Help Identify Wavy Cancel On Hap Arnold FDC

I've got a Hap Arnold FDC with dual cancels:



I'm green on identifying wavy machine cancels. Help I find on the 'net seems to focus on cancels in the early 20th century, so I don't find that very helpful. Can anyone help me identify the type wavy cancel (i.e., the machine) this is? I think there are seven lines, but you have to look closely at the stamp itself to see them, and one line is mostly obscured by the top killer bar of the hand cancel.

Also, I have a lot of FDCs and I am not sure I've seen the stamp cancelled twice like this. Is that even kosher? And is it possible to venture a reasoned guess is to the order in which the cancels were applied? The hand cancel seems to be applied over the wavy cancel, but I would think that is just an illusion. My hypothesis is that the hand cancel was obtained at the FDC ceremony, the wavy cancel next, and then two days later the cover was presented in Anchorville, MI for a backstamp.

Another curiosity about this cover is that there is an Anchorville, MI backstamp dated Nov 7, but this cover could not have gotten there through the mailstream since there is no address. There is an address on the back flap but it is the address of the cachet artist for a PO in Philadelphia, PA.

TIA.

Basil

The Philadelphia machine cancel is one of the common facer-cancelers used on live mail at major post offices and sectional centers as they were known at one time - thus your cover did go through the mail. Probably a Gladwyne PA FDC hand-back from someone attending the ceremony who dropped it in the mail later the same day in/near Philly. I suspect it had an address label to Michigan, now removed and the recipient asked for a backstamp from a cooperative clerk.

Thanks a lot, John. Your suggestion that it had a label made me think it might have been pencil addressed and then erased. Here's a bit of image manipulation of where the address would have been:



Pretty easy to make out the beginning of the city name, and the first part of the person's first and last names. The lines are bleed through from the backstamp.

But technically, this cannot be legal, can it? Were it so, I could write home to Mom with a pencil address, and she could erase her address and send it back to me with the same stamp. So is it just "luck" that it made it through the Philly PO, or could it have gotten some help?

I'm trying to decide how to describe this for an FDC exhibit. Would it be correct to say it the Philadelphia, PA machine cancel was "illegally" applied?

Basil

I will elaborate on another more probable scenario for the beginning of the journey ... the collector had the envelope canceled at the FDC event and gave it to the clerk to mail. The careless clerk failed to get the stack of FDC mail entered beyond the canceling machines in the handling process so it got hit again. The Philly canceling machine saw the stamp, faced the letter and canceled it. It didn't care if the stamp was already canceled.

At the receiving end, if it was sent from MI to somewhere else, it was likely sent under cover. Quite amazing to be lacking any bar codes and other processing marks.

Some collectors would see the extra cancel as ruining the cover, while some would see it as proof of being true "live mail" on the first day and not a 60-day favor item.

You might check the back and there might be a 1 or 2 character code stamped in magenta or purple. That I am told is a LSM (letter sorting machine) mark. It's not really that important as we have a legit Philadelphia machine cancel. And so this has an unofficial first day cancel as well.



The original postmark from another town would be the tipoff that something was wrong to the post office, if they were paying attention. More likely it would be your local carrier catching it, again if paying attention. I knew someone who played this game with his father by putting the stamp in an odd place where it wouldn't get cancelled most of the time. They'd try to send the stamp back and forth as many times as possible. But some people have a lot of time to waste.

Here's a look at the back of the cover.

This definitely went through the mail. Is this value tagged any differently from anything else in the series? I can't explain why it would get a Anchorville backstamp, which could mean it was pulled out of normal mail and put back, but then the new 65¢ value and/or having 2 cancels might have attracted attention. Not a big deal, really.

My guess is that this cover was first obtained at the first day ceremony in Gladwyne, where it received the official hand cancel. The "owner" then pencil addressed it to themselves in Anchorville, MI and then returned home. When they received it in Anchorville they prevailed on the local PO to run it through their machine for a cancel on the back.

No, not a big deal, but it does make the cover a novelty item for a collector, like myself, that enjoys FDCs that are unique and distinguished from the routine FDCs. I have two by this cachet artist, and the other one has an unofficial double oval Gladwyne first day hand cancel that I have not otherwise seen on FDCs for this stamp.

I agree with John and blcjr that this is just a case of the collector pencil addressing a first day cover at the ceremony and then either handing it back to the clerk to put in the mail or just dropping in the mailbox that was likely at the ceremony where it went through the ordinary process back at the main post office where it was given the ordinary cancel of that day and went on its way through the mail stream to the recipient. Its getting a backstamp there was either because the recipient asked for a favor backstamp or that post office was backstamping mail. I don't see anything special about this cover in terms of it being something rare. Back then, it was pretty common practice to either pencil address FDCs or use peel-able address stickers.

As to the type of machine cancel, although its a little difficult to tell from the image, if there are seven lines equal in length, its most likely a Universal machine that was used. A clear close-up of the dial and the configuration of the date and time would make it easier to tell for sure and would make it possible to tell the Model type as well.

docqfd

Does this help? It is probably the best I can do.



Basil

Best guess at this point is a Pitney-Bowes (Universal) Facer Canceler Model Mark II, Type BT-200. I wish I could tell if that's a 'trail bar' at the upper left of the dial...
I took the liberty of asking on the Frajola message board which is frequented by machine cancel experts like Mike Ellingson. I'll let you know if anything comes up over there.
George

Yes, that is a trail bar.
Also note, the "BT-200" is a type designation created in the Machine Cancel Society's literature and is not of Postal Service origin.

John - Thanks for the confirmation on the trail Bar ! And, yeah, I should have noted that the type was a society catalogue designation.

George, John

Thanks for the additional insights. Being mostly an FDC collector and scarce on the postal history side, this is new stuff to me. But I'm always trying to expand my knowledge boundaries and this is making me interested in looking more into the various machine cancel types.

Basil

As a FDC collector nice to have in your collection.