Cancels Can Be More Rare Than You Think.....example

I was thinking about this stamp that I have being mailed to me from England..The picture below is the stamp, but not a good scan.



This is your every day "Map Stamp" that was first used December 1898.
You would probably pay no more that a couple of bucks...BUT...What caught my eye was the cancel...It is a "Coulson" cancel that was mailed October.21.1899

This cancel was associated to a small post office in the township of Simcoe, Ontario..In this area there township of Demonte and in this Township there were 45 communities

Now you may think that 83 post offices may be an outrageous number, but think old school in 1864..A neighbor may be 10km (6 miles) away...That could take 4-5 hours one way..No one would like to do that distance just to mail a letter.

The Coulson P.O. was created by James Coulson..Mr. Coulson moved to Demonte in Simcoe township in 1864 and and had a grist-mill...The post office was established at the mill the same year and became the postmaster.

Now here is where it gets a little heavy thinking why it may be more rare than you think.


Below is a list of 1864 post offices n the county of Simcoe


Below is information of "Coulson" in the form of an advertisement.


Also below is an 1800's map showing the "Coulson" post office
location.


Canada postal authority in July 1865 restructured the post office names as shown below.


NOW in 1898 Canada issued just under 20 million Map stamps...10 million green ocean and 10 million blue ocean..Mine in one of the blue ocean variety...Now lets just say each of the 9 provinces got equal deliveries...That means 10 million divided by 9 means each Province had 1.1 million stamp delivered to fill the request of provinces, town, township, etc....Now we know that the 9 Provinces contain approx. 15,320 major and minor post offices..This mean 1.1 million stamps divided equally to 15,320 post offices equals a possible 65 stamps per office...Now we know Ottawa, Toronto, got the majority of these stamps, so probably a small postal office like Coulson maybe acquired roughly only 10 stamps

Why I think that Coulson post office had such a low number if stamps because Coulson post office only had 29 people for that area...Now lets say there were 5 families which would make 10 married people with a possible 2 children each.

These were also used the same time s Queen Victoria stamps already issued 1898-1902 which makes me believe there were used for Christmas greetings and cards..Which makes sense, because my cancel is about one month before Christmas.

Now try to get your head around this, as we as collectors know and believe that most old stamps still existing are about 10%...
UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM SAYING.

Robert

BTW..Here are a couple if pictures for that time slot.



Below is the Autumn postal uniform used in 1864



Postal office 1864


Where the letter, bills, etc were stored for customers to pick up.

Did you see this other cover with the same style postmark from the same town? https://www.ebay.com/itm/1967-Couls...047675.l2557

Did not see that Battlestamps..Thanks, mabe I should have bid on it.

Robert

wert. Do you know of an online resource for the rarer BNA cancels ?.

dynamode

I have books on squared circle cancels, regular cancels, pre cancels, etc..But I do not know of any on line resources for Canadian cancels and their rarity.

If you go to BNAPS then to "study groups" then to"Fancy Cancel and Miscellaneous Markings" and send David a note..He may be able to help.

http://www.bnaps.org

Robert

From: Canada Post Offices 1755/1895,by Frank W Campbell, yep....Coulson,On, is there

René

Yes Rene

Frank W Campbell's book is an excellent source of how rare some cancels are...i use it all the time...But NFLD is not in there (1949)

Robert

According to Ontario Post Offices by Robert C. Smith, Coulson was open from 1 August 1864 to 29 June 1968.

And according to Ontario Broken Circles by W. Bruce Graham, there were only 3 cancel hammers used during that century plus. Yours is the second one (proofed 1876, no further data). A third one, similar to yours is known used from 1908 to 1959.

Jan

j2186..Thanks for the info.




Are you sure it was from 1908 to 1959 only..see below.

wert, Newfounland, during that period, is not there as a Province of Canada. Excellent book used often by my father.Lots of cancels too !!
Coulson is cited as opening in 1863, by Campbell.

René

Hi Robert,

I was just quoting the book. Clearly, usages until 1968 are possible.

A cancel that was in use for 60 years can't have been used all that often.

Jan

Great topic, nice research !



(NFLD post offices and cancels are in NSSC, where else? Thanks John Walsh)

A thoroughly enjoyable read Robert, thank you

I'm a big fan of people who understand relative scarcity and 19th century isolation.

Good to see another member whose parents had excellent taste in first names

Bobby DLR

Note that on the map the P.O. name is listed as "Mt. St. Louis P.O." I think this map might be the town of Mt. St. Louis which is (at least in 2018) 4-5 miles NW of the town of Coulson. Check out Google Maps.

Dennis

Thanks for the kind words guys.

StamperMA..good eyes..I had so much info I posted the wrong map..here it is below.



Here is a map where the old post office was created in 1864



I was hoping some one else had a Coulson, Ontario cancel (old or new)

Robert

Thanks wert, great post. I have checked my covers, no coulson. I will keep an eye out on my stamps as I go through them.