New, Free Online The Foreign Mail Cancellations Handbook

The Foreign Mail cancellations of New York City are quite interesting and can add value to a stamp or cover. It pays to be familiar with them if you handle or own US material in this era. One of the definitive books in this area is Bill Weiss 1990 "The Foreign Mail cancellations of New York City 1870 – 1878". This hardcover book is long out of print and pretty expensive ($150+) when you can find it for sale. But Bill has had this great reference book converted into digital format and has it for sale on his web site as a PDF EBook.

Additionally, Bill has also published a free online 'Handbook' of over 200 of these cancellations! He has it linked on his site at the lower right of the opening page.
don

http://www.stampexpertizing.com

Hello,

I have a few questions about the NYFM book of Bill Weiss here. I know that it's also on Stamp Smarter:
http://www.stampsmarter.com/feature...FM_home.html

On his website there is still an ebook order form where you can see a list, and these for example:
"The Foreign Mail Cancellations Of New York City 1870-1878"
"The Complete Pricing Guide of US 20th Century Fancy Cancellations"

1st book: What do the terms "rare" and "scarce" mean in this book? I am not a English native speaker so I am not sure about these ratings. They can't mean the same, so one of them must be more common than the other?

2nd book: Does the second book ("20th Century Fancy Cancellations") also cover the NYFM? And has anybody this book and can tell his opinion about it?

(of course it would be great to see published these two books one day completely on Stamp Smarter...)

I did Bill's website for him but of course he has passed; we are leaving the site up as a memorial.

Bill's books are all out-of-print and had very short printing runs; you can occasionally find used ones for sale. At Bill's request, I digitized all of Bill's books and they are available in PDF format. Bill's (Lori) daughter will respond to his original email address and you can arrange to order them from her.

The second book is simply a pricing guide and it is badly out-of-date. It is has little value beyond giving the reader a bit of relative context. If you are interested in either of them and cannot reach Lori let me know and I will make arrangements.
Don

Ok thank you, then I know that they can still be ordered.

what about the terms rare vs. scarce?
and are the NYFM also included in the 2nd book?

I am not sure about buying as it some dollars, so I search for information before.

I am at chemo right now but when I get home I will lookup how Bill defined those terms.
Don

stamper - rare is less common than scarce, NYFM is not included in the 2nd book because they are 19th century and the 2nd book covers 20th century

thank you again. ok, the thing with 20th vs. 19th century I should have known...

about the rare vs. scarce I only asked as in the example on your website, very many are "rare" :), and much less are "scarce". I guess at the end, both categories are kind of interesting cancels.

It's just a good help to know if a fancy cancel, in this case NYFM, is something just normal on thousands of stamps, or is a cancel to keep in an album even if the stamp is damaged. That's why I like it if in a book a rarity rating is given, like in Bill's. I also looked at Cole's who has also a rating which is a bit more easy to understand.

Bill's "THE COMPLETE PRICING GUIDE OF UNITED STATES TWENTIETH CENTURY FANCY CANCELLATIONS" book does not define the two terms. It is a 48 page, hand bound effort done in 1987. Based upon Bill's auction experiences, it builds upon two previous published books. This is from the intro


Note: "THE COMPLETE PRICING GUIDE OF UNITED STATES TWENTIETH CENTURY FANCY CANCELLATIONS" is in list format and has no images, it uses numbers from the other books mentioned above and is best used with all the books in hand. Two example page below.
Don

thanks for that information. mostly I am interested in cancels on bank note stamps, so 19th century. but as always in stamps, if you enter one field it opens 1000 more. that's why I can't buy books of all topics and decide where I buy or not. Now I know much more about these two books, I will see if I really buy them.

Understood, I can see why a person in Europe would be interested in NYFM Bank Note cancels. Virtually every Bank Note cover sent to Europe received one of these cancels so it makes an interesting area to study.
Don

Yes, there are some or many in each better collection. I am just at the starting point.
But by the way: Did Bill ever write somewhere or tell you in a conversation what value range there is for those NYFM cancels that he gave a "rare" or "scarce"? I have absolutely no idea about this.

If you are interested in NYFM's you should review Nick Kirke's exhibit on Richard Frajola's webpage. Nick is the leading collector of NYFM's.
http://www.rfrajola.com/nk3/nk3.htm

thank you, yes, I know this, I have downloaded it, and also an exhibition document by Bill Weiss from 1988, as well as the catalogue of Cole. All this is helpful, only as a beginner I don't have a feeling for value.

Sorry, no.
Don

Nick Kirke, who lives in Prague, produced a very nice handout for his talk at NY2016. He may have digitized it. If not I can provide a digital copy (made for my personal use) if he gives permission.

You can find a free downloadable copy of the Van Vlissengen and Waud work on the subject at the Chicago Collectors Club web site. This book was the pre-cursor to Weiss's work. The numbering system is different, but you may find some older collections using these numbers. Here is the link: http://www.collectorsclubchicago.or...andbooks.php

A copy of Cole's work on the Cancellations and Killers of the Banknote Era is available as a free downloadable PDF on the US Philatelic Classics web site. Here is the link: https://www.uspcs.org/resource-cent...nic-library/

At both web sites you will find other works on United States philately which are available as a free download. The Skinner-Eno work on fancy cancellations prior to 1870 is quite useful as is Tom Alexander's work on the postmarks and cancellations in use from 1845-1861.

The database on Stamp Smarter has all of Coles cancels, plus the Bill Weiss cancels, plus new ones being added, plus is searchable in real-time. It has 5400+ cancels in it.
http://stampsmarter.com/features/Fa...ls_Home.html

Additionally, work is actively being done in the Modern Fancy Cancels in another database. It has 5700+ cancels in it.
http://stampsmarter.com/features/Fa...rn_Home.html

Both these databases, although separate, have identical field structure. If desire in the future they can be easily queried together so a single search works across the 10,000+ cancels in them. I believe this is the largest number of fancy cancels in any resource. But we do not support valuation.
Don