Broken Circle Cancelations: How Late Were They Used?

Hi all. I was digging through a bunch of on-paper wildings and found what looks to be a broken circle cancel from 1962. Here's the piece with an attempt to highlight the extremely faint impression:



I'm definitely not an expert, but I was a bit surprised to see a broken circle cancel from 1962. Wasn't it phased out several decades earlier?

It's really hard make out, but I believe this is a Wilkesport, Ontario cancel.



Wilkesport has a population of 122. Perhaps this was a town that time forgot.

http://wikimapia.org/19159314/Wilkesport-Ontario
http://www.ruralroutes.com/6866.html?page=1

Xiusudra: great images!

My collection only runs up to the 1950s and my split rings begin to diminish in numbers in the 1930's, in fact, the last I have from the period is 1937. It's my understanding that after that period there were still small towns using the split-ring or broken-circle postmark. I have a box of post-1950's on piece/cut squares and grabbed a handful and found one from Schreiber, Ontario (a small railway town on the north shore of Lake Superior) dated 1987.

The cancellation is a Wilkesport broken circle (also called split or open circle).

According to the Canadian Postal History Society data base, a proof strike of this cancel was made on June 6, 1923. The earliest recorded date on a stamp or cover is December 30, 1941. The latest recorded date is February 17, 1976. However I have a strike dated October1, 1976.

Broken circles date back to the mid 1800s. This is a broken circle from 1858:



Welland used this one in 1895



Although broken circle cancels were no longer made, post offices with the devices continued using them because they still worked well into the 1970s.

Another cancellation that continued in use years after they were no longer produced was the Duplex.



I studied the types of cancellations in use at Ontario Post Offices in 1976. Over 40 offices still used broken circles:



Different kinds of duplexes were used as well:



Here is a list:

lorddenning: WOW

I appreciate the Welland cancels, as my family is from there. Digging around in Wikipedia, the "U.C" from the 1858 strike stands for "United Canadas"? (hmm, realized my historical knowledge of Canada is pretty atrocious).

For a small village like Wilkesport, they would have only the one cancel machine, right?

UC = Upper Canada, CW = Canada West, I'm not sure where the boundries were between the 2 but I know some parts of Ontario were CW and others UC. It is odd seeing those cancels used so far into the 20th century. So much to learn on cancels from an historical as well as monetary perspective. Many times I see sellers who know which are what command $10-25 for a stamp you would think was worth $1 so its definatly worth learning. I recall a tropical Island stamp that cataloged less than $1 and sold for thousands due to rare cancel.

xiusudra

You raise an interesting point which I had been wondering about, i.e., "Why U.C.?"

In 1841, the provinces of Upper Canada (now Ont.) and Lower Canada (now. Quebec) were joined to form the United Province of Canada. What had been Upper Canada was now called Canada West (C.W.) and Lower Canada was now called Canada East (C.E.)

Here is a cover mailed to Montreal in 1845



Note that it is addressed to Montreal, Canada East



Here is cover mailed to Woodstock, Canada West in 1844





So, why U.C. when Welland was in Canada West (C.W.)?

The firm of David Garden Berri of England manufactured handstamps for the Canadian Post Office Department. Berri provided broken circle handstamps from 1857 to the late 1860s. Until 1860, the Post Office Department instructed Berri to produce handstamps with the letters U.C. (Upper Canada) or L.C. (Lower Canada) even though these terms were obsolete since 1841. In 1860, Berri was instructed to produce cancellations with the letters C.E. or C.W. which according to the Post Office Department was the legal designation of the sections of the Province.

Berri Broken Circles Made Before 1860

U.C.



L.C.



Berri Broken Circles Made From 1860

C.W.




C.E.



To conclude, I had wondered why the Welland handstamp had the letters U.C. (Upper Canada) even though Upper Canada had become Canada West in 1841. The reason is that the Post Office Department did it that way! (I will be try to find out when the terms Canada West and Canada East became legal designations)

By the way, I recommend that anyone interested in Canadian Postal History consider joining the Canadian Postal History Society.

http://www.postalhistorycanada.net/php/index.php

On-line membership is only $15.00 per year and provides access to its excellent Journal:

http://www.postalhistorycanada.net/.../journal.php

All 149 issues of the Journals have been archived.

The information used for this posting was obtained from this article:

The Broken Circle Postmarks of Canada, Scrimgeour, K. Gray,
PHSC Journal Whole No. 42, pg. 35, Jun 1, 1985

Any ideas on this town name?

How about Plantagenet?

Ryan

Thanks Ryan, that seems to fit.

For those interested in Broken Circles, there is an excellent book published by the Postal History Society of Canada: ONTARIO BROKEN CIRCLES by W. Bruce Graham, On page 248 there is a list compiled by Danny Handleman showing modern Broken Circles used into the 1980's and 1990's.

GJP

I recently joined the Postal History Society of Canada. The $15 electronic membership fee is well worth it. You can access the online databases of postmarks and post offices, and they are continuously growing.

http://www.postalhistorycanada.net/php/index.php

BeeSee

Glad to hear that you have joined the Postal History Society of Canada. The information at our disposal is amazing - the best $15 anyone could spend.

The Journal articles provide useful frameworks upon which we can develop our own collections.

Here is a recently acquired broken circle, from North Bedeque, Prince Edward Island, December 26, 1910.

It is on an embossed Christmas post card with a Christmas message.