Canada New Circular And Pictorial Postmarks / Cancels

These are off an envelope I mailed / posted to a friend and she saved for me. Postmark is 'HALIFAX / Feb 18, 2009 / CANADA'.

edit: changed title to include pictorial

I hadn't seen any postmarks like this before or since from the main sorting plant in Halifax. (As apposed to the regular ink-jet spray-on cancellations.)

I wondered if anyone else had current (2000-2009 present) circular postmarks from Halifax or other Canadian cites. I think the province of Quebec still has a lot of towns/cities that use the older style circular date stamps.

I have asked at the Post Office attached to the sorting plant but because of the time of day only one clerk was on and she couldn't leave to investigate further for me.

I think I should bring in Tim Horten's coffee and donuts for the staff and then someone could wander off and investigate how one could get their stamps canceled with this new circular postmark (hopefully not just an experiment). It looks like a hammer mark to me and not a machine cancel.(?)

I think the round circular postmarks (or rounded hexagonal like some countries) are more pleasing to the eye (stamp collector's eye! ha) than the ink-jet machine cancels we have now.

From the looks of it, and from my experience as a Canada Post wicket clerk, it looks to me that what you have here is not a hammer mark but a rubber stamp. Notice how "FEB" looks somewhat "stretched" on the right hand stamp.

It is interesting that they have decided to use the old style large double circle postmark again. This was originally used from about the '30s to the late '50s when the traditional uniplex single circle hammer came into play.

***

When I worked at Canada Post, we were issued rubber stamps which were large single circle (about the size of a 50-cent piece). These were to replace the old Money Order Office Number (MOON) rubber stamps, which are the square ones with a large number at the top, the date on one line underneath, and the town name on one or two lines, with or without the Postal Code, depending on the age of the rubber stamp itself.

The MOON stamps were never meant to be used for cancelling stamps, but they were used for that nonetheless. What they were meant for was for dating the old-style money orders with a cardboard receipt (pre-1975, or so).

Anyway, with the round cancellers we were issued, more often than not, the side of the circle would wear out within a couple of years, usually in the 4-to-5 o'clock area (if a clerk was right handed) or in the 7-to-8 o'clock area (if the clerk was left handed). The circle itself was not very thick, size-wise, to start with, and when it wore down, the impression it left was not at all pretty, with it missing on one side or the other.

Requests to have it replaced fell on deaf ears, since management insisted that all they needed was a legible date and place of mailing. Hating the way it looked, I took matters into my own hands and cut the circle away from the left side so that it would, at least, "match" on both sides.

Another problem I had was getting an adequate supply of black postmark ink, since someone in times past had insisted on ordering more than enough red ink pads. So, if you ever see a circular postmark from "Fort Frances/Ontario P9A 1H0" dated between 1986 and 1992 in red ink with missing sides to the circle outline, it's one of mine!

Puzzler:

Looks like the old "barrel" cancels of the 1950's & 1960's, though the spacing between the circles is too wide.

In the past 10 years, Canada Post has allowed postmasters to procure rubber hand stamps from local sources, providing they meet fairly broad requirments... you'll see some nice and interesting cancellers out there, as a result.

David

Wow, great stuff to know.

I did not know about any rubber stamps at all, well, the Money Order ones and the newer rectangular POCON (Post Office Computer Organization Number) ones that replaced the MOON ones is all.

I will certainly keep a look out for any Fort Frances postmarks now! What a neat story! That was kind of like having your own hammer, numbered so you knew who canceled the stamp.

That is too bad about the red ink. I was just reading about fugitive inks when soaking off stamps and red was one I think.

Thank you WpgLwr and David Giles!

I'm in Halifax and would swear I've seen that cancellation before ... just didn't pay too much attention where I'm not a huge stamp collector. I will be keeping my eye on my mail from now on though.

Chequer,
It happened when I mailed the latter to my friend through the drive-by mailing chute on the side of the Almon St postal sorting plant.

There are windows there and I looked in once when I was walking by, instead of driving, and there was a worker at a table (had a small wall of cubby holes (sorting?) also) that was stamping some mail. The machines are neat, you can actually watch your mail being mangled live! (Just kidding, I did not see any.)

I only thought they canceled the mail there when the machines couldn't read the stamps or couldn't find the stamps. Otherwise the machines grab it all mostly, especially stuff mailed in the street letter boxes.

Or maybe it is done with the mail given to the clerks in the attached Post Office there. I will have to ask. Don't go there too often though now.

Usually, before that, I was used to having 'missed mail' being canceled by a hand roller canceler (which usually the worker tried not to totally ruin the stamps with actually).

Any other cancels you see I would be interested in seeing.

Doug

Not in this case. I have a few on piece from Change of Address cards that were supposed to be thrown away, and soaking them produced no problem with ink run.

That is good.
Collectible cancels on collectible stamps.
Neat!

Another cancellation from Halifax, NS from the main sorting plant on Almon St again also.

Two in a year. This is good. What a great Christmas present!


'HALIFAX NS/NE B3K 1T0 / DEC 16 2009 / POSTES Canada Post'

Translation to English and French:
Halifax, Nova Scotia / Nouvelle-�cosse, (Postal Code of postal facility) (B = Nova Scotia, 3 = Halifax, etc, 0 = post office) / December 16, 2009 / Canada Post (Postes Canada).

(Pardon my translation skills, I relied on Google.)

Not a clear cancel like from a steel hammer canceller in the old days. These new rubber hand-stamps tend to smear or travel a bit. And the ink is not attaching to the new stamps as well as to the older (prior to 1950's) stamps.

I read on one site that the ink takes 4-5 weeks to dry when you try to make a Maximum card (postcard with a stamp and cancel on the picture side.)

This was on a square (not rectangular) envelope (musical Christmas card, scared me!) so the regular postal sorting machines could not figure it out presumably and it got shunted over to the postal employee hand cancelling stuff.

Now if the world would just slow down and we had the time to spend on hand cancelling envelopes and parcels with postage stamps on them, (with circular or other eye pleasing cancellations too) that would be a nice thing. Every little stop on the way would get another cancellation. And we would be able to appreciate it when it finally, after many months, got to us. Hmmm, well, needs some thought I guess.

The envelope:

My local post office has this cancel
Paul

Hi plsllvn, great postmark. I haven't seen one of those yet.
I'm a neighbour not too far from you, down the highway in Hamilton.
Have a good day.
Suzanne

That's a nice cancel plsllyn.

Too bad we didn't have a series of cow stamps to go with the cancels like Great Britain had once (stamps that is). Or milk, the old milk cans and bottles. Hmmm, I have an idea for creating some Canada Picture postage stamps.

They don't have a nice cancel like that here in Halifax. Well, they have a 'courtesy cancel' at the philatelic centre downtown but it is not as nice:


It is the old town clock on Citadel Hill here, an old fort. I don't like it as much because it doesn't say ' Canada Post'.

I looked at some of those nicer cancels online at Canada Post. I think someplace has a polar bear in the cancel. Berwick down here in NS has an apple.

I did see online once a fellow in Europe was selling sets of Canada stamps that all had cancels like that. It looks really nice when the whole set has the same cancel. Like polar bear stamps with polar bear cancels. Really eye catching. They sold well too.

Link to a list of these Pictorial Cancels on Canada Post Online:
http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/per...ls/index.jsf
======================
From Canada Post:
Pictorial cancels are available from select Post Offices across Canada. To obtain a pictorial cancel from a specific Post Office location, you must:

* Put a stamp on the envelope that is to receive the pictorial cancel
* Prepare a separate self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage. This way your pictorial cancel can be sent back to you.
* Place both items into another larger envelope that has sufficient postage. Address this envelope to the Post Office from where you'd like the pictorial cancel to be issued.

Postmasters reserve the right to limit quantities.
==================
Oops, I found out something I didn't know today. We do have a nice pictorial cancel here besides the courtesy one above. I have to go to a different place downtown. Thanks plsllyn for starting the wheels going in my head. Needs oiling or something.



Wish I had clued in years ago. What time is it anyway?

Puzzler
Thanks for posting the link for the Pictorial Cancels on Canada Post Online.
I will be visiting some the locations closer to me and having some covers canceled with those pictorials.
Thanks,again
Paul

You are most welcome.

According to Canada Post you can send your envelope (pre-stamped with proper postage) to the listed address for a particular cancel (mail it in a covering envelope so yours doesn't get cancelled on the way there) and they will cancel it and return it in the mails.

I think that is how the fellow got all those stamps cancelled that I mentioned above.

PS I keep using the word cancel but I guess postmark is a better word. But it's longer for us one-fingered typists to type.

I like cancels (er, postmarks) and I thought I had seen a Woodstock, Ontario one before. Here it is:



Old compared to new. I like it.

I wonder who will collect the new cancels (postmarks) in another hundred years? History in the making.

I couldn't take it anymore and had to get some more of those pictorial cancels, here are some pics
Beachville,Ontario-
any baseball gurus out there?
Paul