Midland Ontario Purple Star

Almost a hundred years ago there was a stamp dealer in Midland (Victoria Habour) Ontario who advertised in Popular Mechanics. Anyway as an offshoot to this I was using the search function looking for Midland, Ontario postmarks/cancels but to no avail. Then I thought why not put one on myself, hence this 1932 3c King George V Medallion stamp (Canada Scott#197) cancelled with a purple star and "Midland" in the centre.

Anyone know what this is about? Bueller? Bujutsu?

Canada Scott#197 1932 3c King George V Stamp

Cynical

I have the strongest feeling that this was a fiscal cancellation that was applied to the stamp that was placed on a cheque. Apart from this, I do not have any other information that refers to this marking. I use the term 'marking' because there isn't any evidence of a date etc and this is why I believe it was used for revenue purposes here. It is not part of a slogan cancellation either. Nothing like this in my reference books.

Hope this helps?

Chimo

Bujutsu

Just a guess:

The handstamp reads STANDARD BANK MIDLAND

The 3 cent stamp was probably attached to a cheque as revenue payment and was cancelled with the Standard Bank Midland handstamp.

It's a late usage of the handstamp since The Standard Bank merged with the the Commerce Bank in 1928 and the Medallions were issued in 1932.

From the CIBC website:

https://www.cibc.com/ca/inside-cibc...ommerce.html

The Standard Bank of Canada, 1873-1928
Founded in 1873, the St. Lawrence Bank was organized by Toronto businessmen led by John Charles Fitch. Financial troubles plagued the bank in its early years and in 1876, it was reorganized under the name The Standard Bank of Canada. With new management, business improved and the bank began to grow. By 1907, it had nearly 50 branches and soon added another 27 with the acquisition of The Western Bank of Canada (1882-1909), a regional bank headquartered in Oshawa. The enlarged institution soon expanded into the western provinces and later combined with The Sterling Bank of Canada (1905-1924), a mostly regional bank with its headquarters in Toronto. After this merger, The Standard had 243 branches, 176 of them in Ontario. Increased competition and a desire to expand more extensively in western Canada led The Standard to merge with The Commerce on November 5, 1928.

Gentlemen: thanks very much for that information. Out of an envelope of boring 3c cancels that one caught my eye and I completely overlooked its fiscal use. The stamp and the construction of that beautiful old Commerce Bank building (the tallest in the empire at the time) in downtown Toronto almost coincide. Jamesw has a picture of it on here somewhere.

Edit - here is the link to Jamesw's thread that shows the beautiful bank building:

https://goscf.com/t/24942&SearchTerms=toronto,bank

Thought I might flesh this out a bit. Here is a stamp that I have downloaded from the web some time ago and, I believe, fits here. For those of you who are familiar with Queen Victoria looking to the right on the small queens and large queens this will be like seeing the back side of the moon.

Canada Bill Stamp Commercial Bank of Canada Cancel May 2, 1867


edit: found out where I got this image - it's one that Nitrolures put on SCF some time ago and here is a link to his thread:

https://goscf.com/t/17984&SearchTer...ommerce,bank

I think his Lordship is on the right track with a cheque cancel. I have several clearing the Bank of Commerce with identical stars, though different verbage.

Jamesw: thanks for that.

I have been running around the web re "Standard Bank". I didn't find any more of the "star" cancels but I did find out that they issued some good-looking banknotes.

Nice example jamesw.

I noticed too that the cheque has a War Tax stamp on it to acknowledge payment of fees etc. The WT ones are a specialty by themselves.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Some great info on this old SCF thread re stamps used as revenues.

https://goscf.com/t/4034