My Early 20th Century Fancy Cancels Are Not Fakes After All.

About 2-3 years ago I posted the following fancy cancels. There was a general consensus that they were fakes. But I have seen several of these on cover since then. Below are the scans of my off cover stamps, some with the names of the towns where they originated. Interestingly about 80-90% are on registered covers from the late 1920s and early 1930s.


Bear from Bear, Arkansas
Anchor that is almost identical to one from Stuart, FL which has the same vertical block with an identically designed negative anchor at a slight angle within the block.


Dollar sign from Money, Mississippi


Eight wedges from Troy, OH
Star from Stuart, FL


Poor strike of Star of David which I have seen recently but do not remember the town.

They're gorgeous!

I love the fancy cancels era. great cancels.

Great looking cancels ! Have to love the Postmasters that came up with them.

quigngt: The cancels are beautiful!
You have inspired me to look for some fancy cancels that may be in my collection.
Thanks for sharing!

Great looking cancels. I posted some similar images a couple of years ago (http://goscf.com/t/12156)

There is a quick introduction to 20th century US fancy cancels at
http://www.ebay.com/gds/20TH-CENTUR...70528/g.html

Thanks everyone for the compliments. I am doubly happy now that I have been able to confirm their authenticity. There are currently many of these same type of fancy cancels on ebay. Open to US stamps, click on "Covers" and then enter the word "fancy" in the search window and they should come up. Warning: most on cover are not cheap. I just now did the search and saw a Beetle from Mexico, IL for $25.00 with one bid. It not the same beetle as on mine above and it is slightly larger and better defined.

Congratulations of the confirmation of their authenticity. Being a former sailor, I love the anchor (though having grown up in Southern California, the marching Bear looks a lot like the one on the California flag, and looks real nice to me too )

A few more identifications:
Insect - Bug, Kentucky
Book with "P O" - Stuart, Florida
Diamond - Diamond, Wyoming
Sailboat - Boat, Kentucky

Note; bumped thread, some of the original posters may not logged in for a while.
Don

Awesome Cancels!

More for the record:

anchor - Stuart, Florida
six-pointed star - Las Vegas, Nevada

Similar, in that the bears are generally in the same position, ie walking away.
California flag has a grizzly bear on it, the cancel is a black bear, notice the different shaped heads.

The most recent book devoted to 20th Century Fancy Cancels is "20th Century United States Fancy Cancelations, Revised" by Hamilton R. Fishback and William C. Walker. Published in 1987 it is the successor to the 1952 work by Loso-de-Windt. By and large the 20th Century fancy cancels should be on registered covers as postal regulations permitted the postmaster some latitude in the cancellations to be used. The E-Bay link posted by 1840to1940 is now longer available.

Here is one from Bass Indiana.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bass-Indian...AOSw7NNT9B2U

I purchased this in April but it got lost in the mail. Murphy's Law is still around! It was my fault, though, that it got lost; I sent it to my son's old address at a 200+ apartment complex.