New South Wales Numeral Cancels

Good to hear Bobby De La Rue - are you able to post the image of the Guyong 3R16?

I won't, but it's the same device as shown on the 2d DLR under numeral 131.

Another mystery solved

Two highlights from the Phoenix auction on Friday just gone.

Lot 980 (Ebor numeral 499) hammer price $725




Lot 982 (Hungerford numeral 573) hammer price $600

Lovely examples, either of which would pay for the reference book many times over.

For those interested in seeking out the rare numerals in their collection (or being able to identify them if they spot them in the future), I have copies of the book in stock here:
THE NUMERAL CANCELLATIONS OF NEW SOUTH WALES SECOND EDITION

Several years ago I downloaded all of the scanned documents from the National Archives for those Post Offices in my area of collecting that were available.

This involved many hundreds of documents, which I am still going through.

Last night I was looking at Duramana, which was allocated numeral 1209 in the sequence, and found this document:



The original source is here:

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/Sea...px?B=7477020

Just jump to page 85 to see it.

Checking Hugh's book, I saw that 1214 was allocated to Barney Springs, which was closed in 1885 but was illustrated with an 1897 1d. Hugh even has a note under 1214 saying "Re-opened/reallocated?".

Given the opening dates, I think the sequence should be:

1208 Wimbledon (proving piece sighted)
1209 Havilah (opened 16/8/1883)
1210 Barney Springs (opened 1/9/1883)
1211-1213 as listed
1214 Duramana (opened 1/9/1883)

This will alter the rarity ratings for Barney Springs and Duramana to NNR and RRRRR respectively.

Bobby,
what is the NNR rating assessment, please?

Hi Rod,

NNR is the abbreviation for Number Not Recorded.

That's new,
Thanks Bobby.

I've seen the abbreviation 'NNS' (not never seen). I have picked up a number of scarce cancels trawling through junk lots. It takes time but lots of new finds are yet to be made.

I was using Freeman's nomenclature but have seen both terms. NNS is probably more common?

You're right 64idgaf, I've found plenty of numerals (and other cancels) in junky type lots over the last 15 years.

Freeman says that the ratings were derived from a tally of the five big collections, other notes made, plus studying auction catalogues.

The latter will ignore pretty much everything after the Diadem issue. Indeed, I'm surprised the ratings for Bathurst are what they are. The second device is far more common than the book suggests.

On the other hand, some numerals rated common are quite difficult to find. The 3R16 of Hartley is rated common (50+ examples) but I've found only 2 examples.

I'm sure the one thing we can all agree on. There's nothing like the thrill of the chase!

Could I ask?
4d Duplex- 64,890,1321
2R-55

Hi Just_Fella,
Are you able to post some scans of the postmarks you are enquiring about?

The postmark on the 4d is a 59 of Dungog.