideas?

Could the purple be part of a forwarding agent's cachet? You see them on roughly contemporary Indian and other Asian British possessions, but I have no idea about West Africa.

I'm with you Tony,
the purple colour is odd use as a registration crayon.

I don't recall seeing one on a cover from western Africa. Perhaps I'll try a few more searches with the new terms and see what pops up.

Thanks, guys.