Date Cancel Question

Hi.

I was wondering... I got my hand on a pile of cut square stamps with postmark dating around the 1930-1940 from many places, mostly in Quebec and Ontario. I was wondering if the postmarks themselves had any value.

I guess that some cancel from certain places or date could be scarce... Is there any documentation I could check? Here is a sample:









I have many more... I have some RPO (Railroad post office) and also some slogan cancel. Most are circular date cancel with killer like waves or other.

Thanks.

There are postmark collectors who consider these sort of things a specialized collection. There is also a lot of postal history that can be learned from the various postmarks, types, city and province locations, etc. There are also collectors who look out for DPO's (discontinued post offices) and, of course, cancellations from RPO's (Railway Post Offices) are often desirable to some collectors.

The ones you posted are all machine cancels, and there are catalogs that can identify the various machines used to produce those cancellations based simply upon the scans you posted. All that being said, I doubt there is much monetary value to the collection unless there is a particularly scarce stamp or cancel or town location among them or unless a specialized collector has need for a particular item not currently in his or her collection.

For example, of the scans you posted, did you notice the every one of them uses a different font type, particularly noticeable in the letter "O"? And did you check out that odd looking "Q" used in the second scan? And the different types of "7"'s used in the last scan in the time line and the date line? Not that any of this may be considered valuable, but it certainly makes for an interesting side collection.

In Unitrade, the 3c coil is $8 on cover; now, a 2x4 is not a cover, but it illustrates the point, check before you soak.

Cancels such as the ones you have scanned Pepere are always collectible. Some collect them on piece while others prefer them on full covers.

The ones you have scanned are from major cities and are of minimal value but still nice ones nonetheless.

I certainly wouldn't throw them out. Your best bet is to start a specialized collection of different postmarks. Being on piece, they would be easier to mount with more on a single page.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Is the Montreal 24jun1935 not a duplex wavy line cancel broken by the letter H with convex ends curving down type of manual cancel rather than a machine cancel?

The above posts are correct. There is a whole specialty devoted to postmark collecting.

Most collectors now collect the postmark "on cover" (The whole envelope) but many earlier collectors cut them to a 2 X 4 inch size like your examples.

Here is the club's website if you want additional information on postmark collecting:

http://www.postmarks.org/

Although I don't collect Canada, many of our members do.

If you are curious about grading and "worth" you can check out this pdf file from the Postmark Collectors website:

http://www.postmarks.org/resources/...ostmarks.pdf

Dan

those cancels add zero value, sorry

Wt1: I did not saw the difference of font... I guess it would all be explained in the catalogs you mentioned.

Doug222: All the postmark I do have are on cut square pieces like this... so there is no hope to get the "On cover value".

Bujutsu: Yeah, I could start a postmark collection... but it was not really my intention at first...

So... I guess that if I don't want to start a collection, I have to either soak them off or to catalog them as best as I can then offer them on ebay like they are and hope it will pick the interest of postmark collectors.

I already started to take the inventory of what I have. I will probably continue and try to create package that I could sell.

Yes Cynical, the Montreal "H" canceller is a wavy bar duplex. Because Montreal is a large city, I think this is to denote either hammer H or office "H". It could also indicate an identification of a sorter who was allotted that hammer - this part is unknown though.

You could make a life-time hobby collecting the different postmarks from any major city of Canada.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Pepre,

As I said in my earlier post, I don't collect Canadian postmarks and I do not know how many postmark collectors do so I can't gauge the market for your postmarks.

In the US states I collect, a package of postmarks of the same era (with no high cat value stamps) as cut corners like yours would typically go for $0.10 to $0.20 apiece. DPO's, RPO's, some slogan cancels and Last Day of Use cancels would command a premium.

Maybe this will give you an idea of how much effort you want to put into selling them. It's a niche market and sometimes buyers are difficult to find.

If you get over 50 posts and have decided to soak them, PM me before you do. I will contact the PMCC museum to see if they are interested. If they are interested, maybe we can make a deal. I will donate them to the museum. I hate to see postmarks destroyed!

Collecting postmarks can be interesting and fun. It's also a good use for all those covers with common definitives that you don't know what else to do with!

Dan