Great Britain Stampless Cover

Picked this up the other day. Don't collect Britain, but loved the cancelation, so why not? Sent from Cornhill to Huddersfield. Note the date April 30 1840. The day before the penny black was first issued (May 1).



Maybe someone here can tell me more about the cancel.

Its a red PAID Lombard Street Maltese Cross for London, 1 day before penny black, items with the same date have been sold for some good money in past auctions. If you like this check out my ebay lots.

That's a great cover jamesw. Congratulations on a good find

Chimo

Bujutsu

The red pen slash is a manuscript 1 indicating the postage of 1 penny was paid... black ink would indicate postage to be collected.

The Uniform Penny Postage rate was introduced on 10th January 1840 so this cover is important as it was postmarked during the period between the previous fourpenny rate and the issue of penny stamps which were introduced in May 6th.

The Penny Black was issued on May 1st but was not officially to be used until the 6th May.

Thanks for the insights gents.
Here's another I picked up the other day.

Manchester to Perth N.B. (North Britain, apparently. aka Scotland)



Interesting cancel on the 'back'. What's that triangle?



Nothing inside. Probably an outer sheet.

If you like these please look into my listings as I have many GB pre-stamp on offer every week

Hi,

> Interesting cancel on the 'back'. What's that triangle?

It is the stamper id, the M should mean Morning duty.

That postmark belong to Edinburgh, the letter had a postage stamp but unfortunately it was removed.

At Edinburgh letters from Manchester arrived by Carlisle mail at 2:25pm and 01:43am.

So the M says it arrived at 1:43am.

From Edinburgh to Perth letters departed at 04:03pm and 05:30am.

So the letter departed from Edinburgh at 5:30am and it arrived at Perth on 17 Feb at 10:16am.

What I wrote is based on data published on May 1841, but I think it gives to you an idea of the times of the mail.

Hi aryeh
The question of the triangle had been answered for me on another forum. I guess I forgot I had posted it here as well, and should have followed up. Many thanks for your response.

But the real revelation is the missing stamp! My God, you're right! I never noticed the area where the stamp had obviously fallen off, or been removed. Wow, good eyes you have there! Thanks so much for pointing it out.

I don't collect Britain, so these markings are alien to me, but I guess that's as close as I've ever come to owning a penny black. Who knew!