Is This Portugese Railway Cancel Fake Or Real ?

Is this Portugese cancel fake or real ?

I am posting in this group even though the mini sheet is from the mid 40s - because I need help with the "R. V. Leste IV" cancel which is an 1880 type cancel (due to the round corners of the central bar)

http://jcura.selos-postais.com/ague...datados.html

The minisheet is more valuable used than mint. So my question is this "R. V. Leste IV" a real or fake cancel?





I was first trying the work our where "Leste" was in Portugal - until I finally discovered that the designation was used by mobile railway post offices in Portugal. In this on the "Leste" (meaning east)

railway line. R.V. = Repartição Ambulante meaning "travelling office" (I think..?)

I am not an expert in Portugese - however I understand a little Spanish. What I can make out from this Portugese Wikipeidia page :

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambul...2ncia_postal

...is seems that the Leste railway post office was in use until 1972. However it also says that the Leste IV line was closed already in 1883. Maybe the cancel it self was still in use on the Leste I and II

line until 1972 - and maybe the "IV" in the cancel doesn't necessarily mean "Line 4" but just "4"? To confuse things further there also seem to have been moving post offices in cars/trucks/busses. Maybe the

"R. V. Leste IV" cancel was used there?

Or did someone get hold of an old "R. V. Leste IV" cancel and decided to put a cancel on the minisheet to make it more valuable ?

Any portugese cancel experts here who can tell me if the number "IV" cancel "R. V. Leste IV" was still in use in 1945 ??




More info in Portugese here:

http://cmaia.selos-postais.com/marc...mb_leste.htm

http://cmaia.selos-postais.com/marc...bulancia.htm

Looks fake to me. It should not have rounded corners if it was 1945.

Rounded corner cancels were definately still used in the 1940s.

http://cmaia.selos-postais.com/marc...ado/1880.htm

What I find suspicious is that it is a railway cancel which was used. Normally - I guess - you would just go to an ordinary post office to get a nice cancel on a mini sheet if you were a collector.

Did someone get hold of a railway cancel no longer in use and dated it back to 1945 - or was the no. IV "R.V. Leste" still in use at that time ?

Good evening,




Dear tangaard,

The c.d.s. R. A. LESTE IV was used in the Portuguese railway line Linha do Leste, between Badajoz (Spain) and Lisbon (Portugal) however this railway TPO was deactivated in 1883, according to the Portuguese Post Oficce informations of those days.
This c.d.s. is not known, as far as I know, after that XIXth century date.

There's some 1940s minisheets out there with this c.d.s. - occasionaly they appear in the international market - and this means that we are talking about an apocriphal usage of the c.d.s.

Bibliography
MAGALHÃES (1986). Marcofilia do Serviço Postal Ambulante de Portugal e Ultramar [...]

Dear Card12

Thank you very much for enlightening me on this issue - and confirmning that the use of "R.A. Leste IV" cancel on the minisheet looks suspicious.

Best regards

tanggaard