A Hoard Of Belgium Precancels And Overprints (Image Heavy!)

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I've always been drawn to Belgian precancels for some reason. I remember seeing them in various and sundry packets and mixtures as a child, marveling over their precise appearance.

Now decades later, I still find them attractive, and pull them out of any lots or collections I'm remaindering. I purchased the Randall International precancel catalog, amazed at the literally thousands of listings for the precancels of Belgium.

The lot below appeared on ebay and a few rounds of the Best Offer tango with the seller later, it was headed my way.

Even though it was sold as a lot of precancels, methinks some of the sections in it are not precancels:

1. Roller cancels. Yes these are postal, but I didn't think they were precancels.

2. Large "T" cancels (overprints?) in various colors on numerous stamp types. I believe these are postage due indicators. Not precancels.

3. A myriad of "-10%" overprints or cancels. These are apparently due to a postal rate change? Not precancels.

Presumably not very valuable, but a nice variety of items in one spot to compare and contrast. Some interesting split and multiple strikes.

Nice collection. The "T" stamps are postage due stamp overprints. Some other European countries have these as well like Bulgaria. The -10% is a surcharge overprint when there was a postage rate reduction.

There was a postage rate reduction of 10 % from 16 may 1946 till 14 december 1948 . Every post office had a reductionstamp , there are about 550 different types of reductionstamps.
There are a lot of precanceld stamps fron 1938 on.There also there is a lot of variation.In 1938 the indicated the mont of the year , so there are 12 different types , from 1939 on it was for 1 year or a period of 6 months , this until 1954.
From 1954 till 1963 the indicated 2 years : 1954/1955 , from 1963 only one year , from 1966 the symbol of the Belgian Post ,a posthorn.
There are precanceld stamps from 1894 with the name of a town and a year.
Albert

great collection - I'm sorry I missed this one!

I agree; that is a nice collection. I have a few dozen Belgian pre-cancels that I hope to get around to merging into my main albums.....someday.

Couple thoughts: the Journaux cancel on some of your earliest items may indicate payment of postage for mailing newspapers. Also, there is a small Belgian lot in tomorrow's public auction at Michael Rogers Inc. (Lot #205). The description makes a reference to the so-called Van Acker minus 10% issues; also referenced by Albert, in his reply above. The description further says that the OBP catalogue may be needed, especially for the -10% issues. I assume that is a specialized Belgian catalogue. Happy stamping.

I think I saw this lot on ebay? - Wow - Jealous!

I love the -10% overprints. I have a few pages of them sorted out, and a nice selection of T overprints and precancels.

But this collection takes the cake!

Eric

I have made scans of your stamps in my old catalogue from 2006 , so I think it will be easier for you.
first you find the 1946 stamps with 10 % reduction , I: lokale opdrukken = local overprint ,A:beeltenis :portrait of king B:LeopoldIII,type open collar C:Lion ,2 version French and Dutch ,D:the king same type with V and a crown before .
II:algemene opdrukken : overprints done in the printing office in Mechelen=Malines.
III: overprints from Gelligen :they printed the new value instead of -10%.
IV : other values with overprint .
For the precancels : before 1938 each postoffice made his own precancels with his name and tear , from 1938 on you find official precancels.First you have an image of the precanceled stamp , then the different stamps for every year . Then you have also different kinds of paper ( papier ) and gum (gom).
From 1986 to 1996 ther is a very nice collection of birdstamps .
About roller stamps : I do not know what it is : on your list is indicated in French : cancelling by the (Post Ofiice)Sanings bank made with a roller : I see if I can find any explanation on internet.
If you have some more linguistic problems,don't hesitate.
Albert

the roller cancels were used by the Post Office Savings bank since 1881 to cancel the stamps on the savingform
Albert

While I certainly appreciate the effort you have gone through, those images are so tiny I cannot read anything in them, and since they are VERY heavily compressed, the JPEG artifacts are bad enough that I canot upsample the images.

I've tried all the tricks I know in Photoshop, but cannot get them to be easily readable.

Would it be possible to scan them at a higher resolution?

Thank you.

I try today because I ame leaving Antwerp to-morrow for 2 weeks albert

I hope this is better.
I think it is ok . I mail this first and later the rest
Albert

ok now the scan of the precancels
I hope everything can be read now
here it is 9.30 pm , so good night
albert

Thank you very much!