Mystery Rpo

I have a #78 Queen Vic with a postmark that shows "ISL" before leaving the stamp and "R.P.O" when returning on the stamp. Is anyone familiar with an R.P.O postmark string starting with ISL? It's a long one given what I can see of the letter spacing...

Show us a scan so we can assess better

Sorry, I only have access to a digital camera so the pic quality may not be great. I upped the contrast with a photo editor though to try to highlight the postmark ink. On closer inspection, what I thought was an 'L' could be an 'E' or a 'C'...

You might want to try to run the image through RetroReveal to bring the postmark out better.
http://retroreveal.org/

Don

I don't know if it had it's current name back then, but possibly "Islington, Ontario" - a suburb of Toronto ?

It does appear to be a railway cancel to me. I believe it may be the initials if the "Island Pond & Montreal Railway"(???) The "ISL" shown would indicate to me that it is one of 4 different hammers used for this railway run. Others exist with the names in full. Depending on which hammer you have, which is hard to tell here because it is only partially shown, it ran from 1898 to as late as 1951. I do not have one in my collection, o/w I would scan it for you.

Hope this helps?

Chimo

Bujutsu

There was a Post Office in Islington (York County) that opened in 1859 according to my Campbell's Book of Post Offices 1755-1895. It might also be ISLE ...

You may contact the BNAPS RPO Study Group:

http://www.bnaps.org/studygroups/rpo/rpo1.htm

Island Pond & Montreal is a definite candidate. That would be about the appropriate length of the string to almost encircle the entire mark. It would definitely be helpful to see a clear mark to compare. I checked out Retro Reveal...cool site! It revealed what I think is a 5 as part of what I think is the day of the mark, but nothing about the name of the RPO that I couldn't see before.

Look what I found on ebay.

That very well could be it... Can't know for sure though without a comprehensive list of RPO postmarks, but the spacing looks right. It would be cool if it was though since island pond is in Vermont

Nice find jimjung

I guess, after seeing your find on ebay, I am on the right track after all

Yours is a nice clear CDS type too and it appears to be a Type 17A hammer in the Lewis Ludlow handbook. It was in use from 1898 to 1918 and has a RF of 55, which makes it relatively common and commanding a few dollars.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Bujutsu,

I didn't buy the postcard. I just found it. It's still for sale, and at $9.99, it may be for sale for awhile.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Canada-Sher...em25aa8194bb

Thanks for the clarification jimjung.

At least the information is here for any collector who is interested.

Chimo

Bujutsu