U.s Fancy Cancels Help Needed

Canadian flag cancels are quite common, this is the first U.S flag cancel that I have seen. Are they common down there? Any value here?
Thanks,
Stu

Hi Stu,
Yes, there are many, many US flag cancels. We are just starting to get some listed but your can see a small sample here
http://www.stampsmarter.com/feature...ernView.html
Click on the button to 'Search By Description' and then search on 'flag'
Don

Hi Stu, I used to see one or maybe two books about this with listing.

I do not recall the titles, have not seen these books for some time.

I thought at one time there was a society for collecting these U.S. Flag Cancels.

Not much help as I can't remember any of the specifics, but maybe you can trace them down.

Stampmaster

Fredrick Langford's "Standard Flag Cancel Encyclopedia", 4th ed, 2008, is the Bible for US flag cancels. It lists approximately 8000 varieties and some collectors consider additional variants as collectible which Fred did not consider listable.

The International Machine Cancel Society (successor to the Flag Cancel Society and the previous named Machine Cancel Society) is the major collector organization for these.

Your first cover shows an involute flag cancel of the Imperial Company listed on page 29 of Langford's book. Yours appears to be type 6, one of the most common of this type, and which he values at $10 on VF cover.

Your second cover is obviously not a flag cancel, but an American Postal Machine Company cancel with a wavy line killer. Most US flags are products of the American machines.

As a general guide, you may find Russell Hanmer's "A Collector's Guide to U.S. Machine Postmarks, 1871-1925" helpful.

@JOHN BECKER, I knew somebody would have this information.

Cheers

Stampmaster