Boston (Ma) North Postal Station Received Marking

This cover is for sale on ebay. I found the received marking especially interesting, as I don't recall seeing anything like this before.



Was it common for its day? Can anyone identify the machine cancel type used in this example? Although the year is not legible, it appears to be from the 1890s or early 1900s.

William maybe it was one of those ribbon back stamps and it is a one of of a RIBBON type experimental ones? I have never seen it also. Very fascinating!

I found the original auction site of the cover but no information. Before ebay the auction house had it listed for $7.50 but it did not sell.

It's an American service marking. Same company that did the much better known flags. But there are a wide variety of received markings from American machines, some of which are pretty unusual. Since they are receivers, they tend not to be expensive and can frequently be found hiding on the back of otherwise undistinguished covers (i.e., out of dollar boxes).

Thanks for the info.

It's certainly one of the more interesting (unusual) received markings I have seen.

Very desirable!

Yes, this is a most interesting and very collectable machine cancel. These type of cancels are referred to as SERVICE MARKINGS. The machine used was one produced by the American Postal Machines Co of Boston. Bob Payne in his book on American Service Markings reported it use at Boston from 1906 to 1908. The dies were metal, and the raised portions of the metal received ink from the ink roller and as the canceling hub rotated over the passing envelopes and cards, applied the ink to the envelope. The process is akin to letter press.

Thanks for the additional info. As I said at the beginning, I saw it in an ebay listing. In just checking ebay, I see the item sold last week for $7.13 (+ shipping):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Boston-Mass...em5b07fc035b