Learning About Cancellation Types...

I'd like to learn more about cancellation types. I understand the basic difference between a machine cancel, and a hand cancel, but how can one tell the difference just by looking at a cancellation? In collecting FDC's, I'll often encounter the same FDC but with different cancellations, like the following:



How does one learn to tell which is hand and which is machine? I've looked around the web for resources or guides, but all I've found are very basic, and not as detailed as I'd like. Are there any "standard" references for this sort of thing?

Here's a link to a Machine Cancel Finder page. Although the main site only describes those that are pre-1920, the additional links to external sites provided on the page will take you to modern era cancellations. Altogether a very useful source.

http://swansongrp.com/machtest.html

That is a nice looking cachet. Any idea who designed and/or printed it? It has the look of a watercolor.

Don

I appreciate the link, and have bookmarked it. And I plan to go back and download some information I saw linked there. But it doesn't directly address my question, except in an oblique way. I'm trying to learn to identify whether a cancellation is a machine cancel or a hand cancel by sight. Obviously, if I used that resource to identify a particular machine cancel, then I've answered my question. But that is more work than I want to do; I am not trying to identify the type of machine that produced a machine cancel.

I am guessing here, but looking at the image I posted, the top cover has a hand cancellation, and the bottom one a machine cancellation. The basis for this guess is that in the bottom one the cancellation is nice and parallel with the top edge of the cover, while in the top it is not. While that basis for deciding what is a hand cancel is not perfect -- a careful person could no doubt square up a hand cancel nice and parallel to the top edge of a cover -- I think that it probably works in most cases. But is there anything else that gives away the difference between the two. What about the larger postmark? Is that significant? In my experience, most (if not all?) of the time I see these larger dials they are with what looks to be a hand cancel. It might be nice if there was a resource for hand cancels comparable to the one for machine cancels.

Why am I interested in telling the difference? Well, as an FDC collector, I like finding different varieties or variations of an FDC I already have. Besides differences in cancellations, such varieties can include different frankings (such as plate block versus single, or in the modern era, "combos" and "dual" cancellations), or unofficial city cancellations. The difference between hand and machine cancellations is just another one of those variations.

Basil

The cachet was done by H. "Capt" Fluegel, who produced a series of colorful, well-designed covers during the 1940s into 1960s.

Yes, the top cover has a hand stamp.
The lower one has a machine cancel.

Most FDC's have machine cancels, characterized by a cancel impression parallel to the top of the envelope, which is crisp and fine due to being made by a metal die.

As jarnick explained, it is a Fluegel cover. Once you've seen a few -- and my collection of Fluegel airmail covers is quite extensive -- they are easily recognizable. The older ones were a lot more colorful and detailed, giving the watercolor appearance you note. In Scott's 2002 FDC Catalog, 1945-1959 Fluegel covers have a "6 to 8 times" value multiplier. Oddly (to me) the newer covers, 1960-1964 have a "10 to 15 times" value multiplier. Like all "catalog values" these multipliers are inflated, but Fluegel covers do have a value premium over most other common cachet producers.

Edit: the 2002 Scott FDC catalog errs in implying that 1964 was the last year of Fluegel covers. Mellone catalogs Fluegel covers through #1337 (12/11/67) and the last airmail cover was #C71 (4/26/67).



Thanks. The detail about them being crisp and fine due to being made by a metal die is something I hadn't thought about. That will be a bit of helpful knowledge.

Thanks, blcjr and jarnick. Had I looked a little closer at the initial scan I would have seen the "Fluegel" signature at the bottom of cachet.

I'm not much of a FDC collector, but the lighter, almost pastel colors used on the buildings in that cachet caught my eye. I have seen a few of Fluegel's more contemporary cachets and they are almost gaudy.

Don