Postmark Theme, New, Old, How Or Why.

Looking for postmark info on Australian WWII covers from field post

offices and the many postmarks that record the covers journey is a

puzzle that is so fascinating, it is the most exciting stamping

project I have done in a very long time. The battle to find a book to

help unravel the meanings to all the postmark was a hard one but to

make sense of the book is another battle again. The digital magnifier

to discern the dates on the cancels means so much. It is now to know

there the cover was at any given time.

Beautiful Starburst (Supernova?) Killer from Fiji,

The only example in my collection.

Egypt : "CASH" in Pmk.

Used from the early 1890's,
these were used for cancelling stamps on receipts packets / envelopes
handed in over the counter, also found on postal orders.



No doubt from a Tourist visiting the Nile temple..
(wiki)

Alexandria
Egypt : "Colis Po ??"

Possibly a Customs use handstamp
principally used on exported parcels.

Egypt : "Station" postmark.

Mainly used in post Offices in Railway Stations.
Bus Stations and Seaport terminal pmks have been reported with
the word "station" in them.

Alexandria:

Alright, here's one - not really a postmark, in fact not a postmark at all, but a cachet - to sink the teeth into:





Goa, in Portugese India, to Hyderabad, with one stamp missing.

The missing letters in the cachet almost certainly spell 'DECCAN'.

Now the mystery: I haven't been able to find any record for this period of an SS Deccan Queen. There was a train known as the Deccan Queen, but it ran from Bombay to Poona (or Mumbai to Pune for those using modern maps): nowhere near Hyderabad.

So does anyone else have an example of this cachet? Can anyone add any information about it? The SS Deccan Queen?

Just an aside, check the typesetting booboo apostrophes on DECCAN QUEEN ''
Cute.

That Fiji sunburst looks like the Suva cancel from 1882-1915...16 broken rays around a small center. Sharp. Or at least, not Ugly.

(Missed it when it originally aired...just catching it in reruns.)

Googled
Possibly fiction Tony,
but it has a nice fit

Nice work Cjd,
where may I see Suva examples?
anywhere other than your stamp album?

Yes, Rod, fiction - though it could also be true. Plausible, as they say on Mythbusters.

Tony, there are these advertised for delcampe,
perhaps you may have bought them.
I have had troubles for years accessing these types of
things, you click on the link, and there are thousands
of images, nothing similar to the Google link.

I have this problem searching on ebay.

Here is the screen capture anyhows...
perhaps you are more skilled than I.

Rod, I did find another similar cover, printed address to the same addressee, with both stamps intact on the reverse, and from the same period, on Delcampe. It sold for €30, but the description didn't include any more information about the SS Deccan Queen.

It does seem a bit odd that Mr Ganeshdas Rupchand, of the Begum Bazaar, Hyderabad, is the only recipient of mail with this cachet.

Well, well ... back into the mystery box it goes. I might take it out again for another airing in a few years, to see if anything has emerged in the meantime.

So you weren't entirely happy with the apparent
solution on the other board?
What are you seeking, pictorial evidence of the vessel?

Rod, I'd settle for just knowing that the SS Deccan Queen existed outside the covers of a work of fiction. A picture would be a big bonus.

And in return for your efforts, here is a HYDERABAD RESIDENCY to AJMER GPO No.1 cover





also demonstrating the unique dispensation that allowed Hyderabad Service stamps to frank mail to anywhere within India. Most examples of the privilege I have are on mail to Bombay; this one to Ajmer in Rajputana is a bit different.