? 1880's Japanese Cancellations

Single ring and double ring are postal.


Maruichi cancels: All text in the postmark is read from right to left. In the first line is the province name.. In the second line is the town name. The part below the bisect will indicate if the cancel is postal or a non-postal service offered by the post office (telegraph, telephone, money order, or ?)


Bota Obliterations. All postal. Round or tall oval. On cover always accompanied by a city/date stamp.


Koban stamps were replaced in 1899 by the Kiku series. When comb cancels (introduced in 1905) are found on Koban stamps, they are late uses.


Examples of Genuine Japanese cancels: http://eng.ssjp.dk/eng_cancels.html
Genuine Romanji Cancels: http://www.sanrizuka.com/koban/koban.htm
Genuine Bota Cancels: http://www.sanrizuka.com/koban/Bota-Collection.htm
Images of genuine Koban stamps: http://www.geocities.co.jp/HeartLan...n_index.html
Koban Forgeries: http://www.geocities.co.jp/HeartLan...geries_1.htm

I definitely agree with BURNEGGROLL -- the The International Society for Japanese Philately is an excellent study group . I was a member for over 20 years!

Hal

I've just started to take an interest in these Bota cancels. I've seen some early Japan lots go for really high prices on ebay, and I figure the cancels must be the reason. Botas seem like a good place to start.

Double combs are referred to as "sword guards" or in Japanese, "Tsuba." Telegraph stamps use a variety of circular date stamps, some of which overlap with regular postal cancellations. The only sure way to identify a telegraph cancel is to look for the Japanese characters "d�M meaning "telegraph."