British Colonies - Revenue Cancels On High Value Stamps

Good point Don. You have to look carefully at any used high value British Colony stamps before deciding to pay the used price for them.

I look for any colored cancellations, faded centers or other areas, and heavy cancels that seem to be covering up cleaning.

Here is one of my personal favorite fake cancels - the King George V Pound from Bermuda. The cancel is fake, but can you tell immediately why?

In case you didn't notice, they don't spell the month of MAY as MAI in Bermuda. This is a famous fake cancel.

Singapore high values used on a passport document. I doubt that these cancels could ever be confused with postal cancels

Not a revenue cancel, but this Falkland Islands high value has a forged cancel, however this is a highly collectable Madame Joseph forgery

22crows has already identified your cancel as Dist. Commissioner Blantyre.

It is however still worthwhile being aware of the double circle Nyasaland Hut Tax cancellation. Found in black as well as violet, the former is often mistaken for a postal cancellation. These can regularly be found on ebay listed as used e.g

The hut tax cancellation is identified by a double circle containing the text "BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA", the name of a town inside the circle and undated and is of course valued at a fraction of the price of a similar postally used example.

It is of course possible that some sellers are blissfully unaware of the hut tax and have no intention of defrauding the buyer.
Clive

Here is another obvious revenue usage example. This one is offered in an on-line auction site today with a starting bid of over $200. So far no one has bid on it.

Here is another current auction listing.

The seller priced this as a revenue usage. Good to see that some dealers understand the difference in value for these items.

Dealers understand the difference but it is their silence when selling to customers that is where money is made .

Not every dealer knows every detail about every type of stamp.

If I go to a dealer who specializes in British Colonies I expect them to be able to tell the difference, but if they don't specialize then maybe not. Some revenue used British Colonies look like normally used stamps and some are obviously used as revenues.

I think a collector still needs to take the time to learn what to look for, and the dealers should post any details they are aware of about the stamp.

For on-line auctions, if the stamp starts with a $1 bid - all bets are off. Then the dealer is letting the collectors decide the value. I guess that would be the right choice for stamps that might have been used for revenue payments.

This revenue usage is recorded in Myles Glazer's book "The King George V High Value Stamps of Bermuda".

The company is Harnett & Richardson Hamilton, Bermuda. They were a cruise ship agent.

And yet the seller of those pairs mentions nothing about the revenue cancels. In fact the only price reference is to postally used. Not surprising, given this particular seller's lack of moral compass.

So you noticed that also. I thought GS was such an expert that he would not do that.

To quote him, you would have to be a blind nun to miss that not being a revenue usage.

Still, as obvious as the cancel type is to those familiar with revenue cancels, it doesn't excuse not disclosing it clearly, especially when making the blatant comparison to postally used prices.

Here are two more high values used as revenues that I found for sale today.

That Nyasaland interests me, do you have a link? Also, I'd love to see the listing for the Bermuda pairs