London Cancel On India Stamp - Illegal Usage?

I have this trio on paper. It's India Scott 81 cancelled by a London 70 postmark, dated January 4, 1919.



I'm assuming this is an illegal usage. I'd like to hear what others have to say about this example.

All replies will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Robert

Most probably you are correct. But sometimes stamps without a cancel from another country where cancelled with a postmark from the recieving country. I have had Indonesian stamps with Dutch cancels. So that is also an option. Kind regards, johan.

Robert, just an idea - you may shoot me down. Could it be that this letter made it from India to London and instead of the Marker Monkey a normal cancel was applied?

Petere

Opinion:
I agree with Johan, possibly cancelled in the receiving country, the article may have been in a despatch satchel etc.

In 2007 we had a curly one, Germany cancelled in Scotland. (A Brunswick Star)

Commentary:

Dear Rodney

Re: German Stamp

I was surprised to learn that these were also produced with the town
numbers with letters under horizontal lines. Here is what I found out:

1. This cancel was never applied in Germany but in the UK.
"320" = Tain.

2. I suspect that the cover was sent to the UK where the mail may or
may not have been properly canceled. The post office clerk may
have simply canceled the stamp in the UK, if un-canceled, or the
cover was forwarded to some other location in the UK or returned to
Germany. Since you do not have the cover, you cannot determine the
real history.

3. The 9 Kreuzer = 25 Pfennig (rate overseas..UPU) and applicable
for 1874 or early 1875 only. Stamp was issued on January 1, 1874,
and new 'Pfennige' issue appeared on January 1, 1875. Kreuzer
monetary values were used only in southern Germany (of a united
Germany) until the currency was unified into Pfennig and Marks in
1975.

Without question, the cover on which this stamp was used would
probably have been spectacular postal history.

Best regards,

Tim Burgess

Germany cancelled in Scotland. (A Brunswick Star) ????
To my knowledge the Brunswick Star postmark was exclusive to Edinburgh so would have a "131". Tain is a tiny place in The Highlands.

Possibly semantics.
On our journey to discover what the Pmk was, we needed a descriptor to call the shape.
Brunswick Star fitted the bill.

Whether or not it officially is such, is a matter for others.
Certainly looks to me like a Pearson Hill parallel motion canceller.

Brunswick Star:
This is the name given to a duplex cancel used at Edinburgh from
1863-65 and printed by a Parallel Motion Hill machine. The name of
the cancel comes from the breast-star in the Hanoverian Order of
Brunswick.

Definition:
The Brunswick star is an emblem which in outline is an eight-pointed or
sixteen-pointed star, but which is composed of many narrow rays. It is used in Britain
to surround the Royal Cypher on various badges, such as that worn on the caps and
helmets of certain police forces. The name "Brunswick" is the English name for the
German feudal Land called "Braunschweig", which were owned by the present
dynasty of Britain. Hence the emblem does not predate King George

The cancel on the German is 7 pointed.
Hope that satisfies the 4 question marks

Brunswick Stars

I'm on board with Johan, Peter and Rod: it's more likely mail that missed cancellation originally. Now if these were clearly the only stamps on a full corner envelope fragment as found in kiloware, you could make a case for illegal usage. The rate in 1919 Britain was 1-1/2d for up to 4oz. Somebody visiting from India could reason "sterling is sterling" and use Indian stamps. As said earlier, we'll never know.

Re: Marker Monkey. There wasn't much of that back then if a clerk had a canceller and ink pad, and they were pretty good at catching uncancelled mail. In the 1950s-1960s US when carriers still walked routes carrying leather shoulder packs, in a pocket was a canceller and an ink pad for uncancelled stamps. The cancel was that long (I think) 4-bar cancel. They devolved into Bic scribblers and further into the more current Marker Monkeys. I think it might be revenge for getting recycled mini Whitman samplers from customers for Christmas.

very interesting reading material!

This was the part that raised the question marks.

"This cancel was never applied in Germany but in the UK.
"320" = Tain."
There is no part of Scotland, apart from Edinburgh for only a few years, that had anything like a Brunswick Star postmark. All the Edinburgh postmarks incorporated the "131" numeral. No others exist. The information about the Brunswick Star postmarks is what I also have in the books in my possession. I'd go further and say that there is nothing like the postmark on the German stamp that remotely corresponds to anything used in Britain.

Regarding the 9 kreuzer stamp, the star cancel does not resemble the Edinburgh cancels as shown. It has 7 even rays, whereas the Edinburgh cancels have 6 or 8 uneven rays.

My first guess would be that this is a French receiving cancel. I've seen covers and stamps of the German "shields" where a French receiving cancel is "sock on the nose" on these stamps. My second guess would be that this is a German municipal fiscal cancel, although I haven't seen one like it.

Since these stamps are much more valuable genuinely used, it is very possible that this cancel is bogus.

Since it is dt. January 4,1919, it must be mentioned that during WW1 and after till the end of 1920, British Indian stamps were reciprocally allowed to be used by the Br. soldiers and sailors serving in Indian Armed Forces for sending mail from England to India.

Ref. India Used in England.
TM Harchandani.
India Post (Vol.XIX No.2 Issue 84 4-6/1985); p.57

The official conversion rate fixed in 1919 by the Indian Post Office as 1R=1s6d downgraded from the previous rate of 1R=1s4d.

But here I think the stamps were used in India as presumably 1½A was paid as postage which was the postage for a letter sent by surface mail from India to England for every 42.53gm (1½ oz), the rate in effect from January 1,1919 to December 31,1920.

Very interesting, a keeper.
Never seen a cover regarding that.

Thank you for all the replies. Good information here.

Robert

What we seek here is the truth.
From my previous enquiries, I understood that a member of the Royal Philatelic Society of London referred to it as a "Local Brunswick Star"

I have set the wheels in motion, and may have an answer in the next 14 days, from London.

No holding of breath though as this subject has not progressed since last posted on SCF in 2011