Goderich Po

Visiting a friend near Goderich Ont., on Lake Huron (scene of last years tornado), picked up a couple of pieces of local mail at a flea market.
Envelope with KEVIII postmarked in Clinton Ont on May 15, 1907, and back stamped Goderich the same day.
Queen Vic postal card with nice clear Goderich circle square cancel.

Jamesw: lived in Clinton for a short period and I've previously posted on riding the transport trucks to the Goderich elevators to pick up grain for delivery to feed mills in local communities inland from Lake Huron. How does the song go - memmmmmories, etc and that other song "thanks for the memories", etc......I'm becoming a nostalgia buff - living in the past.

Jamesw: I was remiss in not mentioning the beautiful squared circle back-stamp on the front of the bottom cover and same day service too. Those were the days!

Nice clear "Square Circle" cancel. It was used from 1894 to 1906. The cancel was proofed on January 25, 1894.

The reference books generally list the types of stamps the SC's were used on but, rarely do they mention on postal stationery. Sometimes, it is postal stationery that they can be more often seen.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Thanks both. The seller had some KEVIIs postal cards with nice circle squares as well, but he wanted too much for them. Had to do some dickering.
He kept talking about 'book value', but I'm not sure what book he was reading!

Hi All

The book I use is titled "The Square Circle Postmarks Of Canada" by W.G. Moffatt and Glenn Hansen.

The book does not give estimated retail values but does give an RF (Rarity Factor) for each postmark listed.

The scarce ones go into RFs from 2.5 to 250. The cheaper ones are the lower figures.

I am not sure what the dealer means by book value unless he is referring to this RF. For instance, Goderich has a RF of only 10 because it is relatively common. Another example I will use is Gravenhurst, in my area of Muskoka and the RF for that is only 25, again fairly common. Palmerston, Ontario has a RF of 200 which is quite scarce because few have been seen.

There isn't any mathmatical formula used to determine price that I am aware of and I think the value is placed at the discretion of the owner who is selling it (?)

The scale of the RF from lowest to the highest is as follows:

RF 2.5 (not 25) - Over 10,000 examples known
RF 250 - Only 1 (one) example noted

Goderich, for example, is listed with 1400 to 2999 examples known.

Hope this helps

Chimo

Bujutsu

Bujutsu: the scarcity of squared circle cancels from the town of Palmerston made me wonder if its role as a railway hub (not unlike Orangeville's role further east) resulted in more of the mail being cancelled on mail cars (e.g., the Palmerston&Kincardine rpo cancels).

This led me to wonder if all mail originating from within the town itself is cancelled in the local post office or did people take a lot of their letters to the train station and place it in a mail car box. But even so you would think, given that the post office had the appropriate hammer, that there should be, or might be, lots of squared circle back-stamps placed on incoming mail. I would hate to think that it was the heaviest hammer that they had and none of the clerks liked using it.

Given your immense knowledge of southern Ontario postal habits would you care to comment on what you think may have caused the relative scarcity of this cancel type from Palmerston.

Hi Cynical

The best way I can answer your question is like this:

The book states that only 3 (three) reports are known so far. These RFs are revised every so often.

Whatever hammer was applied the most was always up to the Postmaster's discretion and it is not really known why there are so few cancellations reported of one cancel and more of another. I am sure that there are more out there, but there will certainly not be that many.

There is also the possibility that whenever a Postmaster was sorting mail to be forwarded elsewhere that he / she would just dump them in a mail bag to be sorted and cancelled for any given railway route. Some of the Palmerston & Kincardine railway markings are scarce as well.

Orangeville has a rarity factor of 50, which indicates reports of 92 to 111 ( author's figures) compared to an older figure of only 62 to 82 reports. The Palmerston reports did not change from a previous listing to the one in my book. Orangeville was most likely the most busiest office and also with a larger population.

The book deals with the continuity of use and what special stamps any particular cancel has been reported on, like Special Delivery, Registration stamps etc.

Goderich's continuity was reported from 1893 right up to 1906
Palmerston's continuity is 1894 only
Orangeville's continuity was from 1893 to 1896

So, to sum up, until any of the authors receive and new updates, the RFs will stay the same.

I hope I answered this to your satisfaction?

Chimo

Bujutsu